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0:00/5:02
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The Contender 3:240:00/3:24
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Say Anything 4:290:00/4:29
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Speed & Flame 3:370:00/3:37
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Five Dollar Bill 5:260:00/5:26
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Travelling Preacher 5:320:00/5:32
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Trigger 4:530:00/4:53
“I'm looking at you looking down at your shoes, and thinking we let too much of this life get away. All I'm asking you to do is ride here next to me because we'll never be younger than we are today.”
— from "Dead Headlights (Another Winter in Omaha)"
Jeremy Mercy
& the Rapture Orphans
December 27, 2024 - Reverb Lounge, Omaha - Jeremy Mercy and the Rapture Orphans will be celebrating the release of the full album Heavyweight.
Recorded at Omaha’s Make Believe Studios, ARC, and the Omaha Conservatory of music, all tracks were produced and mixed by Ian Aeillo and mastered by Doug VanSloun.
Mercy’s work with the Rapture Orphans has marked a departure from his earlier project Travelling Mercies in scope and sound. “My work with the new band on Heavyweight has been less focused on character sketches amidst a musical free-for-all. This is more about dealing honestly with my inner life and expressing it through a more coherent sound,” says Mercy. “The title Heavyweight absolutely evokes some macho, tough-guy bullshit, but is really about struggling with the weight of my own heart. The two of us have been going at it for years. It’s definitely the most I’ve shown of myself emotionally on anything I’ve done.”
The album features an Omaha music scene dream team: GeorgeAnne Prescott on banjo and lap steel, Danny Burns and Scott Johnson on bass, Lee Gambrel and Nate Fowler on drums, and Kate Williams and Eric Elworth on accordion and keys (Clayton Goliath Pace now serves as the group’s bass player). Oliver Bates Craven of the Stray Birds and Sierra Ferrell’s band also makes an unforgettable appearance with his fiddle on the cut "The Contender."
About Jeremy:
Nebraska songwriter and native son Jeremy Mercy knows something about a life spent searching for purpose. It wasn't until age 30 that he first picked up a guitar and began to envision a life in music. "I was just a small-town kid with parents who were fresh off the farm. All the people in my life were manual laborers whose lives revolved around hard work," says Mercy. "Many were creative in their own ways, but not in music. And certainly no one who'd tolerate being called an 'artist'." Although Mercy may have finally come to terms with that label, those working-class roots still run straight through his music - from the blue-collar desperation and resolve of his characters right down to his no-frills guitar playing and song forms. But with an eye on the horizon where the human meets the divine, Mercy’s raw and honest songwriting often transcends the everyday and touches on the timeless.
“Jeremy Mercy doesn’t just tell you a story. He places you in the scene. He commands you to feel the experiences he’s lived, and the sense of longing that’s present in many of his songs. His hands have been in the dirt and his heart has been dragged through it a time or two. This journey doesn’t end when the song does. You’ll come out with a few earworm souvenirs that’ll have you comin’ back for more.” - Corey Stroud of VVilloughby
Jeremy Mercy was previously the writer/song-singer/paterfamilias of Omaha-based outlaw folk collective Travelling Mercies*, with whom he recorded the studio albums Ghosts in the Bloodline (2011), Motel** (2014), and Cheap Labor (2018). He released the EP HEAVYWEIGHT:Volume I with the Rapture Orphans*** In October of 2021.
*Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards "Best Country/Americana" Nomination
**Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards "Album of the Year" Nomination
***Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards "Outstanding Americana/Folk" Nomination
Press photos
