Release Radar: Radio Free ABQ

The band's latest single "Tito (Far Away, Not Lonely)" is a fantastic ode to big dreams

Hey there! You’ve landed at On Repeat Records, a newsletter & community recently described as ‘the nicest place on the internet.’ If you’ve been looking for an engaged community of people who share your love of music, you’re in the right spot.

We don’t run ads here. On Repeat is made entirely possible through the support of our paid supporters. You can back independent ad-free music journalism for less than $1 a week.

Good Morning!

Today we’re listening to Tito (Far Away, Not Lonely), the lead single, from Radio Free ABQ’s upcoming “Destination” record.

---

For many of us, the radio wasn’t just a way to find new music but a portal to another world and life. Listening at night was better because less interference meant greater odds of hearing stations further away. The voices were different, and the cadence was novel.

Different zip codes, and if you were lucky, maybe even a different area code. Even the ads might’ve been from a different world. It was just the novelty some of us were chasing; it was an aspiration. We’d spend our days daydreaming about being anywhere else and our nights listening to the soundtrack of that place.

Photo courtesy of Radio Free ABQ

Radio Free ABQ features Ryan Goodhue on keys, Scott Brewer on bass, Tom Andes on guitar, Travis Rourke on, well, a lot of things, and our friend Dave Purcell on drums and lead vocals.

I’m thrilled that Dave wanted to share the lead single with the On Repeat community first, and I am more than happy to help make that happen.

With the release of the first single, "Tito," from the upcoming album Destination, Dave explains, "Tito" was a gift from the universe that only happens a couple of times a year, where an entire song comes to me in a flash. I wrote the core of the song in a half-hour. Only later did I understand what it meant. I grew up in a working-class family in a small Kentucky town. The occasional signal – a distant radio station, postcards from my grandmother in England – told me there was a bigger world out there. The same is true for Tito, who lives in a small town in southeastern New Mexico. His dreams and his beloved dog, Luna, will help him figure out where he needs to go."

Dave adds that [the single] is the emotional heart of the new record and channels the Miguel de Cervantes line in Don Quixote, "To surrender dreams – this may be madness.”

📻📻📻

What others are saying:

“Dave Purcell’s music has ranged from the sturdy Americana of Pike 27 to the gauzier after-hours ephemera of Ghost Man on Second, but at its molten core, where the magnetic gravity is created, it’s been a rootsy Midwestern romp through a soundscape peppered with sonic references to the likes of the Jayhawks, Soul Asylum and Bottlerockets with a dash of badass Detroit bluster, boiled down to a purified essence and filtered through Purcell’s singular songwriting perspective.”

-Brian Baker, Cincinnati CityBeat

📻📻📻

Bottom Line: Dave cites inspiration from artists as diverse as REM, Los Lobos, and Calexico, and it’s not hard to find strands of DNA from each throughout the track. However, listeners may also hear traces of singer-songwriters like JJ Cale and Mark Knopfler.

Whether listening in full sun or under a canopy of stars, it all makes for quite an adventure.

---

---

Listen:

Radio Free Alberquerque | Tito, 2024

To connect with Dave and Radio Free ABQ and grab some of their music, click here:

Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this record! Rants, raves, and hot takes are all welcome.

---

Thanks for being here,

Kevin—

P.S. East Coast friends! On Repeat favorites, Dot Dash have an upcoming show, and you should be there! Dot Dash is a band that’s very good at what they do, and what they do is deliver commercial-grade jangle pop.

On Sept. 24, they’re opening for Marky Ramone (!) at the legendary Black Cat in D.C. Gig info is here.

Check ‘em out!