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Blanche is one of those bands…I like ‘em but I don’t really follow ‘em. You know, one of those bands where I couldn’t tell you when they have a new cd coming out or anything, but once I actually know it’s out there, I buy it.I first became aware of Blanche due to a friend on the Underground Tampa message board who introduced me to their album If We Can’t Trust The Doctors. I guess they kind of entered the mainstream’s peripheral vision when they backed Loretta Lynn on her comeback album Van Leer Rose. Anyways, I was in my local record store the other day and saw their new cd, Little Amber Bottles, on the recommended listening rack.

When I saw the title, the first thing I though of was ‘weeping bottles’. Technically called ‘lacrymatory bottles‘, they have been around since Roman times, but my knowledge of them comes from the Civil War, where Confederate wives cried into them while waiting for their husbands to return from battle. The collected tears showed how much their husbands were adored and missed.

The album has nothing to do with weeping bottles, but it does manage to sound like it came from an era when families got together and crowded around the AM radio.

Blanche - Oh Death, Where is Thy Sting
Blanche - The World I Used To Be Afraid Of
Blanche - No Matter Where You Go (featuring Isobel Campbell)

The first Blanche song I ever heard:

Blanche - Superstition

Blanche’s Official Site, Blanche on MySpace, Buy Little Amber Bottles
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