Written by: Alex Green

“Summertime is always the best of what might be,” Charles Bowden once wrote and though it’s not officially summer just yet, Bowden’s poetic theoretical is now something quite tangible.

The Rave-Ups’ Jimmer Podrasky and Syd Straw announced today that they will be releasing a new EP. A dream pairing of two of the most talented and important singer/songwriters of the last 30 years, the EP, Podrasky wrote on Facebook, will hit the streets, “when summer comes.”

With two recent solo albums under his belt, Podrasky’s songwriting prowess has never been stronger. His penchant for mixing clever wordplay with world-weary wisdom and bittersweet irony make him one of America’s best musical storytellers. Meanwhile, Straw, whose voice is one of the most powerful and affecting around, is every bit Podrasky’s equal and the perfect musical foil. Her own discography is observational, tragic, comic and deeply moving and her delivery knows how to find the most secretive hearts and break them right in half.

As for what to expect, Podrasky described the EP as music, “…that strays somewhat from our rock roots. It’s a starker, simpler, sweeter approach.”

Dubbed Shoulder To Cry On, the six-song platter finds three-fourths of the Rave-Ups playing on “Big Wide River,” which, Podrasky says makes it, “the closest thing to a new Rave-Up release as one can get.”