The Time To Come LP

Release Date : 8th January 2021

The Time To Come is the first release from Worried Songs and the striking debut from twenty-one-year-old Chicago resident Eli Winter, noted as one of the Guardian’s ‘artists to watch in 2020’. These masterfully composed instrumental pieces for six-string, twelve-string, and electric solo guitar showcase the raw talent of this young guitar powerhouse. In The Time To Come, Winter remembers the dead, considers the dynamic nature of memory, and attempts to chronicle the nearly inexpressible difficulty of processing loss. Winter began recording sessions in Houston immediately after Hurricane Harvey, and this album’s turbulent emotional landscape is in some ways a response to the devastation of the storm. The record revolves around its title track, a meditation on the passing of a close friend.

Eli Winter (b. 1997) is a guitarist and writer based in Chicago. His guitar music is masterfully composed, moving between 6-string, 12-string and lap guitars in open tunings to make music that’s mature, cathartic and deeply soothing. On the strength of his first album, The Time To Come (released on Blue Hole in 2019), The Guardian featured him as an artist to watch for 2020. His second album, Unbecoming, released that year on American Dreams Records, showcases Winter as an invigorating, talented presence, and alludes to his bright future as a voice — or perhaps set of well-trained hands — in the constantly evolving guitar music canon. Worried Songs will reissue The Time To Come on vinyl on December 7, 2020.

Winter has performed composed and improvised music with Daniel Bachman, Tyler Damon, Jaime Fennelly, Ara Hanissian, Cameron Knowler, Matthew J. Rolin, Tara Jane O’Neil and Sam Wagster. He’s presented music at Constellation, Hopscotch Music Festival, Rhizome, Trans-Pecos, the Empty Bottle, Starlight Theater and Logan Center for the Arts, among others. He’s toured the East Coast, Midwest, Texas and California, and maintains a regular performance schedule in Chicago.

“Eli Winter is one of the brightest new lights in the world of guitar music today.” — Keith Hadad, Record Crates United

“Eli Winter’s Unbecoming…is a stellar addition to the canon of gut-punching, emotionally brave guitar music that’s become its own genre in the Americana landscape.” — Will Schube, PassionWeiss

“A forceful record that shows him taking the big step that his previous work promised” — Justin Cober-Lake, PopMatters

“Eli Winter’s The Time To Come is a remarkably assured debut….Every moment is earned, every note rings out with warmth and wonder. Beautiful stuff.” — Tyler Wilcox, Aquarium Drunkard

“Rich and inviting, The Time To Come is especially impressive for coming so early in the songwriter’s career. The future is bright for Eli Winter, and we’re lucky to be able to witness it.” — Luca Cimarusti, Chicago Reader

“Winter’s set was exactly what we had hoped to see — a showcase for a generational talent who could literally become the face of American primitive guitar in the decades to come.” — Daniel Lynch, NYCTaper

“His debut album is really sublime” — Laura Snapes, The Guardian