Released on: November 6, 2007, 2:43 am

Press Release Author: Kevin Kingman

Industry: Entertainment

Press Release Summary: Fifth Album marks first official release for infamous
troubadour, songwriter.

Press Release Body: This week, songwriter Julean Rai (known to his listeners as the
band \"Julean and the Rai\") released his first official debut album, following a
healthy live career and a string of EPs, instrumentals, and demos. Julean, who is
decidedly well-known in a number of regional circuits nationwide, including Austin,
Texas, and most recently New York City, finished the project early this year as part
of a series of intensive recording sessions. The first of several albums completed
in those sessions, Muse Tree gives us 15 songs that even fans familiar with Julean
live or in the studio can find fresh, enduring, and at times, unfamiliar.

\"A few of the songs on this [album] are songs I\'ve been playing for years of
course,\" Julean says in a recent interview, \"but no song really made it to Muse Tree
without being completely revamped in one way or another. Most are recognizable if
you\'ve heard them, but a few are entirely new bodies of work.\"

Muse Tree, Julean says, relates the songs, stories and experiences of his first year
as an adult and as a musician, twelve years ago. \"A couple of those tunes are
actually new songs about old stories. I\'ve tried to write them for years and, in a
way, I\'m glad that I was able to make them more recent and probably more
sophisticated than they would be back then.\" Of the fifteen tracks on the album,
only a handful are songs Julean says he performed at that actual time in his early
career.

When asked about the recording process, Julean had this to say: \"Forty some days and
nights of manic hyper-productivity. I slept on a cot in the studio, which was in
the loft of a larger studio. It was cold -- winter in Ohio, you know. The walls
were too thin, the pipes above the studio in the wood creaked at all the wrong
times. A lot of it was timing. I had my coffee in the mornings outside, ramen in
the afternoon and rice in the evenings. Sometimes the producer would send me some
fast food burgers and fries for the protein, or productivity, or whatever. For
those sessions, because I couldn\'t bring anybody else in where I was at the time, I
pretty much was \"The Rai\". I had tons of instruments up there and I played them
all. I really had a ball with all the vocals and different voicings on the tracks,
too. I think it gave me a chance to show my range somewhat, which I don\'t think
I\'ve done on the demos beforehand. I think it was a great experience for me, and I
hope that translated to [Muse Tree] in a way all the people who have enjoyed the
demos can hear and enjoy right along with me.\"

Muse Tree is the followup to a number of semi-commercial demos and recordings by
Julean Rai, a list that includes the rock-oriented \"Some Plans, the artfully analog
and enchanting tracks of \"The Windfall\", and the predecessor to \"Muse\" known as \"The
Muse Tree (Demos)\". When asked the reasons for the delay in an official release,
Julean cites his travel and his lifestyle.

\"I sort of live like a monk, you know? Not a pious one, but a strange one. I set
up in a town, grow up a little, change a lot, you know? Get into trouble, piss
people off. Make good friends, meet a girl. Gather up my stories and my songs,
play the circuit and work odd jobs. Every once in awhile I get the chance or the
resources to actually sit down and record a bunch of the songs that have stacked up
over the years. Then I get a wild hair and I move on to a new adventure. It\'s
where I get all my inspiration and how I inspire others, I think. I\'ve really
wanted to buckle down on getting these songs recorded, though. Kind of make music
my \"odd job\" for once.\"

To date, Julean claims nearly ninety songs of unrecorded material, a small portion
of which he was able to record and produce as part of these sessions. These include
\"Disconnect\", a small promotional EP of newer songs, and Julean\'s next album \"Here\",
which is currently in mastering and post-production. Rai also churned out the
long-awaited \"Alexandria, Falling\", an Arabic music-inspired EP that truly shows off
Julean\'s unique playing skill and talents as a musical composer. Julean\'s plans are
to release these albums sequentially.

\"I\'ve got a ton of new songs, so the backlog keeps getting bigger and bigger. I
want to record the newest ones with [The Rai], but I think I\'m going to go back to
the studio soon and work on \"Anastasia Continuum\" soon, which should be the next one
up.\"

Given the opportunity to listen to \"Muse\", the album is a genuine, lighthearted and
warm recounting of a young boy growing up to discover himself, girls, life, and
Independence. With steady rock acoustic songs like \"First Light\", full band
menageries, such as \"Mind Games\" and \"Ryn\", and even tender, moody stories such as
\"The Roots\" and the impeccable \"Muse Tree\", \"Muse\" calls to mind contemporaries from
Kaki King and Jack Johnson as well as influences like Bruce Springsteen and Nina
Simone. In both his intricate skill as a guitar player, his astonishing vocal
range, and his trademark impish-slash-sincere delivery, Julean Rai\'s \"Muse Tree\"
makes us all wish to be seventeen again.

Fans and listeners of Julean Rai can buy \"Muse Tree\" and more at his online store at
http://www.juleanandtherai.com/ or at his Myspace page at
http://www.myspace.com/juleanandtherai


Web Site: http://www.juleanandtherai.com

Contact Details: Kevin Kingman
240 E 2nd St
New York, NY 10009