Songs
Love Came Back
Mardi Gras in Mobile
Jean Garrigue
Fool About Me
The Tell
Glider
Marisol
Prince Ali's Fortune Telling Book of Dreams
Flight to Spain
You Must Love Someone
23rd Field Artillery Punch
Boogie Back

 

Production
Production Paul Burch and Dennis Crouch
Recording and Balance by PB
Mastering Eric Conn and Don Cobb

Artwork
Design Sheila Sachs
Photography Sheila Sachs and Catie Baumer Schwalb

Musicians
Guitar & Voice PB
Upright Bass Dennis Crouch
Drums Justin Amaral and PB
Piano Heather Moulder
Harmonium, Piano Jen Gunderman
Hawaiian Steel, Fiddle, Viola Fats Kaplin
Harmony Carey Kotsionis, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Amy Rigby
Alto and Tenor Saxophone Chloe Feoranzo
Airport Voice of Reason Robyn Hitchcock Flight to Spain

Slide Guitar Luther Dickinson Fool About Me
Slap Bass Dominic Davis Fool About Me
Tambours Tommy Perkinson Flight to Spain

 

Quotes | Broadcasts

World Cafe NPR
A Roundup Of Compelling New Nashville Music To Cure The Quarantine Blues

Though Paul Burch has been a fixture in Nashville since the '90s, he's operated independently of contemporary, commercial trends all along, instead applying scholarly attention and breezy, witty execution to pre-rock forms. On Light Sensitive, he and his longtime outfit the WPA Ballclub — featuring his fellow producers Dennis Crouch and Fats Kaplin — are jaunty virtuosos, shambling, boogie-ing and swinging through Burch's animated character studies.

Chicago Reader
Burch...is an expert stylist who meshes past popular genres but always manages to sound like himself—he can even stand out when working with artists who are distinctive in their own right, such as art-country collective Lambchop and Chicago country-punks the Waco Brothers. On his own, Burch is more refined; think of him as Nashville’s answer to Nick Lowe or Joe Henry. Together with the WPA Ballclub, they swirl textures together with the deft touch of jazz musicians, moving the music into intimate spaces that are both nocturnal and joyful.


All Music  StarStarStarStar
Light Sensitive finds Burch & WPA Ballclub in full command. The bright, warm production in these beautifully written and arranged songs, combined with the band's seamless juxtaposition and articulation of various styles, push this inspired album to coexist with Burch's very best efforts such as 2000's Blue Notes 2003's Fool For Love and 2009's Still Your Man. Light Sensitive is essential Burch.

 

No Depression

There’s a perennial sincerity on Paul Burch’s latest album, Light Sensitive. Though he has the writing genius to enter into the grim realities of love, life, and death, Burch spends his time bringing listeners stories of, well, love, life, and death, but without the grimness that so often comes with those tales. Instead, with the help of his band, the WPA Ballclub, Burch spins sagas that sound too familiar to be true, continuing to set him apart from anyone who might claim to be his contemporary...Though Light Sensitive can’t provide an escape from this pandemic, Burch invites listeners into his unparalleled world where the past, present, and future come together for an astounding, timeless experience that isn’t a turning loose of emotion, but a much-needed escape from it.

 

NPR Our Daily Breather
In Nashville a chicken really is good for something. Featuring the Burch family recipe for Hot Chicken Quarantine.


American Songwriter 4.5/5    StarStarStarStar1/2

A stunning series of soundscapes...it blurs the boundaries between rock, blues, balladry and sounds that take their inspiration and origins from any number of geographic locales spread across the American south. A master of crafting songs specific to whatever scenario is called for, Burch and company have fashioned a series of songs that ought to bring them the increased attention that’s so decidedly their due. Light Sensitive is nothing less than illuminating indeed.

The String Interview with Craig Havighurst

Nashville Scene

It’s hard to listen to Light Sensitive — whose sound draws from folk, blues, postwar R&B and lots more — without admiring the quality of Burch’s songcraft. The album’s dozen tracks aren’t biographical, but they’re inspired by the lives and times of some extraordinarily colorful characters of the South. The lyrics are at once playful and dense with allusion, rendering his subjects with the depth and boldness of an oil painting. Light Sensitive is a gas....and is further proof that he’s one of our finest wordsmiths and interpreters of the world around us.

Bluegrass Situation 5+5 Guest Columnist

American Songwriter The Tell Video Premier

If Raiders of the Lost Ark, songwriter Kevin Gordon, and Khadrawy dates have anything in common, it’s this: they all lurk in Paul Burch’s subconscious. More specifically, they all featured prominently in a vivid dream that led Burch to write his new single, “The Tell,” which sees the beloved Nashville roots singer-songwriter and composer dodging an unhinged Karen Allen. "The Tell" is a wistful, exuberant number built on the absurd foundation of a dream. In the video, Burch sings straight into the camera with a sober expression. These shots are contrasted with black and white close-ups of his face obscured by splotchy filters. Both the song and video have a nervous edge–a whiff of anxiety or paranoia or dread. Still, the track is rollicking.

 

Thacker Mountain Radio, Oxford, MS October 2019

Nashville Scene
Paul Burch & WPA Ballclub Reach Out From Afar

Films

The Tell
Photography by Jim Herrington

 

Love Came Back
Directed by Henry Burch

 

 

Variations On A Lost Summertime
Directed by Liz Tormes