The Suitcase Junket

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courtesy The Suitcase Junket

Matt Lorenz, aka The Suitcase Junket, and guitar.

Matt Lorenz, aka The Suitcase Junket

$20 ($15 adv.).

media release: Songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Matt Lorenz, aka The Suitcase Junket, recently shared the rootsy, tremulous “One More Mile” to announce the October 2 release of his seventh album, To Go On via Bad Chef Records/Symphonic.

Created in the wake of losing his sister, singer-songwriter Kate Lorenz, it’s a tender, beautiful, and arrestingly moving album; an internal dialogue and conversation with the departed, enormously resonant to anyone who ever loved anyone.

TSJ shares “Put Your Phone Down” — a track Lorenz says came to him all at once and felt like a gift from Kate, as if she were giving advice from beyond. 

“The irony of this is that I was always razzing her about being on her phone, like a cliché of the little brother I was, ‘Hey! Play with me! Play with me!’”

It’s good advice, if hard to follow these days. “Put your phone down. Do it right now. Put your phone down. Ain’t no love in there. Put your phone down, do it right now. Put your phone down and get outside.

For To Go On, Lorenz reunited with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato (Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.) at his Sonelab studio in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he’d previously recorded extensively with Kate, including the pair contributing harmonies to other artists’ material.

“Kate’s more on my mind than she ever would have been if she were alive, so there’s something sweet in that sadness,” says Lorenz. “When I’m singing and performing, I feel closer to her.”

As part of the solitary work of To Go On, Lorenz, who recorded all the parts for the record, is making the videos himself for each single. He filmed “Put Your Phone Down” in the woods and fields where he lives in rural Western Massachusetts. These are the places he hikes and canoes, taps maples in the spring, and presses apple cider in the fall. The frog and eft are familiars from the yard.

Lorenz has also created a body of cyanotype-based artwork for the album. The larger pieces of art will also be on display during the first round of release shows as set pieces and visual representations of the music. Following these special release performances featuring a multi-musician ensemble, The Suitcase Junket will resume solo touring in the Fall and has added dates to the run.