''I Am the Portuguese Blues'' is the eighth full-length album released by

Starflyer 59 Starflyer 59 is an American alternative rock band from Riverside, California that was founded in 1993 by Jason Martin, brother of Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric. While Jason Martin has written nearly all of Starflyer 59's songs, the band has ...

. With this album, the band returned to its past in multiple ways. The band's earlier albums had been characterized by loud guitars, but later albums saw the band progress to a softer sound, incorporating keyboards. ''I Am the Portuguese Blues'' saw the return of the sound from earlier albums, as the band was stripped just to

Jeff Cloud Jeff Cloud is an American former bass guitar player for rock band Starflyer 59. He joined the band after the album ''Americana'' had been recorded, and remained a member until after the recording of the album ''I Am the Portuguese Blues''. From ...

on bass,

Frank Lenz Frank Lenz (born 18 June 1967 in San Leandro, California) is a drummer from Southern California who has done work for many bands and artists, including Richard Swift, The Weepies, Everest, Pedro The Lion, Starflyer 59, Lassie Foundation, Duralu ...

on drums, and Jason Martin, the only person to perform on all of Starflyer 59's albums, handling guitar and vocal duties. In addition, the album has a monochromatic cover, similar to those of Starflyer 59's first three albums (''

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

'', ''

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

'', and ''

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

''). Many of the songs on ''I Am the Portuguese Blues'' were written years earlier as demos for an album to follow ''Americana''. They were eventually scrapped, as the band decided to take a different musical direction for ''

The Fashion Focus ''The Fashion Focus'' was the fourth full-length album released by Starflyer 59. This release marked a significant change in the band's sound. Where previous albums had focused on loud guitars in the style of shoegazer bands such as My Bloody Va ...

''. The old demos were refined and combined with several new songs for ''I Am the Portuguese Blues''. In regards to the title of the album, Martin, the band's frontman said,

"I thought the title was odd. There are a couple of proper blues riffs‚ on there, but mainly it is just a rock and roll album – no tricks no gimmicks.... And, oh yeah, I'm Portuguese."

Track listing

All songs written by Jason Martin.

Personnel

* Jason Martin – vocals, guitar, engineer, art direction *

– bass guitar *

– drums *

Aaron Sprinkle Aaron Sprinkle (born March 20, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer from Seattle, Washington. Career His career in music began in high school with a group called BellBangVilla. BellBangVilla became Poor Old Lu and the ...

– mixing *Troy Glessner – mastering *

Brandon Ebel Brandon Ebel is the founder, president and CEO of Tooth & Nail Records. He founded the label in 1993 in California, United States. The label has since grown to include sub-labels BEC Recordings, Solid State Records and Uprok Records. Ebel has c ...

– executive Producer *

Kris McCaddon Kris McCaddon was the second guitarist for the metalcore band, Society's Finest and lead guitarist for Demon Hunter. He was also the vocalist for the bands Embodyment and The Famine. History McCaddon's career started in 1994 when he joined th ...

– art direction, design

References

{{Authority control Starflyer 59 albums 2004 albums Tooth & Nail Records albums