Twilight Singers' Greg Dulli Primed to Unleash 'Pent-Up Emotions'

Posted on Apr 4th 2011 12:00PM by Steve Baltin
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In February, Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers released 'Dynamite Steps,' an album that features guest appearances by Ani DiFranco, Joseph Arthur, Mark Lanegan, Petra Haden and Verve guitarist Nick McCabe. Even though the album is the band's first in five years, Dulli hasn't exactly been laying low. He's played with Lanegan in the Gutter Twins and hit the road for his first-ever solo acoustic tour, which featured career-retrospective-style shows.

"To play songs like 'Never See No Devil' and 'Let Me Lie to You,' I was straddling 20 years, literally, of material and that was really cool for me to do," Dulli tells Spinner of the tour.

Revisiting 'Let Me Lie to You,' going back to the infancy of the Afghan Whigs, was a particular favorite for Dulli. "That song got replaced in the Whigs set by 'When We Two Parted.' I hadn't played that song in 18 years and there I was playing it," he says. "I wrote that song when I was 25, 24, and playing it again 20 years later was really special for me."

There were some other high points for him. "'Step Into the Light' was really special because I remember when I wrote it. The whole 'Black Love' era was a really dark time for me, so to be able to sing that song again in a different headspace was very special to me," he says. "And also doing 'St. Gregory' and 'Follow You Down,' from 'Blackberry Belle' -- I had never performed those songs ever."

The whole experience was one Dulli will treasure. "It was so exciting every night to see how much noise we could make every night as three guys. I'll never forget that and it's something I'll carry with me for a long time," he says.

Still, as unique as it was, Dulli is happy to be back on the road with the Twilight Singers, playing the brash live shows that made him famous. "What I realized is I haven't played electric guitar on a stage since November of 2008," he says. "I've got a lot of pent-up emotions that I'm [going] to unleash on everybody."

Twilight Singers Perform 'On the Corner'

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