A recent interview with Noise11.com revealed more information about another new project Rick Springfield has been working on during the pandemic. As he announced on social media earlier this month, RS recorded songs for “Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz,” the darker than ‘Snake King’ album about Day of the Dead that he mentioned in interviews a few weeks back, with Russell Morris, a musician in Australia.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMy Aussie pal Russel Morris and I wrote and recorded these songs over lockdown and we are proud to release this albeit “very different” album. It’s dark and moody as hell. Coming to you in October and it’s available now for preorder: https://t.co/m6zrVzsZtW
— Rick Springfield (@rickspringfield) July 17, 2021
Enjoy!
Love
Rick pic.twitter.com/jU9MaBoaka
I’m not up on my Australian music scene but Russell Morris and RS go way back – this new interview mentions that RS played guitar on RM’s first album back in 1971 – and RM is the one who is scheduled to tour with Zoot next year (in the 2020 tour that was postponed to 2021 and then 2022.) (Russell Morris is doing the vocals for Zoot, filling in for lead singer Darryl Cotton, who sadly died in 2012 – nine years ago on July 27.)
In the interview, Russell Morris said he was inspired for the album after reading the book “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto” by Mitch Albom (a really good book by the way…). Albom is also the author of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” “Five People You Meet in Heaven” and several others. One of my favorite authors!
The article is here. The interview also covers more about The Red Locusts, including some background on RS’s friendships with the Bissonette brothers.
Here’s a video of the interview:
“Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz” is scheduled to come out Oct. 15, 2021.
My Rick Springfield crush 
This will be a very interesting project. So great that we get three Rick albums this year: OML (live), TRL and this one. – Although I’m hoping for a new one of his own…
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He definitely is keeping things interesting by trying a variety of styles – makes it fun to wonder what’s coming next. (In one interview he mentioned that he was working on more songs as well so he may have some more surprises coming!)
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Although the website says it is ready for preorder I cannot access “Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz” on any platforms yet. I hope there will be a preview soon, maybe one track (of Rick´s) to sample?
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Okay – it´s one day later, and it is ready for preorder, with the title track “I am Jack Chrome” already to download. Very dark and Tom Waits-esque. Interesting. Rick really never makes the same album twice. Wonderful.
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