Hi-N-Dry Records is proud to announce the release of Boston-based songwriter/singer/piano player RICK BERLIN's “ME & VAN GOGH” on FEBRUARY 7, 2006. Berlin’s first release on the label, "ME & VAN GOGH" was recorded at the Hi-N-Dry loft in Cambridge, MA, on the late Mark Sandman’s (phat, low-end) acoustic piano. Billy Conway (Morphine, Twinemen) produced. Tom Dube (Richard Thompson) engineered. Featuring 12 original tunes, “ME & VAN GOGH” is a return to an earlier, more innocent format (Rick Berlin - piano/voice). Simple, skeletal portraiture. The Song Itself - unadorned.

As true as a torn pocket (“Buddha”). As confused as a kid stuck in jail (“A Letter”). As sad as a beautiful girl alone on a street corner, her heart + loss a thousand miles away (“Don’t Talk About Joan”). Absurd as a leering drunk with a beer gut (“Beer Belly”), or a drive past midnight to nowhere (“The Ride”), Berlin creates a world, a town, a topography that seems as familiar as it is unusual. If Van Gogh was alive + wrote songs, they might sound like this album (the title track: “Me & Van Gogh”).

“Berlin’s songs evoke characters as colorful as the crowds that gather to hear them, and he willingly shares the highs and lows of his life with a level of depth rarely captured through song.” (Christopher Muther/Bay Windows)



All audio downloads below are encoded at 192kbs