Dougie Poole – The Rainbow Wheel of Death – New LP Record 2023 Wharf Cat Purple Vinyl – Cosmic Country / Alt-Country Secretly Canadian

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A country songwriter from Brooklyn’s indie underground, Dougie Poole blurs the lines between genre and generation on his third solo album, ‘The Rainbow Wheel of Death.’ Rooted in sharp songwriting, Poole’s golden baritone, and the organic sounds of a live-in-the-studio band, it’s a classic-sounding record for the modern world, stocked with songs that make room for everything from old-school synthesizers to contemporary storytelling.

‘The Rainbow Wheel of Death’s title nods to the colorful pinwheel that appears onscreen whenever a computer’s application stalls. For Poole — who found himself working as a freelance computer programmer once the pandemic brought his touring schedule to a temporary halt in 2020 — it’s also a reference to the holding pattern that’s left much of society feeling stuck, unable to move ahead in an uncertain world. That feeling was pervasive when he began writing these nine songs, finishing the first handful of tracks in his New York City bedroom and wrapping up the songwriting process in the recording studio itself, this time surrounded by a band of collaborators and instrumentalists.