“…delicious….Wherever you listen, these are tender and true songs to carry with you from an underdog to treasure." Kevin Harley/Record Collector ****

When looking at the tracklist, and you think you know/have these songs, don’t get mislead. This is a new album by Herman Dune, a new approach and sound.

‘The Portable Herman Dune’ Vol. 1 is an acoustic anthology, the first of three parts, in which 22 years of songwriting are laid bare, stripped to the most intimate bone, to be released at intervals over the coming months.

Though sonically naked, the songs are bundled up in emotion and loaded with life.

 The album was recorded in Ivar’s studio Santa Cruz Records, in San Pedro, California, where he has produced all Herman Dune albums since 2012.  Centre-stage are David Ivar’s songs, with his 1954 guitar, his 1930s mandolin, and his voice, plus exceptional guests: Julie Doiron, Mayon (Ivar’s life partner), Caitlin Rose, Jolie Holland, and Kimya Dawson providing vocal counterpoint.

 ‘The Portable Herman Dune’ is raw and straightforward, the songs played as naturally as Ivar wrote them. His voice has become more gravelly after two decades of singing, and his guitar is without embellishment.

 The same guitar - his 1954 Gibson LG, that you would know if you've seen Herman Dune live - and one mandolin, a 1930s Kalamazoo A-shape mandolin that Ivar bought with Canadian Dollars from a show in Montreal, where he was stuck during the Travel Ban and played shows and recorded with his decades-long friend Julie Doiron.
Some songs have accents of harmonica, upright bass, melodica, accordion, or piano, and two pieces have the beautiful violin of Jolie Holland, with whom Ivar was recording the soundtrack for Edouard Deluc's new Feature Film (Petaouchnok, meant for release in Nov.2022).

 Surprisingly, after years and countless performances worldwide with this minimal setting, it’s the first time that we get such a sober treatment on a proper Herman Dune album.

 John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten, Leadbelly, Nick Drake have always been favourites, and Ivar learned to play guitar with Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’ and Dylan’s ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’.

 “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should” is a principle Ivar often thought about while arranging and producing his own albums, “there’s something to a raw song that you can’t really beat,” he says. 

 After not touring for ten years, just playing solo shows around Los Angeles, Ivar recorded 39 songs live in his studio, with the urge to play for diverse audiences and travel the world again. He picked the songs he wanted and needed to play the most, creating a songbook that he could jump in and out of while recording.

"My favourite songs ones are the ones that made the cut as first takes."

 “During the pandemic, I started to perform sets from my kitchen. A weekly rendez-vous with my fans simply called “The Sunday Transmission with Herman Dune.” I’d typically do a 13-song set, read the horoscope, do raffles, and read poetry. It became the only way to express myself and do a set of consecutive songs. I got back in touch with my lyrics and voice. Playing from my own songbook was like re-discovering the tunes for the first time. Some songs really stood out as having gained strength and meaning, and I started thinking of recording them for an album. It felt like this was the way it should always have been.”

 “The more I recorded, the more songs I had on my hands, and I got more excited. I had more songs than could be listened to at once, and they were all so important to me, so I started thinking in Volumes.”

All the recordings were made live in Ivar’s wooden cabin of a studio in San Pedro, the harbor of Los Angeles. You can hear the old floorboards creaking, a dog barking, or the neighbours driving loud motorcycles. Feet tapping, birds singing, and the cat meowing when songs quiet down. Harmonica and mandolin are only discreet additions to the core of the songs, Ivar on guitar and vocals

“I don’t know if these are classic songs, but they sure are to me.”

01./A1. Why Would That Hurt?
02. /A2.  Black Dog
03./A3. I Wish I Could See You Soon
04./A4. Not On Top
05./A5. Good For No One
06./A6. Two Crows

07./B1. Shakespeare & North Hoyne
08./B2.  Crazy Blue
09./B3.  Walk Don’t Run
10./B4.  The Static Comes From My Broken Heart
11. /B5.  Next Year In Zion
12. /B6.  All We Have Is Our Love
13./B7. Paulette Pt. 1

All songs written by David Ivar Herman Dune

Personnel:
All songs written by David Ivar Herman Dune ( publ. by Yaya Towa)

David Ivar Herman Dune: voice, guitar, mandolin, upright bass, harmonica, melodica, fender bass, glockenspiel
with Mayon: vocals; Jolie Holland: violin; ; Caitlin Rose: vocals; Julie Doiron: vocals

 Produced by David Ivar Herman Dune
Recorded by David Ivar at Santa Cruz Studios , San Pedro, California
Mixed and Mastered by Adam Selzer at Type Foundry, Portland OR

Cover artwork by David Ivar, additional lay-out by Krstof Milovanic

(p)&(c) 2022, Herman Dune/Santa Cruz Records, under exclusive license to BB*ISLAND. All rights reserved. Made in the EU.

LP: cat# BBI 0481, barcode: 4260064994813 /
CD: cat# BBI 0462, barcode: 4260064994820
ltd LP (translucent red vinyl) : cat# BBI0481X, barcode: 4260064994806