TELE NOVELLA - Lockhart, TX

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It all began with a bath. As Tele Novella’s Natalie Ribbons ran the water and listened to a guided meditation, she never anticipated arriving on the other side with an idea for an album, Poet’s Tooth. “I ended up sitting in that bath and going on quite a visualization journey,” says Ribbons, who resides in Lockhart, Texas, and performs in Tele Novella with Jason Chronis. “The images and feelings that came over me that night made me feel like I had a power that I had been ignoring and taking for granted for years. It was sad and happy at the same time,” Ribbons continues. 

As Tele Novella, Chronis (who performs in the beloved and rekindled indie pop band Voxtrot) and Ribbons (who previously performed in the long-running “Victorian punk” project Agent Ribbons) have spent their past two albums creating "Medieval outsider country" on 2016’s House Of Souls and 2021’s Merlynn Belle. Poet’s Tooth – the band’s second album for Kill Rock Stars – steers the duo’s whimsical western-tinted quality into fascinating new directions: cinematic-pop balladry on the autoharp-tinged opener “Young & Free,” gently clip-clopping Americana-folk on “Hard-Hearted Way,” and bass-driven funk on the wry “Eggs In One Basket.” With help from producer Danny Reisch, Tele Novella have crafted their most genre-rich, poetic, and sincere album yet.

1. Young & Free
2. Hard-Hearted Way
3. Broomhorse
4. Eggs in one Basket
5. Vampire Cowgirl

6. The Unicorn
7. Rodeo Clown
8. Changeless Kingdom
9. Poet's Tooth
10. Funeral

Cat. No. KRS705
Release date: October 6, 2023

 A heartfelt band from Small Town, Texas, with a penchant for pop melodies and medieval harmonies, Tele Novella write songs the old-fashioned way and perform them in a minimal style filled with delicate arrangements. Influences include Connie Converse, Lee Hazlewood, Pentangle, Marty Robbins, The Magnetic Fields, and PRAM.

Merlyn Belle is a homespun creative bricolage that pulls from influences as diverse as cowboy troubadours and folk baroque to tell stories that are at once cinematic and deeply personal. Painstakingly assembled using a blend of hi-fi and lo-fi recording gear, Tele Novella have crafted a cohesive pop record that feels equal parts mysterious, evocative, and sincere.


1. Words That Stay
2. It Won't Be Long
3. Never
4. Wishing Shrine
5. One Little Pearl

6. Paper Crown
7. A Lot To Want
8. Crystal Witch
9. Desiree
10. Technicolor Town

Cat. No. KRS673
Release date: February 5, 2021