About This Item
Jacob Aranda is a Mexican American Bay Area singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, luthier and member of Bay Area psych-folk group Tarnation. His new album War Planes is his second solo album. Aranda's first solo full-length album, Great Highway (2018), was described by critics as InchtimelessInch (KWMR), Inchfull of beautiful, mellow countryscapesInch (Bay Bridged), and Inchcharming, warm and melancholic, with elements and influences that range from classic country to Southwestern-influenced folkInch (Sound Thread). Born and raised in a Latino household in rural Illinois, the culture of Aranda's upbringing and the necessary resourcefulness of rural living birthed in him an artistic desire to express himself through music. While his first album was an expression of hopelessness and longing, War Planes is fundamentally an album about healing intergenerational trauma and doing so through art. The album feels like a next chapter with elements of rebirth and reflection. Songs of hope, such as InchSing A Song, Say A PrayerInch and InchGlass BuildingInch demonstrate movement forward, while tracks such as InchDream Of MexicoInch and the title track InchWar PlanesInch represent a way to look back into underlying issues and the inherited trauma that had once made Aranda feel so alone. Produced and engineered by Desmond Shea (Tarnation, The Court And Spark) at SF's legendary Hyde Street Studios, War Planes features the talents of friends and Tarnation bandmates, Paula Frazer (bass, vocals), David Cuetter (pedal steel), Sam Berman (drums), Patrick Main (piano, vocals), and Meryl Theo Press (vocals). Also joining the sessions were musicians Alisa Rose (violins), Jason Loeks (upright bass), and singers Karina Denike (Dance Hall Crashers), Michael James Tapscott, Lydia Walker, and Sara Gallagher (banjo, vocals). Aranda went into the studio listening to a lot of early Waylon Jenn