Grammy-nominated rising star blues/soul singer Candice Ivory, who’s been wowing audiences around the world with her dynamic approach to the blues music genre, brings that force to bear on her latest album, New Southern Vintage. Dubbed “The Queen of Avant Soul,” Ivory’s latest is set for release by Nola Blue Records on September 12th, with distribution by MVD Distribution.
Preorders will begin on August 8 with the release of “Catfish Blues,” the album’s first single. The full album will be released on all digital platforms on August 29.
“Today, blues is a global music, known and cherished by people all over the world,” writes Candice Ivory in the album’s liner notes. “But its roots are in the American South – in places like Memphis and Mississippi, where I first met the blues, and in nearby outposts like St. Louis, where I now live. New Southern Vintage pays homage to this iconic Southern folk form as well as the heroines and heroes who created it, including my greatest inspirations: blueswoman Memphis Minnie (“World of Trouble,” “Shout the Boogie”) and my own great-uncle Will Roy Sanders (“I’m in Trouble”), who fronted the Fieldstones, the best Memphis blues band of the 1970s and 1980s. The album also features several living legends, from Jimmy “Duck” Holmes (caretaker of the Bentonia, Mississippi school of blues guitar) to folk-blues eminences grises David Evans and Andrew Cohen. And because blues is an ancient-to-the-future music – vintage and new – I invited a number of brilliant younger artists to join me on New Southern Vintage. My longtime collaborator Robert Allen Parker, Public Enemy’s Khari Wynn, and the other members of my Memphis-based band the Blue Bloods appear on several tracks, as do Ben Levin, Damian “Yella P” Pearson, and Chris Stephenson. There are also some special international guests – Jan Hartmann, Antonio Vergara, Takuto Asano, and Yubu Kazungu – who hail from around the globe and nonetheless fit right into the Southern sounds of New Southern Vintage, showing that no matter how far we travel down the blues highway, we can always go back home to the land where the blues began.”
“Musically, visually and intellectually, Candice Ivory wields a trifecta of creativity that is powerfully unique and broad. From the ‘blue blood in her veins’ to the primal, hypnotic ‘Catfish Blues’ and all points in between, she has woven a magnificently textured musical expression of the rich roots of the South,” says Sallie Bengtson, Nola Blue Records president. “After many discussions over the past year about the ‘new southern vintage’ concept and its fresh perspective on Black Culture in the American South, it echoed in familiarity for me as I experienced the new box office hit, Sinners. Performed by a world class, multi-generational group of musicians, the music of New Southern Vintage stands solidly unique and powerfully poised to become a comparable major hit in the music world.”
Ivory’s last album, When the Levee Breaks: The Music of Memphis Minnie, drew universal acclaim in its reviews, such as from Bill Bentley, who wrote in Americana Highways, “Because Candice Ivory takes these songs so deep into her vast spirit that in many ways they become her own… [Her] voice comes from another place, one where time doesn’t exist and the overwhelming depth of her singing feels like it has been here forever. This is a woman who has arrived to tell her truth, and there will be no debating that it belongs here now.”
Candice Ivory’s bold style is also being honored by the Jus’ Blues Foundation in July with the Millie Jackson Classy & Sassy Award.
Sums up Candice Ivory, “To those who go on this blues journey with me, I thank you. I also thank everyone who participated in the making of the album. For me, New Southern Vintage is not just music – it’s a way of life, and I gratefully acknowledge all my fans who allow me to share this music-life with them.”