CALIFORNIAN blues tornado Seasick Steve is keeping busy in lockdown as he builds anticipation for the July 24 release of his tenth studio album, Love & Peace.
“Since we all locked up, I was thinking about music,” says the 69-year-old singer, songwriter and builder of customised scrap guitars.
“I was supposed to be going on tour, but now I can’t do it. For me, music is all about y’all … it’s about playing for people. I surely miss you all and wish I could be out there playing for you.”
Instead, Seasick has taken to plugging in and blasting out his veteran boogie blues from his kitchen live on Facebook every Sunday night.
What’s more, he has released the homemade Live To An Empty Room concert video, available to watch at youtube.com/watch?v=5k3_-Iu0iGg&feature=youtu.be.
Seasick Steve’s blend of DIY inventiveness and dogged determination is present too in the video for his new album taster, Clock Is Running. Setting Seasick’s raw riffage to Dan Magnusson’s rollicking rhythms, the song’s message chimes with our lockdown times as he looks forward once more to hitting the road and seeing the world, while urging you to take a chance while you still can.
The video plays on that concept of making the most of things, in Seasick’s case when faced with trying to make a compelling visual in lockdown. Seasick – real name Steven Gene Wold – filmed himself jamming the song on the porch and sent the footage to New Beach to work their magic in creating an imaginative animated video.
It surely will be the only time he will be seen playing an imaginary guitar, as you can witness at youtube.com/watch?v=H9G2JSuvPIU&feature=youtu.be
Both Clock Is Running and the title track are available as instant downloads for those who pre-order the album from Seasick’s official store at seasicksteve.tmstor.es/, as well as on all streaming platforms.
Seasick, who played a sold-out show at York Barbican in April 2015, has written an album full of hope for the future, against the tide of these troubled times, combining boogie, blues, rock, Americana and folk.
The track listing will be: Love And Peace; Regular Man; I Will Do For You; Clock Is Running; Carni Days; Church Of Me; Toes In The Mud; My Woman; Ain’t Nothin’ Like The Boogie; Travelling Man; Ready Or Not and Mercy.
Released on the Contagious label, Love & Peace’s various formats will include a heavyweight clear vinyl, packaged with a signed print of the cover.