Andrea Van Cleef has just premiered his new video for the track titled ‘Wrong Side of a Gun’, from his upcoming album ‘Greetings from Slaughter Creek’, dropping June 26th via Rivertale Productions.
Andrea has an iconic and original voice, to be quite honest. It’s captivating. It takes you on the journey that is the song. But, there is a quiet world-building feel to the album, ‘Greetings from Slaughter Creek’, that surrounds the listener in such a way that you feel like you’re a part of the show. Stripped down and threadbare, ‘Wrong Side of a Gun’ is but a peek into what Andrea’s music represents as much as what it delivers.
Recorded at Smilin’ Castle Studio in Kyle, Texas, on December 30, 2024, ‘Greetings from Slaughter Creek’ is a signature set from an Italian artist interpreting Americana with an original style that shows how much he gets it. He knows the meaning as much as the music. Feels the stories and conveys the message. A true artist in an adapted environment.
Check out our other features with Andrea Van Cleef HERE.
About ‘Greetings from Slaughter Creek’
Between December 2024 and January 2025, Van Cleef returned to the United States for a short Texan tour between Austin, Dallas and Houston, accompanied by guitarist Simon Grazioli, already a close collaborator for the tour of the previous album “Horse Latitudes” – presented with over 60 dates between Italy and Europe – which received an excellent reception from international critics, including magazines such as Rolling Stone France and Americana UK, and popular playlists such as the series by American curator Don’s Tunes (blues, country and jazz).
“Greetings from Slaughter Creek” is a journey through Andrea Van Cleef’s previous solo albums (“Horse Latitudes” 2024, “Safari Station” 2021, “Tropic of Nowhere” 2018, “Sundog” 2012), and ends with the cover of “Big River”, a tribute to the great American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash to whom Van Cleef’s current sound is indebted. The live performance was recorded in the studios of producer and musician Rick Del Castillo – collaborator of Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez for the soundtracks of “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “Machete”, as well as for the version of “Malagueña Salerosa” that appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2 – where the American session of “Horse Latitudes” was recorded, also released by Rivertale Productions.
Alongside Van Cleef and Grazioli, Mike Zeoli (drummer for Del Castillo and Chingòn, the band of director Rodriquez), Matthew Smith (famous American guitar sessionman, teacher and demonstrator for various brands, Tech21, Supro, Fret King), Stefano Intelisano (keyboardist and accordionist in great demand in the USA, regular collaborator of David Grissom and BoDeans) and Patricia Vonne (acclaimed songwriter and actress, sister of Rodriguez himself) played in the live session.
“Wrong Side Of A Gun” is the single chosen for the launch of “Greetings from Slaughter Creek”. Accompanied by a video shot during the live session, the song was originally recorded in 2018 as a duet with Patricia Vonne and released on Andrea Van Cleef’s album entitled “Tropic of Nowhere”. The lyrics use the western metaphor of being on the wrong side of a gun in a moment of adversity in life and hint at the illness of the author’s mother, who passed away three years later.
About Andrea Van Cleef
Guitarist and enthusiast of stringed instruments in general, voice with an intense and recognizable timbre, Andrea Van Cleef composes, sings, and plays his songs, for some time producing for other artists as well. In 2012, his first solo album, “Sundog,” is the ultimate revelation of his expressive and compositional skills, with an international scope. He sings and writes exclusively in English, but with the creative and visionary Italian approach, as well as the pragmatism, also from a sonic point of view, of his Vallecamonica mountains. And it is this unique and personal style of the self-produced “Sundog” that has garnered interest among insiders and fans of the genre, to the extent that it has become a mini-cult album and earned several reissues following its collaboration with the Rivertale Productions label.
The most relevant and inescapable part of Van Cleef’s musical activity is undoubtedly his live performance. Not only “Sundog” was presented in tour through Italy, Switzerland and Germany, but the live shows intensified at a very fast pace, about 90-100 concerts annually, with the subsequent albums “Tropic Of Nowhere” (2018, Rivertale Productions) and ”Safari Station” (co-written with blues-folk Diego Deadman Potron, 2021, Rivertale productions/ Timezone) and the EP “135” (2020, Rivertale Productions).
In 2024, the release of the album “Horse Latitudes” (Rivertale Productions), a songwriting of American origin, veering towards the more southern gothic atmospheres, indebted to Johnny Cash’s “American Recordings”, with the addition of a markedly European dark touch, received an excellent reception from critics and the public. Van Cleef took part in several international stoner-doom rock festivals with his previous projects – among the albums with Humulus “RHINO” (2017, Kozmik Artifactz) and “The Deep” (2020, Kozmik Artifactz) – and several openings at blues-rock concerts, including Ben Harper and opening solo at The White Buffalo’s sold-out Italian show at Alcatraz in Milan. From solo, acoustic duo, to more structured and complex ensembles, Van Cleef’s shows know how to engage and capture the attention of the audience.
Featured image by Mark Del Castillo.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/avcrocks
https://www.instagram.com/andreavancleef/
https://www.andreavancleef.space/
https://andreavancleef.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvD83_O1ckXhC_pSL2E3xg
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7gpzy60rBRToA3avEjpSUu
