Azure Ray to release "Drawing Down the Moon"

The fine ladies in Azure Ray, Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor, are back at it again. It's been six years since "Hold On Love," but the pair is set to release "Drawing Down the Moon" on Saddle Creek in September. Until a mini tour last year, the band was on hiatus since 2004 and the pair made solo records (as well as working with Bright Eyes, Now It's Overhead and projects Art In Manila and O+S).

In an interview last year, Fink told me about how the "reunion" happened.

Taylor had moved to Los Angeles around the same time that Fink was involved with Rilo Kiley, which frequently brought Fink to L.A. At the time, Fink lived in Omaha and would shack up at Taylor's place during her stints in California.

“We were having a great time together,” Fink told me. “We thought ‘We should be playing music. Let’s do a show.’ ”

They did, performing in Los Angeles in late 2008 — their first live date in years. They played the first Azure Ray show in Omaha in five years at a free outdoor event at Slowdown in 2009. If you were there, you probably heard some of the new tracks.

The twelve-track record was recorded with Eric Bachmann - whom the band worked with on "Hold On Love" - at Echo Mountain Studios in North Carolina and mixed by Michael Patterson. Familiar face Andy LeMaster (who's been playing with the band live) as well as Athens, Georgia, singer-songwriter Liz Durrett.

"Drawing Down the Moon" Tracklist:

1. Wake Up, Sleepyhead
2. Don't Leave My Mind
3. In the Fog
4. Larraine
5. On and On Again
6. Make Your Heart
7. Silver Sorrow
8. Signs in the Leaves
9. Love and Performance
10. Shouldn't Have Loved
11.Dancing Ghosts
12. Walking in Circles