Time the Teacher

Jerry David DeCicca

Time the Teacher

Impossible Ark (Europe)/ Bandcamp (US)

"Jerry David DeCicca'sTime the Teacherengages with the big, timeless subjects we expect to find in poetry—love, place and the ghosts of place, loss, memory—but it's also full of the delicious particulars of a particular life, from 'watermelon/ pink as a sunset' to a neon Pegasus sign. Textured with piano, horns, even some gospel choir, the songs relaxed and soulful; they pan wide in narrative mode but also come in for the lyric close-up. What strikes me most aboutTime the Teacheris how dialed in DeCicca is to pleasure, and how that pleasure translates to the listener. This album feels true. I believe, again and again, every word."

—Maggie Smith, author ofGood Bones

Jerry David DeCicca's second solo album,Time the Teacher, resides in the Texas Hill Country where dance halls and cedar post fences are as naturally occurring as a river or a cavern. But the fiddles and acoustic guitars of this terrain's Godfathers, like Jerry Jeff Walker and Townes Van Zandt, has been replaced by saxophones, piano, trumpet, and soulful backing singers.

Produced by Jeb Loy Nichols and Benedic Lamdin (Nostalgia 77) in London, DeCicca recorded his vocals with Stuart Sikes (Cat Power, White Stripes) in Austin, Texas between bites of BBQ. Nichols met DeCicca when he was a 20 year old working in a used record store in Ohio, while touring hisLover's Knotalbum. Years later, in 2007, they collaborated on producing the final recordings of Larry Jon Wilson.Time the Teacheris the hymn and highlight of their 20 year friendship.

DeCicca is the former leader of The Black Swans. His 2014 solo debut,Understanding Land, was a collection of home recordings featuring Will Oldam, Kelley Deal, and Spooner Oldham. He is also the producer of outsider songwriter albums by Ed Askew (Tin Angel), Chris Gantry (Drag City), and Will Beeley (Tompkins Square). He works in social services and lives in the rural town of Bulverde, Texas.