Stright From The Heart

Regular: £34.99

Sale
Regular: £34.99

Unavailable

Unit Price: per

Cat No: RUF2083

Format Details:

Release Date: 25 November 2022

Label: Ruf Records

Packaging Type: Slip Sleeve (CD or Vinyl)

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 710347208310

Genres: Blues Blues

Description
Down in Louisiana, they do things differently. The Southern stateâ€™s musical giants have always had their own distinct recipe for American roots: spiced with jazz, steeped in swamp-blues and cooked up a little differently by every artist who performs it.
As a second-generation child of the Bayou State, Kenny Neal has taken his own inimitable guitar, gale-force harp and roadworn voice all over the globe. But in 2022, the Grammy-nominated blues masterâ€™s latest album, Straight From The Heart, finds him drawn by the siren call of his hometown and musical ground zero, Baton Rouge.
â€œThis is the first album Iâ€™ve ever recorded on my own turf, and it truly came straight from the heart,â€� says Neal, who both led and produced a crack team of local musicians at his own Brookstown Recording Studios. â€œAll the tributaries of the blues converge here, flowing into one rich tradition.â€�
Youâ€™ll hear all of Nealâ€™s travels in Straight From The Heart, but this latest album brings it all back home in every sense. Lining up in the studio alongside his Baton Rouge compadrÃ©s, the respect that Neal commands on the scene also drew some special guests, including hot-tip blues sensation Christone â€˜Kingfishâ€™ Ingram (who co-writes and plays stinger guitar on Mount Up On The Wings Of The King), pop royalty Tito Jackson (on Two Timing) and two songs with Rockinâ€™ Dopsie Junior & The Zydeco Twisters. Youâ€™ll even hear Nealâ€™s supremely talented daughter Syreeta drive the vocal outro of Two Timing.
â€œIt was like a family reunion,â€� says Neal of the good-natured sessions. â€œIt was excellent because I had all the musicians that grew up under me here in Baton Rouge. And just being in my own studio, not worrying about the clock.â€�
Straight From The Heart is a fitting title for a record that salutes the many loves of Nealâ€™s life. Thereâ€™s the brass-driven opener Blues Keep Chasing Me, which tips a hat to his recently departed friend, Lucky Peterson. Thereâ€™s the touching piano-led Someone Somewhere, which salutes his beloved father, harp master Raful Neal, who put him on this path. Elsewhere, Nealâ€™s deep love for every side of his home state is underlined by the zydeco chop of Bon Temps Rouler and New Orleans, whose lyrics reference everything from â€œsippinâ€™ on Hurricaneâ€� to â€œsittinâ€™ on the Bayou catching catfishâ€�.
Faced with such an open-hearted record, itâ€™s impossible not to reciprocate. And as the world opens up and Kenny Neal embraces his natural habitat of the road, this Louisiana icon will bring a little bit of that Baton Rouge spirit onto every stage he treads. â€œIt don't cost nothing to share a little love and a little respect,â€� he says. â€œAnd we can all rise aboveâ€¦â€�
Tracklisting