Chauncey Bowers - The Benefit of Doubt (2023)

Eccentric artist to celebrate album release with a Valentine’s Day show in South Pasadena. Singer-songwriter Chauncey Bowers’ sly new album, The Benefit of Doubt, dives back into the metaphysically corkscrewed universe of his 2014 debut, Rumors of Reason.

Lead single “Circus” rhapsodizes about a traveling funhouse inhabited by drifters, grifters, gamblers, rafter-clinging clowns, and a suspicious strongman. While venturing deeper into familiar thematic ground, “Circus” and The Benefit of Doubt also encompass broader sonic fields than Bowers has previously explored.

“I like the breadth of songs on this album. It’s a little embarrassing how long it took me to make it,” Bowers wisecracks. He started workshopping much of the material before the pandemic. The cheerily macabre “Blame Bill” was already a staple of his live shows, and he developed songs such as “Circus,” “Great for You,” and “My Bad” onstage during regular appearances at Brad Colerick’s Wine & Song showcase series in South Pasadena, where Bowers is a longtime audience favorite.

On the album, which is being released on Colerick’s Back 9 label, the irreverent “Game of Chance” is brightened by banjoists Bill Knopf and Oscar Hills and the spirited yodeling of country songbird Alice Wallace. Bowers’ intuitive fretwork is undergirded by producer Ed Tree and simpatico players,
including keyboardist Marty Axelrod, bassists Taras Prodaniuk, Chad Watson, and Steve Nelson, percussionists Scott Babcock and Ramon Yslas, and string arranger Skip Edwards.