Best of What’s New

As another busy week that left little opportunity for blogging is drawing to a close, the time has come again to take a look at newly released music. The selections in this latest Best of What’s New installment all fall into the pop rock and blues areas. Artists include a rock band from England teaming up with a U.S. rock singer-songwriter, two blues artists from down under, a gothic blues singer-songwriter from Nashville and Sheryl Crow with her latest single.

The Struts with Albert Hammond Jr./Another Hit of Showmanship

The Struts are a British rock band from Derby, England, which was founded in 2012. According to their website, In just a few years, The Struts have found themselves massively embraced by some of the greatest icons in rock-and-roll history. Along with opening for The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Guns N’ Roses, the U.K.-bred four-piece was hand-picked by Mötley Crüe to serve as the supporting act for their last-ever performances, while Dave Grohl praised them as the best band to ever open for Foo Fighters. To date, The Struts have released two full-fledged studio albums, 3 EPs and numerous singles. For their latest single Another Hit of Showmanship, which appeared today, they teamed up with singer-songwriter Albert Hammond Jr., who is best known as guitarist in American rock band The Strokes. “‘Another Hit of Showmanship’ reminds me of being at a club night called Ramshackle years ago at the O2 Academy in Bristol, where they’d play bands like the Libertines and Razorlight and Scissor Sisters, and of course the Strokes,” Struts vocalist Luke Spiller stated, as reported by Rolling Stone. “I hit up Albert out of the blue and told him, ‘We’ve got this song, and I’m so excited to see what you would do with it.’ As soon as he got his hands on it, he took it to a whole different level — it really just shows why he’s so brilliant at what he does.” It’s quite a catchy tune!

Josh Teskey & Ash Grunwald/Thinking ‘Bout Myself

Vocalist and guitarist Josh Teskey is a co-founding member of The Teskey Brothers, an Australian blues rock band formed in 2008. Ash Grunwald is a blues musician who hails from down under as well and has been active for 20 years. What do you get when you combine the two? Josh Teskey and Ash Grunwald, and an album, Push the Blues Away, scheduled for November 13. NME reported Thinking ‘Bout Myself is the first single released August 24. The two artists have worked together before. In 2019, they recorded a single, Ain’t My Problem, and while filming a clip for the song ended up jamming. “Somebody filmed our little jam,” Grunwald stated. “And it became the seed of a great idea: Why don’t we do an acoustic blues album? No bells and whistles, something from the heart.” All except two of the eight tracks were written either by Teskey or Grunwald. Well, based on this single, it certainly sounds promising.

Adia Victoria/South Gotta Change

Adia Victoria is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter, who according to Wikipedia is known for her “gothic blues” musical style. After a friend had given Victoria a guitar for her 21st birthday, she got into blues music. In 2010, she moved to Nashville and began performing locally. Her debut single Stuck in the South appeared in early 2015. Rolling Stone included her in a 10 New Artists You Need to Know feature, calling the tune a “swampy, bluesy track that put Adia Victoria on the map.” Her debut studio album Beyond the Bloodhounds came out in May 2016, followed by her sophomore release Silences from February 2019. South Gotta Change is Victoria’s new single released today and produced by none other than veteran T-Bone Burnett. Victoria’s compelling vocals and a great sound make this tune a real gem. Check out the official video.

Cheryl Crow/In The End

Threads may have been Cheryl Crow‘s final full-fledged album, as she stated when it came out a year ago. I previously reviewed it here. Luckily, Crow also said she’s not retiring from touring or releasing new music. Going forward, she added, she wanted to focus on singles or perhaps EPs. Apparently, Crow is following through. After releasing a cover of Bill Withers’ Lonely Town, Lonely Street in April and the original Woman in the White House on August 10, Crow is out with another single today: In the End. An excerpt from the lyrics leaves no doubt what’s on her mind these days. There’s a fly on the wall in the house on the hill/Where the king of the world watches TV/And the people await for his latest mandate/To a nation of angry believers/His words are a trap while his loyal band of thugs/Cover up all his many transgressions/The fly lands on his ear and whispers, “What’s there to fear/As long as you’re still the obsession?/As long you’re still the obsession”… Co-written by Crow and her long-time collaborator Jeff Trott, the nice pop rocker is classic Sheryl Crow.

Sources: Wikipedia; The Struts website; Rolling Stone; NME; YouTube

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