Los Angeles-based songwriter Gold Star aka Marlon Rabenreither follows up his video for “Sonny’s Blues” with a brand new single “It Ain’t Easy” which debuts today. Both singles will appear on his forthcoming album Big Blue.

The foundation of “It Ain’t Easy” was recorded in 2 takes, live in a living room in East Hollywood and was produced by Marlon Rabenreither. The track features Carlos Laszlo on drums and Jeff McElroy on bass, additional overdubs consisted of Hammond organ played by Brady Leffler and background vocals by songwriter Lael Neale.

“Aspects of the song were written reflecting on my friendship with the painter and founder of The Underground Museum, Noah Davis, who died in 2015. He always worked at a frenzied pace and was constantly moving, he tried to teach me not to take things for granted. I don’t know if I would still be doing what I’m doing now if I had not met him, but I don’t think this record could have been created without him.” – Gold Star

Gold Star will perform on February 27th at The Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles and at SXSW in March.

About Gold Star:

Gold Star’s Marlon Rabenreither grew up in L.A. with a native son’s sense of what’s real and true and a childhood fascination with the Beatles, teaching himself to write and play a special kind of stark guitar-noir Americana that soon got him opening for Ryan Bingham and an admiring Lucinda Williams. On his new Autumn Tone release Big Blue-named after the ramshackle Hollywood home where he produced and recorded the album-he shines and redefines the sound of his self-titled 2013 EP and his 2015 full-length Dark Days to reveal an autobiographical work as influenced by writers like Fante, Baldwin and Chandler as it is Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Wilco or Elliott Smith.

Gold Star
Big Blue
(March 24, Autumn Tone)

1. Come With Me
2. Sonny’s Blues
3. Blue Moon
4. It Ain’t Easy
5. Blue Sky To Blue Sky
6. San Francisco Good Times
7. St. Vincent De Paul’s
8. When You’re Here
9. Analisa Knows
10. Deptford High St.
11. If Ever You’re Lonesome
12. Be Here Now
13. The Strangler

Tour Dates:

2/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bootleg Theater
3/15 – SXSW
3/16 – SXSW
3/17 – SXSW
3/18 – SXSW