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For those uninitiated, The Tell is a collaboration between Las Vegas musician Noah Dickie, singer/songwriter for indie band Coastwest Unrest, and LA-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist James McAlister (Sufjan Stevens, The National), which started out nearly three years ago, under that name - The Tell - a double entendre, that includes the behavior of a poker player (the antithesis of a poker face) and the sonic narrative of their new album Somewhere Right Now, an aural journey from borderline despair to well-being, using music - and its creation - to try to heal our psychic and physical wounds.

Although conceived before the pandemic, the eight songs on Somewhere Right Now offer a stylistic departure for Dickie. Rather than beginning life as folk songs on an acoustic guitar, the music took a more experimental bent in his home studio, encompassing outboard gear, electronics and synthesizers, a difficult paint brush, not necessarily knowing if the material would be right for Coastwest.

The result combines Dickies narrative song craft and folk roots with McAlister’s sprawling, buzzing soundscapes, wrapping the former in a fully realized interior world that inadvertently reflects the pandemic we have all faced over the past year.

1. Clap Clap
2. Burning
3. Somewhere Right Now
4. KT
5. Love Blood, California
6. Nothing Missing
7. Thoughts and Everything
8. Outgrown

On an album started before the lockdown and thus infiltrated with sometimes claustrophobic, and yet always avenued insular minor key synth-scapes galore, it opens on the ________ of Clap Clap and backs that up with the _____________ of Burning, and then we get the ____________ of the title track Somewhere Right Now and the (jaunty, playful) __________ vibe of KT.

Next up is the semi-autobiographical Love Blood, California which is itself followed by the _______________ of Nothing Missing (a track that encourages us to look inward rather than at external objects for our happiness), and then the album rounds out with the ___________ of Thoughts and Everything, closing on the ____________ of a track that talks about shedding our skin, moving forward, and ultimately achieving growth, Outgrown.

Somewhere Right Now takes us on an interior journey of metaphysics and good magic and contributors include Noah’s brother (and Coastwest partner) Josh Dickie on drums (Love Blood, California and Outgrown), Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Tyler Chester (Andrew Bird) and Seattle musician/producer/engineer Luke Vander Pol (Deep Sea Diver), playing bass on Love Blood, California and Outgrown, whose Burbank studio is where the basic tracking for the entire album took place as well as two of Dickies vocals.

The rest was recorded and engineered by Dickie and McAlister in their home studios. The finishing touches being put on by Yunki Matthews (The Shins) who mixed the record and mastering being done by Brian Lucey (Black Keys, Dr. Dog).

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