The Small Stuff Shall Become Big
“Life is brief and time is a thief,” Michael Weiskopf sings on “Love & Entropy,” his just-released album. “There’s no time left for the blues.”
The lyric illustrates the theme of the singer-songwriter’s third solo release. Following 2012’s “Insomnia” and 2014’s “Suffering Fools,” “Love & Entropy” is a 10-song collection that delves into relationships in their varying stages. “There’s positive stuff — romantic love, what people want and expect from each other,” Mr. Weiskopf, who lives in East Hampton, said last week. “And then the entropy part: loss of energy, segregation, and decay.”
Mr. Weiskopf, who also fronts the Complete Unknowns, a band that performs the music of Bob Dylan, will celebrate “Love & Entropy’s” release with an 8 p.m. gig on Jan. 8 at the Luna Star Cafe in Miami.
The album is now for sale at the Apple iTunes Store, michaelweiskopf.com, and cdbaby.com, and will imminently be available at amazon.com and other online retailers. “Love & Entropy” has already been featured on Stony Brook University’s radio station, WUSB, where one of the D.J.s, Joe Vecchio, played five tracks and interviewed Mr. Weiskopf on Dec. 5, and on WPPB Peconic Public Broadcasting.
Where “Suffering Fools” was overtly political, with topical songs including “Guns Don’t Kill” and “Thank You, Canada (the Ted Cruz song),” Mr. Weiskopf turns inward on “Love & Entropy,” exploring the inevitable conflicting emotions of both relationships and their aftermath.
“The small stuff is really the big stuff,” he said of the album’s subject matter. “What we do to each other is much more within our control. We’re not going to have gun control just because I wrote a song called ‘Guns Don’t Kill.’ I like my Ted Cruz song, and it seems to be getting more viral action, but nobody who’s committed to voting for him is going to have their mind changed by it. And how can you out-parody Trump?”
Instead, he said, “Maybe it’s about time I focus on the bigger issues. I wanted to explore different relationships, my own and what I’ve observed. The hard thing is trying to resonate and be unique. I think we did that.”
Not surprisingly, Mr. Weiskopf’s music recalls Mr. Dylan’s organic sound, but “Love & Entropy” also brings to mind theaid-back yet subtly wry country-blues of the late J.J. Cale. In “Heavy Heart Blues,” for example, the hurt of a relationship gone bad is juxtaposed with musings about what the dog might say about it, were he able to give voice to his observations, while the guitarist Randolph Hudson III and the drummer Jim Lawler’s propulsive groove veers into, and back out of, a rhythmic and time signature change. “Better listen to him growl,” the narrator concludes, “than to hear his disturbing thoughts.”
With “Here’s to Love,” Mr. Weiskopf concludes on a positive note, possibly delivered with a measure of irony. “This is the human condition, we do this,” he said. “People fall in and out of love all the time, and we all seem to go back and hit it for another round.”
Like his previous albums, “Love & Entropy” was recorded and mixed by the producer Cynthia Daniels at her MonkMusic Studios in East Hampton. Ms. Daniels and Mr. Hudson, who worked on both of Mr. Weiskopf’s previous albums, share production duties.
“Randy and I have a really good way of communicating,” Mr. Weiskopf said. “So do he and Cynthia, so do Cynthia and I. I think we’re a good combination, and we all had equal weight.” As a producer, Ms. Daniels “knows how to make you feel comfortable and take risks in that environment,” he said. “That’s a really important part of making a record.”
“It’s been a privilege to be involved with all three,” said Mr. Hudson, who also performs with the Complete Unknowns, “and to see Michael’s progression as a songwriter and a performer. I’ve also seen how much more comfortable he’s become in the production process, how the relationship and camaraderie between him and Cynthia has evolved.”
Mr. Weiskopf also called on South Fork musicians including Peter Martin Weiss, Klyph Black, James Benard, Alex Sarkis, Dan Koontz, Joe Delia, and Mariann Megna. “The local musicians here are an incredible pool of talent,” he said. “That’s another reason to make East Hampton a recording destination.” The Complete Unknowns make an appearance too, on a cover of Mr. Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street.”
The initial response has been positive, Mr. Weiskopf said, with songs from “Love & Entropy” performed at venues on the North and South Forks as well as in Brooklyn. In September, when recording was completed, he traveled to Oslo, where he was invited to sit in at four venues in three nights, “with some great players and crowds that were actively listening, even in bars,” he said. “I was struck by how welcoming and eager to hear original music they were.”
In addition to the Jan. 8 release party, Mr. Weiskopf will perform with the Complete Unknowns at the B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in Manhattan on Jan. 16 at 1:30 p.m. The Complete Unknowns will also perform at Guild Hall in East Hampton in July 2016.