Award-winning blues guitarist Sunjay is pleased to announce The Easy Blues – the second single taken from his forthcoming album Black & Blues Revisited.
The single, released Wednesday August 31st, is now available stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and Tidal from https://ditto.fm/the-easy-blues.
The forthcoming album Black & Blues Revisited, released by Mighty Tight Records on October 14th, is available to pre-order from www.sunjay.tv.
The Easy Blues music video can be streamed on YouTube via https://youtu.be/mQaQYcmNa2k.
The Easy Blues is adapted from a Jelly Roll Morton piano piece called Jelly Roll Blues,” says Sunjay. “We recorded it live in one take, at the end of a days’ recording. My producer suggested a lo-fi production, just three mics to capture the performance, the same way they recorded it 100 years ago.
I wanted to echo the sound and feel of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. This is the final track on the album. For me, it feels like the perfect way to end the album.
Black & Blues Revisited produced by Sunjay and Josh Clark at Get Real Studios in Bath, UK marks a significant passage of time in Sunjay’s life. “I’d just started recording the album when my mother suddenly and tragically died,” says Sunjay.
There was so much to deal with, the shock was huge, and it took me a long time to recover. Thankfully Josh enabled us to keep the momentum going as he continued to work on various things until I could record again. Music has always been my catharsis. I’m grateful that I’m now in a much better place both personally and musically.
My mother was born in Goa, India. She gave me my forename, Sunjay. Though always very proud of me, I think there were cultural expectations of me becoming a doctor or a lawyer. My father who (is British) taught me to play guitar initially, and I inherited his love of blues music.
Faced with these challenges I feel far closer to these songs now than I’d ever done before. Some of these songs, in fact most of them, I’ve been singing for years.
However, singing them now has a whole different meaning. In the Blues, references to death, the devil etc aren’t usually very far removed from real life.
Listening to Statesboro Blues and Living With The Blues, you can feel raw emotion. Sunjay’s voice sounds more edgy than it has on previous albums. There’s a willingness to sing straight from the heart, to let the listener hear him at his most vulnerable and somehow evoke feelings of, ‘hey, it’s ok, come and sit with me a while’. While on other tracks like Freight Train and Come Back Baby we hear more familiar warm sonorous vocals that we’ve become accustomed to hearing from Sunjay.
This is new territory for Sunjay, territory that’s unfamiliar to him as well as to the regular Sunjay listener. Have no fear though, it’s wonderful to hear the growth between albums.
“When I was younger, I always got told – you need to suffer to be able to sing the blues. Well, now I have.” says Sunjay, a wry smile that those accustomed to his live performances will be familiar with. He has a unique ability to craft equal parts sadness and humour into songs and stories alike. At 28 years old he seems to have the experience and wisdom of somebody much older. Though as he’s keen to point out, “That’s only because I’ve made so many mistakes.
The stellar band on the album comprises; drummer (and occasional bassist!) Josh Clarke (Kate Rusby), bassist Josh Jewsbury (Eve Selis), Bob Fridzema on keys (King King, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Walter Trout), and harmonica player Lee Southall (Voodoo Blue). Together the musicianship is impeccable, exquisitely
ALBUM TRACK LISTING & SONGWRITING CREDITS
- Built For Comfort (3:48)
Written by: Willie Dixon.
Published by: BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited - Statesboro Blues (3.59)
Written by: Blind Willie McTell.
Published by: Peermusic (UK) Ltd - Key To The Highway (3:44)
Written by: Big Bill Broonzy/Charlie Segar.
Published by: Universal/MCA Music Limited - Hesitation Blues (4:09)
Written by: Traditional/Sunjay Edward Brain.
Published by: MCPS/Copyright Control - Living With The Blues (4:21)
Written by: Brownie McGhee/Ruth McGhee.
Published by: Screen Gems-Emi Music Ltd. - Monday Morning Blues (4.51)
Written by: Mississippi John S Hurt.
Published by: EMI Music Publishing (WP) Ltd. - Come Back Baby (3:59)
Written by: Walter Davis.
Published by: Universal/MCA Music Limited - Big Fat Woman (3:28)
Written by: Huddie Ledbetter. Published by: DP Account - Freight Train (3:00)
Written by: Elizabeth Cotten/Paul James/Frederick Williams.
Published by: Kassner Associated Publishers Limited - Dust My Broom (3:47)
Written by: Robert Johnson/Sunjay Edward Brain.
Published by: MCPS/Copyright Control - The Easy Blues (3:14)
Written by: Jelly Roll Morton/Sunjay Edward Brain.
Published by: MCPS/Copyright Control
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recorded at: Get Real Studios, Bath, UK
Produced by: Sunjay and Josh Clark
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Josh Clark
Artwork: Alicia Raitt www.milkandbone.co.uk
Photography: Jane Jordan www.janejordanphotography.com
LINE-UP
Sunjay – Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Josh Clark – Drums and Bass
Bob Fridzema – Hammond Organ, Piano, Wurlitzer
Josh Jewsbury – Bass
Lee Southall – Harmonica
tasteful and perfectly stated.
Sunjay heads out on tour in late October after the album is released on Friday 14th October 2022.
