IRA MARLOWE has strolled with his guitar between the tables of a HOWARD JOHNSON’S. He’s performed at a CIRCUMCISION. In between occasional tastes of GLORY—performances at the FILLMORE, SLIM’S, GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL, numerous songwriting awards—Marlowe has endured all that a life on the fringes of the music business can offer. After fifteen years, five smarmy managers and three failed record deals, you’d think he’d have the good sense to quit. Instead, he’s just released his best work ever. “SAVE THE DAY” is about fear, but also about faith. It’s a colorful parade of ghosts, gurus, posers, vampires, neurotics, robots, saviours and drunks. Most of all it’s a CD about the struggle to find humor and balance in an increasingly maddening and out-of-balance world. Shuttled from town to town while growing up with his anthropologist parents, Marlowe listened to everything from Gershwin to Bowie to Western Swing to West Side Story. At age 13 he sold enough greeting cards, door-to-door, to earn himself a “Folktune Wood Guitar”, and at 19 he began to write songs. In the years since, he’s developed a literate, narrative style often described as “cinematic”—drawing comparisons to Elvis Costello, Robyn Hitchcock, and Leonard Cohen.