Recorded live-in-studio, Mark Growden’s "Saint Judas" is a gorgeously evocative set of ‘Americana noir’ that finally matches the legendary energy of Growden’s live shows. Featuring guitarist Myles Boisen, acoustic bassist Seth Ford-Young, percussionist Jenya Chernoff, cellist Alex Kelly, and trumpeter Chris Grady providing an energetic complement to Growden’s voice, accordion, banjo and baritone saxophone. Digging deep in harrowing personal tales of suffering and redemption, Growden emerges with his best recording yet. Winner of Stashbauber's "Rekkid of the Year" award. Press quotes: "Growden has crafted a tour de force full-length that sonically burrows under your skin and finds its way up the spine to lodge permanently in the cortex." - BLURT "St. Judas was recorded live, like a 50’s jazz album, giving his music the quality of a lovingly, painstakingly handmade gift." - Music Union "Saint Judas" is a strong, deep, and mature album for fans of blues that bleed realism, loss, sorrow, and redemption. Superb." - Thee Goatsden "This isn't a CD as such but rather a cabaret of the rings of a very humanized hell located somewhere in the boggy depths of the deep South, not Birmingham, not New Orleans, not Atlanta but the shadowy bastard offspring of them all." - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange "Listen to merely a minute of this masterpiece, and you're as helpless as bird before snake, fascinated, terrified, seduced." - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange "for an album so intimately acquainted with woe, the real connective thread throughout is not one of pain, but one of love. Hurt love hopeful love, dashed love, and eternal love, each facet of the ever-abiding emotion has its own moment to shine in the flickering glow of the Mark Growden ensemble’s warm strings, hot licks, and sizzling horns." - SF Bay Guardian "Part chamber music, part High Noon…" SF Bay Guardian "a homegrown affair all the way through." - SF Bay Guardian "a dark journey that finds Kurt Weil’s twisted drama, Alan Lomax’s primitive field recordings, and the dry deliberation of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits all held in a common bond." - Amplifier "a strangely fascinating and compelling glimpse into a netherworld of shadowy late night cabaret and smoky barroom intimacy." - Amplifier "A must listen for fans of the genre. Hell, it’s a must listen for anyone who loves music." - Synthesis "A gritty treasure of urban romanticism." - Flavorpill LA “a lusty, somewhat loosely presented collection of poems set to disjointed waltzes and dark ballads of biblical proportion.” - Chico News and Review "a genre all its own" - SF Bay Guardian "Homespun and honest." - KFJC "gestural and hypnotic." - The Rumpus "It sounds like America’s Great Depression took a trip to New Orleans, Broadway and Vegas and then tumbled into the post-industrial underground — swallowed in city sewers, scuffed under construction worker’s boots, pierced by punk rock attitude — to come out in an exquisite, visionary place." - Taos News "stirring ballads, rousing narratives of love and loss, and raucous marches" - Taos News Personnel: Mark Growden: voice, accordion, baritone saxophone, banjo, handlebars Myles Boisen: electric guitar, lap steel guitar Alex Kelly: cello Chris Grady: b-flat trumpet, c cornet, fluegelhorn Seth Ford-Young: upright bass, organ, coyote howls Jenya Chernoff: percussion Isabela Growden: coyote howls on Coyote, backup vocals on The Gates Ragsdale Blue Growden: coyote howls on Coyote Credits: Produced by Oz Fritz and Mark Growden. Recorded live and mixed at New Improved Recording, Oakland, CA, March 2009. Engineered and mixed by Oz Fritz. Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Labs, Oakland CA. Second Engineer Eli Crews. Additional recording assistance - Johnk Finkbeiner and Yosh!. Artwork by Mona Caron, design by Jenya Chernoff, portrait photo by Eric Gillet.