"This Town Is Only Going To Break Your Heart" is a gutsy collection of songs which pull together many of Jason's literary and musical influences. It's an album about the towns we love, the towns that shape who we are, and about kids who grow up to have kids of their own.

"While This Town isn’t a true concept album, many of the 11 songs are set in

"This Town Is Only Going To Break Your Heart" is a gutsy collection of songs which pull together many of Jason's literary and musical influences. It's an album about the towns we love, the towns that shape who we are, and about kids who grow up to have kids of their own.

"While This Town isn’t a true concept album, many of the 11 songs are set in dead-end factory towns, the types of places where, as he sings in When You’re Lonesome, ” . . .all the high school bullies become small-town cops.” Goss approaches his subjects with a sharp eye for detail, creating compelling characters who have been forced to come to grips with their baggage as they face the challenges of adulthood. This is most evident on the album’s centerpiece, Set Me Free, a breathless, five-minute portrait of blue-collar desperation that could have come straight from Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska." — Popdose

All songs written by Jason Myles Goss © 2014 ℗ Jeswaldo Sounds (ASCAP)

Produced by Jason Myles Goss, Joel Arnow, and Myles Turney

Engineered and mixed by Myles Turney Mastered by Alex DeTurk

Additional arranging on “When Youʼre Lonesome,” “Raised Right,” and “If You Keep Going Like Youʼre Going” by David Dawda

Recorded at Strange Weather in Brooklyn, NY Additional recording at Cowboy Technical Services in Brooklyn, NY, Big Blue in Hastings-On-Hudson, NY, and Q Division in Somerville, MA

Jason Myles Goss – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar on “Joplin” and “Raised Right”

Paul Orbell – electric guitar, 12-string electric tenor guitar, baritone guitar, pedal steel, ukulele

Alan Markley – piano, organ, jupiter 6, fender rhodes, wurlitzer, mellotron, vibes, orchestral bells

David Dawda – electric bass

Joel Arnow – drums, percussion, bass guitar on “Iʼm Your Man”

Christian McNeill – additional vocals on “Things Are Getting Harder”

Traci Maynigo – additional vocals on “Iʼm Your Man”

Abbie Gardner – additional vocals on “When Youʼre Lonesome,” “This Town Is Only Going To Break Your Heart,” and “If You Keep Going Like Youʼre Going”

Album design by Sarah Gensert Photography by Doug Seymour Website by Jason Kenison

Recorded at Vanity Sound in Brooklyn, NY, Jason and Myles Turney began recording to analog tape, giving the foundational tracks a scrappy, raw quality, evocative of roots-based albums like Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road," or, more modern day Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky.” These songs also contained big, melody-driven, pop ambitions in the

Recorded at Vanity Sound in Brooklyn, NY, Jason and Myles Turney began recording to analog tape, giving the foundational tracks a scrappy, raw quality, evocative of roots-based albums like Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road," or, more modern day Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky.” These songs also contained big, melody-driven, pop ambitions in the vein of records like Counting Crows’ “August and Everything After,” or The Wallflowers’ “Bringing Down The Horse”—90’s rock records that occupied Jason’s world when he was a teenager growing up in a small mill town. Rather than try to grapple with these two influences, Jason tried to make a record where they both could sit side by side at the same musical table. Swing for the fences, but let me hear a little bit of dirt in the grooves.

Engineered and mixed by Myles Turney at Vanity Sound in Brooklyn, NY

Mastered by Alex DeTurk at Masterdisk in New York, NY

Produced by Jason Myles Goss

Jason Myles Goss – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Rhythm Guitar on “Home,” Tambourine on “Black Lights”

David Dawda – Electric Bass, Upright Bass

Austin Nevins – Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Baritone Guitar, Lap Steel, Banjo, Baritone Ukulele, Omnichord, Glockenspiel

Sam Kassirer – Piano, Organ, Accordion, Fender Rhodes, Vibraphone

Joel Arnow – Drums, Tambourine, Shaker, Vocals on “New York City”

Myles Turney – Vocals on “New York City”

Copyright 2012, Jeswaldo Sounds (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.

Album Photography by Doug Seymour

Album Design by Jason Kenison

Pirate ships, rail yards, skee ball machines, blackberry brandy, and the Coney Island boardwalk—these are just some of the sights, sounds, and smells found in the dimly lit thoroughfares of A Plea For Dreamland. Jason’s third album and first since relocating to NYC.

“When I moved to Brooklyn, I began writing a lot. I bought this notepad for

Pirate ships, rail yards, skee ball machines, blackberry brandy, and the Coney Island boardwalk—these are just some of the sights, sounds, and smells found in the dimly lit thoroughfares of A Plea For Dreamland. Jason’s third album and first since relocating to NYC.

“When I moved to Brooklyn, I began writing a lot. I bought this notepad for scheduling temp jobs and I ended up scribbling all over it, whatever came into my head. It was fun then piecing these characters and various threads together, without worrying how they related to me, where they would end up, or if they were any good.”

As the title suggests, these songs evoke a feeling of somewhere else—the ballroom of a seaside hotel, a bus station in Meridian, Mississippi, or a dingy car on the Coney Island Wonder Wheel. You find many places and characters who are far from perfect but are making their way nonetheless. This is a common theme that runs through the album, with Coney Island taking center stage as a place where the bizarre and fantastical comes face to face with the grit and grime of city life.

“Dreamland was one of the earlier parks in Coney Island, which ended up burning down in 1911. It had the usual thrill rides, but also had world exhibits like imitation Venetian canals, Alpine landscapes, and a massive Tower of Pompeii. It was like this magic land from far away. Over time Coney Island has become this beautifully wounded corner of the world—this place that’s totally laid bare, unapologetic, and equal parts tragic and magic. As best I could, I wanted the songs to sound magical but also have that dog-eared and exposed feeling."

A Plea For Dreamland was recorded at Glass Eye Music (Brooklyn, NY), Ceramic Lady Studios (Cambridge, MA), Austin’s Studio (Somerville, MA) and Great North Sound Society (Parsonsfield, ME); and was mixed by Rafi Sofer at Q Division and mastered by Ian Kennedy at New Alliance East.

It features Joel Arnow (Heather and the Barbarians, Julian Velard) on drums, Zack Hickman (Josh Ritter, Ray Lamontagne) on bass and pump organ, Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell) on electric guitars, lap steel, banjo, and glockenspiel, and Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Langhorne Slim) on keys and vibes.

released June 15, 2009

Copyright 2009, Jeswaldo Sounds (ASCAP)