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As evidence that Nashville is still home to innovative and creative musical forces, we present Paul Burch’s Fool for Love, a collection of songs commiserating on the joys and train wrecks of love in modern life. It's his fifth record, but first for his fans at Bloodshot, and it delivers a primer of post-modern country, rife with subdued operatic qualities that are truly remarkable.

Recorded in Nashville with members of Burch’s WPA Ballclub (Fats Kaplin, Richard Bennett, George Bradfute, and Dennis Crouch), Fool for Love features 12 new Paul Burch compositions that put the rhythm and color of country into new and beautiful combinations.

Paul Burch has never been Nash-Vegas flashy, opting instead for a subtle, solid style rooted in a traditional sound. With Fool for Love though, he stirs the pot and spices the soup, putting his well-honed skills to work crafting distinct, memorable songs that not only roll trippingly off the tongue, but bear up under the strain of repeated tastings. Burch deftly seasons this post-country Southern banquet with saxophones, steel guitars, violas, pianos, tremolo, Wurlitzer, double bass, dog barks, tom toms and baby cries. Incredibly textured but exceedingly light, Fool for Love satisfies like a meat-and-three that leaves room for desert -- a subtle and supple wonder.

"It's a melange of Burch's influences, from country to swing to dreamy pop to addictive atmospherics and haunting nuance." Chrissie Dickenson, Chicago Tribune

"Whereas other similarly inspired singers merely revive the themes and styles of bygone eras, Burch's first-person tales exude a timeless quality. [They] possess the mythic grandeur and offhand brilliance of the The Basement Tapes while capturing the sense of freedom and possibility that marked that fabled collaboration." Bill Friskics-Warren, Nashville Scene

"Every now and then a CD comes along that steals your heart from the first note and presents a sonic world so compelling and welcoming that you just have to move on in. Paul Burch's truly magical Fool For Love is one of those rare jewels... prepare to be amazed." Jim Musser, Iowa City Press-Citizen

"Burch isn't simply a revivalist, he's an interpreter in whose songs old sounds find new life, and his latest effort may be his most adventuresome. The disc dabbles in rockabilly, honky-tonk, classic pop and lonesome balladry, but it's unmistakably the product of the Burch and his Ballclub." Anders Smith Lindall, Harp (who also put this record at #37 on their "Best of 2003" list)

"Toiling away in East Nashville, Burch imbues vintage blue honky-tonk with passion and pathos. He may have more Hank in him than anybody named Hank living and working today." Craig Havighurst, Nashville Tennessean

"Great creative country music like God intended it to be, damn it. Fool For Love has a traditional heart, but thanks to its mastermind and his cohorts, it also incorporates elements of R&B, rock and roll, pop, gospel and blues and a thread of ambient country that is my favorite skein of all." PureMusic.com

"Built on crafty chord changes that owe as much to the Brill Building as the Grand Ole Opry... and a refined but casually confident grasp of melody." Shannon Zimmerman, Washington City Paper

"...Not so much retro as it is steeped in the verities Grand Ole Opry. With real country music this and true emerging from Music City, who needs either 'commerical' country or 'alt-country'? Not me." Rob Patterson, Austin American-Statesman