A career-spanning anthology of recordings by Conway Savage, the late pianist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, has been announced for release on July 17. Titled 'Too Dark To See: Solo & Collaborative Recordings 1992-2010', the collection was curated with input from bandmate Mick Harvey. It features 24 tracks from Savage's solo and collaborative work.
Conway Savage joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 1990 and contributed to every album except 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' until his death in 2018 at age 58 from a brain tumour. The new anthology, released via Impressed Recordings, includes his 1993 debut solo EP track 'Too Dark to See' along with interpretations of folk songs such as 'Fair & Tender Ladies' and 'You Did as You Were Told to Do'. Other highlights come from his solo albums 'Nothing Broken' and 'Wrong Man's Hands' among the full 24-song tracklist: 'Fair & Tender Ladies', '1000 Days', 'You Did as You Were Told to Do', 'Trail of Broken Hearts', 'I Trust You Had a Good Time', 'The Cross', 'Marlo', 'Sisters & Brothers', 'Old Soul with a New Hole', 'Tanist', 'These Are the Waves', 'Nothing Broken', 'Strings of the Earth & Air', 'Cruel Trick', 'Night Life', 'Only Ghosts', 'Just One of Those Things', 'Quickie for Ducky', 'The Saint of Shitty Little Rooms', 'Too Dark to See', 'Don’t Plan on Leaving Town', 'Say It Ain’t So', 'Crumbling World', and 'Tonight'.Mick Harvey, a longtime Bad Seeds member, proposed the project to Impressed Recordings. Following Savage's death, the band described him as 'the anarchic thread that ran through the band’s live performances' and praised his 'high and sweet' voice 'drenched in soul'. Nick Cave recalled a poignant moment: 'On a drunken night, at four in the morning, in a hotel bar in Cologne, Conway sat at the piano and sang “Streets of Laredo” to us... Goodbye Conway, there isn’t a dry eye in the house.'Last September, a festival in Dundalk, Ireland, honored Savage's life with performances by friends and bandmates.
