St. Vincent to Sing for HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'

News Article
SPIN.com
September 13, 2011
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On the same day St. Vincent mastermind Annie Clark releases her brand-new album, Strange Mercy, comes word SPIN's September Style Issue cover subject will also be trying her hand at some much older music. Clark has added her name to the ranks of singers recording songs from the 1910s and 1920s for HBO's Boardwalk Empire, according to Billboard. She joins Justin Townes Earle, the Moldy Peaches' Adam Green, and New York Dolls' David Johansen in contributing tracks to the show's second season, which premieres Sept. 25.

St. Vincent's Clark, in Los Angeles to perform for radio station KCRW and Amoeba Records, and Earle were set to go into the studio for Boardwalk Empire this week. That means they just missed the cut for the show's first soundtrack, which drops today via Elektra. Boardwalk Empire Volume 1 : Music From The HBO Original Series features Regina Spektor, Loudon Wainwright III, and Nellie McKay, along with the show's house band, Vince Giordana and the Nighthawks, putting their spin on songs made popular during the overlap between ragtime, improvised jazz, vaudeville, and Broadway show tunes.

Clark recently extended her covers repertoire to include a number by another sometimes old-timey singer-songwriter, Tom Waits. Watch her stripped-down performance of Waits' "Tango Till They're Sore" here.


St. Vincent is hitting the road this fall on a U.S. tour behind Strange Mercy this September -- see dates here. Read SPIN's cover story from our September Style Issue here, or check out a review of St. Vincent's first New York performance of Strange Mercy here.