Josh Pearson. Lift To Experience. What else do you need? Just click, for heaven’s sake!

If you head over the newly-redesigned Bella Union website (which looks much nicer than before), than you might see this little-yet-epic headline — “The return of Lift to Experience mainman Josh Pearson”.

Why is this so epic? Well, then you’ve obviously never heard the saga of Lift To Experience, the greatest prophetic rock group to ever emerge from the land of Texas. They released one album — The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads — built up a devoted following, set venues on fire with their apocalyptic live shows, and then promptly disappeared. Questions inundated Bella Union and rumors began a-flowing, with folks like myself fearing we’d never hear from the band again.

Well, the clouds have begun to lift (npi) it seems. While it appears, sadly, that Lift To Experience is no more, Josh Pearson is playing a series of solo shows in the UK right now and is currently planning to release two albums. The first is a collection of covers dealing with the topic of “loneliness”. The second is his long-awaiting solo debut, which is composed of songs that he wrote after burning out while trying to write a proper follow-up to The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads.

Interestingly enough, while doing a search for reviews of Pearson’s latest concerts, I came across this review, in which Pearson claims that Lift To Experience is still alive and planning several albums. So the mystery continues…

All I know is that I just want to hear some new Pearson-penned songs, all drenched in apocalyptic imagery and full of tales of sin, redemption, heaven, hell, Gods, demons — all that stuff — as soon as possible. In the meantime, I might just pick up a Josh Pearson t-shirt to help spread the good word.

Thanks to Todd for the skinny.