HI-N-DRY Records is proud to announce the release of Boston-based songwriter/singer/visualist RICK BERLIN's"PAPER AIRPLANE" on OCTOBER 16th, 2010 - Berlin's 3rd release on the label."Berlin's combination of frank, funny, poignant storytelling and unvarnished soul-searching always sounds both refreshingly unfiltered and meticulously crafted." (Jonathan Perry/The Boston Globe)"...Berlin’s tremulous vocal is like a flickering bulb at the dark end of a creepy hallway." (Michael Brodeur/Boston Phoenix)"Berlin’s made all kinds of music here for decades, and never fails to surprise. It’s impossible not to feel his experience in your gut, as his voice floats from whimsy to heartbreak, from ecstasy to absurdity, from wisdom to mystification, all set to words and music that unspool countless reels of a life lived fully and recklessly. In a perfect world, he’d be writing Broadway scores, but of course he’s too smart and speaks a hundred times the truth of that swill." (Joe Coughlin/The Noise)"Think Nick Cave meets John Cale." (Claire/Boston Tea Party.com)2 years ago DENNIS BRENNAN asked Berlin to be a guest performer at his popular residency at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge. The deal: the Brennan band learns 2 Berlin songs in the dressing room 5 minutes before they hit the stage. The results astonished. The songs came alive with unimaginable beauty + guts. The players, among the tops in this town or anywhere else (see stats on CD), brought off-the-cuff brilliance, improvisation + restraint to songs Berlin had only played solo. He was so inspired that night that he decided his next recording would feature these guys + would have, for the first time in years, a full backing band - a band that moves the music to a higher place without losing the soul nerve of his solo work (see"ME & VAN GOGH" +"OLD STAG"). All narrative songwriters have a sense of place, a topography, a town they invent or know populated by friends or fictions that locate a short story world both familiar, baffling + dear. In this way"PAPER AIRPLANE" is Berlin's valentine to Jamaica Plain - a big/small town hybrid that seems part San Francisco, part Brooklyn/Bronx but more accessible than either. Where friends walking a few short blocks run into friends as easily as an over-the-fence, old timey, afternoon baseball game might have once been imagined."WALKIN' IN THE HOOD" captures the vibe in a simple lyrical stroll. The songs: A spiteful, self-reflecting, jobless street person fantasizes that he's happier + more liberated than than any well-heeled celebrity ("IF I WASN'T SUCH A BUM"), a tiny 10-yr-old learns to drive her drunken grandfather home from his night at the bar ("DRIVIN' GRANDPA HOME"), a dream nod to the great vagabond songwriter Townes Van Zandt ("REAL SLOW"), a note from a son to his father hoping to close the distance between them ("I WISH I COULD TALK WITH MY DAD"), an ode to the heart of an immutable friendship ("MY FRIEND"), a pirate arrgh for bar flies ("PBR"), recapturing a first encounter ("THE KISS"), an airborne message in a bottle to a lonely suburban boy ("PAPER AIRPLANE"). These are lived-in characterizations that feel first person, but are not penned as songs of the Self."Berlin has captured almost everything that encompasses what it is to exist in 21st century New England (even if Berlin's singing voice owes a bit more to the South than the East)."(Nick Blakey/Your Flesh)"Berlin remains one of the best songwriters to ever come out of Boston. Like Roy Orbison, Rick Berlin sings songs for the lonely. His characters are just a shade different from Orbison's however. On second thought, many shades different." (Kevin O'Hare/The Plain Dealer-Cleveland)Berlin has a backlog of motel stop-overs, lost locals, beer haunts + midnight rooftops. His friends, close + not-so-close populate his musical backyard + inform his melodic sense. He's lived all over the place, but"travels far" in Jamaica Plain + this time, after years without, with an incredible band.Berlin has shot + edited 8 videos for"PAPER AIRPLANE" which can be viewed/located alongside his writings, scripts, musical at www.rickberlin.com, vimeo, YTube, yahoo, metacafe, daily motion (type in his name on these sites to view the clips). You can learn more about Rick, read his short fiction, lyrics, the script for his musical"The Kingdom", etc here: www.rickberlin.com