Roky Erickson and Okkervil River go way back — we suggest clicking here, here, and here. So perhaps it’s only appropriate that the former 13th Floor Elevators frontman has teamed up with Will Sheff’s crew for his forthcoming solo album, True Love Cast Out All Evil.
As Pitchfork notes, not only does Okkervil River back Erickson on the entire LP, but the production was handled by Sheff. In turn, Erickson wrote all the material and provided “found-sound and archival recordings culled from [his] home videos and recordings made in the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.” Following a drug possession arrest, Erickson spent several years in the hospital in the early 70s.
“When we started out, I was given sixty unreleased songs to choose from. There were songs written during business setbacks including the Elevators’ painful breakup, songs written by Roky while he was incarcerated at Rusk, and a great deal of songs that reminded me of the sense of optimism and romanticism that I think sustained Roky through his worst years and ultimately reunited him, a few years ago, with his son Jegar and his first wife Dana,” explained Sheff in an issued press release.
True Love Cast Out All Evil is scheduled for release on April 20th via ANTI-.
