Dave Gahan is the latest big name performer to add his voice and guitar to The Gun Club leader Jeffrey Lee Pierce‘s musical canon.
The Depeche Mode frontman collaborates with Brighton-based singer- songwriter Suzie Stapleton on the new single from the long running Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project.
Taken from the fourth volume in the series – This Task has Overwhelmed Us – the single came about after both artists unbeknownst to each other began working on fresh covers of Mother Of Earth.
Australian-born Stapleton was tinkering with a piano-driven version of the song, from The Gun Club’s Miami album, and invited Gahan to contribute.
“He was working on the Soulsavers covers record Imposter and had been playing around with his own version of Mother of Earth, which they didn’t end up recording,” Stapleton explains.
“So I showed him my version, and he agreed to take part – It was very serendipitous.”
Pierce released seven highly influential studio albums with The Gun Club and three solo works, before his death in 1996, aged just 37, after complications from heroin addiction, alcoholism and HIV.
Drawn from The Gun Club’s second album, Mother of Earth holds a special poignance as Pierce eerily addresses his appetite for self-destruction.
While the Gun Club’s original is a dirty Johnny Cash-esque Western rumble, the new version, featuring violin from James Johnston of Gallon Drunk, comes over like a dark folk tale.
Gahan’s sombre baritone taps into the elegaic feel of the song, as Johnston’s bandmate Ian White (drums) and Gavin Jay, of Jim Jones Review (bass), provide sensitive, unshowy support.
It’s a fitting addition to the GLP Project series, founded by Pierce collaborator Cypress Grove.
The first volume We Are Only Riders came 12 years after Pierce’s death and was followed by The Journey Is Long (2012) and Axels and Sockets (2014).
Besides Gahan, The Task Has Overwhelmed Us, features noted Pierce friends and co-conspirators, including Nick Cave, Debbie Harry. Mark Lanegan, Mark Stewart and Lydia Lunch.
A decade in the making, the album is scheduled for release on September 29 (2023) via Glitterhouse Records.
- Pre-Order The Task Has Overwhelmed Us on CD, LP and Digital here
- More about The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project on Facebook and via linktree
- Find out about The Gun Club on Facebook
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