Charles Bissell playing new The Wrens material at an NYC art gallery

The Wrens have been discussing their anticipated follow-up to 2003’s The Meadowlands for quite a while, with singer Charles Bissell even hosting listening parties for the album in his Brooklyn apartment. We can’t say for sure that 2020 will be the year it finally gets released, but there is an opportunity coming up to hear some of the new material live. Charles will be performing solo at the closing party for Beth Campbell‘s art show, How Do You Know I Am Not A Liar, at the Kate Werble Gallery on January 8.

Charles says:

Howdy,

If you wanna hear some of this now-done 10-year Odyssey of a recording (a not-pun that’ll be more clear when the record comes out), I’m gonna be doing a solo set of some of the songs (accompanied by my usual hide-me veil of loop pedal shenanigans), this Wed., January 8th around 6:30pm.

What makes this esp. nifty is that it’s for the closing party for the artist Beth Campbell’s (an actual genius and just my favorite) own solo show, How Do You Know I Am Not A Liar, at the Kate Werble Gallery (83 Vandam St., NYC (Beth’s show runs through this Friday, 1/10/20).

That’s the short of it: Album 4.5 songs, this Wed., 1/8/20, 6:30 at the Kate Werble Gallery.

Swing on by after work, Manhattan professionals.

The longer of it, where I first saw Beth’s work, and later how I got to know her and our still coming-together plan to collaborate re: this next record, is one of those fireside chats I roll out at these ‘come hear the record in our house’ things and even ties into to why I do them to begin with (which speaking of, one last round of those too starting Sunday, 3/1/20. But more on that later)….

He also wrote more about his discovery of Beth’s work, which you can read on his blog.