Alex Dupree, Daisy Dullboy, Dwight Smith

Alex Dupree got his musical start in Austin, Texas, and his voice still has some Heartworn Highways-era color to it. In the mid 00s, he founded the Trapdoor Band, an improvisatory folk group and vehicle for his lyric-driven songwriting, before switching to the Idyl moniker in 2009.

Dupree moved to California to focus on poetry, studying and teaching at UC Irvine, with songwriting never far from his mind. He continued to hone his craft writing country songs for both the LA band Mister Paradise and a duet project called Dawn & Dupree (with Iva Dawn of They/Live). Despite a deep love for country music, Dupree’s songs never quite settled in that category, absorbing additional influences from the likes of Laurie Anderson, Arthur Russell, Bjork, and John Cale.

The story of Thieves is the story of starting over. It’s a sturdy songwriter’s album with heady, heavy folk and country flourishes. Bill Callahan meets Willie Nelson. Or Harry Smith meets Barry Hannah. It’s about coming to terms with the uncanny patterns of your life, the strange repetitions you can’t escape.

The longed-for snow and the memory of snow,
they fall together.
I’m tumbling down St. Lawrence Way,
been coming here forever.