"Hello Cruel World is a bright spot on the Americana landscape. The San Francisco-based singer-songwriter duo of Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto manages to find the proverbial silver lining of good music while also conveying an overall sense of global disillusionment. The album's tasteful musical arrangements and spot-on harmony vocals are complemented by guest appearances from Al Perkins on pedal steel and David Grisman on mandolin. Along with thought-provoking original compositions, the duo also impresses by putting its own unique spin on songs from a broad range of artists including Neil Young ("Time Fades Away") and T. Rex ("By The Light Of A Magical Moon")." - No Depression (Greg Yost)
"The collection lives up to its ironic title with songs that illuminate the personal and national disasters that seem to be plaguing us at the dawn of a new century. By combining grim insight, sardonic humor, and a bit of uplifting music, Mars Arizona gives us something to smile at while the smoggy sun sets on what's left of the American West." - Crawdaddy (J. Poet)Harp Magazine/March 2008
"On their latest release, Hello Cruel World, the two offer commentary on today's modern landscape, firing poetic slings at a world gone mad." - An Honest Tune
"Hello Cruel World finds the San Francisco band firmly ensconced in the rootsy alt.americana sound it began exploring on 2005's All Over the Road, marked by the duo's solid songwriting and understated arrangement's." - East Bay Express
“...[A] superb third outing ... [Hello Cruel World's] originals are ... an astute combination of down-home charm and rousing, rambunctious technique. †Performing Songwriter, March/April 2008
"Richly organic and soul deep, "Hello Cruel World" is an example of American music making of the first order. Highly recommended." Iowa City Press-Citizen
"Hello Cruel World" is the third release from Mars Arizona on Big Barn Records distributed by Burnside Distribution. Their 2005 effort, All Over The Road, garnered them rave reviews from many publications including Harp, Stomp and Stammer, Performing Songwriter, and Nashville Scene and a feature in No Depression. The record was also well-received by Americana radio and peaked at 41 on the AMA radio charts. A U.S. tour that year took them from San Francisco to New York via Nashville, where they made many friends and fans.
For this adventure, they have gathered some of the finest musicians to marinade into a matchless and transcendent record. The majority of the album was recorded at Moondog Studio in Nashville, (big thanks to Billy Block) by Tim Coats. The remainder of the recording took place at Icehouse Studio in San Rafael, CA; Hilltop Studio in Mill Valley, CA; and BIAS studio in Petaluma, CA.
David "Dawg" Grisman makes sparks fly from his mandolin on the opening track "Dirty Town," resplendent in its identification of the wayward coping mechanisms of small town barfly alcoholics. His son Sam Grisman pushes the tune into the red line with his thundering upright bass. The genius of Al Perkins on pedal steel haunts "Circus," a tune that shakes its head in disbelief at the freak show fairground bazaar that America's politicians have constantly toured the highways of humanity with. Or so it seems. Storto sets off on her own with "Good To Be Lucky" – her crisp and world-wise vocals taking inspiration from Mark Twain's famous words: "Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." Storto's voice hauntingly reminds us that the huge gulf between those privileged few and the masses below might just owe a thing or two to luck. Neil Young's "Time Fades Away", T Rex's "By the Light of the Magical Moon" and Loretta Lynn's "Blue Kentucky Girl" are put through the Mars Arizona sweet and sour smoothie maker. Paul and Nicole know their musical history books and these inspired covers glide, grate and grind in all the right places. The trauma of death and loss speaks softly and poignantly on "Wait For The River." "Landscape (for NOLA)" highlights Mars Arizona's creative compassion with a tune based on Paul's father's first hand observation of the devastation in New Orleans, after Katrina. This haunting original, complemented by Perkins' pedal steel, brings it all down to the personal.
View Mars Arizona's EPK