BY: DIGITAL WAX MEDIA STAFF

 

Singer/songwriter/producer Jeff Arundel and musician/singer/songwriter Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum, Golden Smog) have announced a new album and upcoming tour for their collaborative project, The Scarlet Goodbye on the strength of recent singles, “Speedway” and “To Feel the Sun.”

 

The group, based in Minnesota, first made waves on the music scene with the release of their debut full-length collaborative effort, Hope’s Eternal in 2023, prompting comparisons from listeners to the enduring work of artists like Townes Van Zandt and The Rolling Stones. Since that time the pair have continued their creative relationship, resulting in a sophomore offering, El Camino Adios, set to be released on March 14, 2025, through The Label Group and distributed through Virgin Records.

 

“We met, and I became intrigued when he told me that after being out of it for 10 years, maybe he missed  it. So I invited him to the studio,” said Arundel of of Murphy, who prior to the formation of The Scarlet Goodbye had been a founding member of Soul Asylum, having stepped back from the industry in 2012 to lead a less turbulent existence. “It was pretty instantly magical – a mutual collision of suggesting things to each other that the other wouldn’t have normally done.”

 

”Speedway was the released as the lead single for El Camino Adios and plays funnily to the respective strengths of each of the group’s members. A distinct melodicism and restrained, yet palpable emotional intensity are paired with and undercurrent of consistency, moderation, and introspection which are indicative in part of the unique blend of elements comprising the sonic identity of The Scarlet Goodbye. There is a weightiness to the themes explored in “Speedway” which is marginally offset by a sort of tongue-in-cheek acceptance which helps define the tune more explicitly.

 

The moderately more uptempo “To Feel the Sun,” the music for which was written by Arundel, acts as a serviceable snapshot of what listeners can anticipate musically from El Camino Adios. There is an inherently American nucleus to the music here reminiscent of the more dialed-back full-band output of Tom Petty, but there are particular elements of the arrangement which come off as particularly English. To the best of this writer’s knowledge the Scarlet Goodbye project is entirely Minnesotean, through in hearing the material it’s hard not to imagine it as a lost demo from a session in which Ray Davies of The Kinks auditioned replace the late Roy Orbison in The Traveling Wilburys.

 

This general feel, as outlandish as it may seem based on such a characterization, is true for a great deal of the material populating El Camino Adios, and worry not – it’s a great thing.

 

“We hope you enjoy this blistering, spirited track… propelled by the bombastic piano work of Patrick Frederick and a bangin’ drum track provided by Ben Peterson,” the band said of “To Feel the Sun” upon the single’s release. “The music, written by Jeff Arundel, originally had the working title ‘Youngblood’ because it sounded like a Jesse Colin Young track until the lads got their hands on it.”

 

The Scarlet Goodbye’s “Speedway” and “To Feel the Sun” are available on streaming services everywhere.

 

Photo: Dan Michener