Bluebilly Records is pleased to announce the
release of “California” the first single off writer turned country
artist, Kandia Crazy Horse’s forthcoming album Stampede (January 2014).
In a domain she has
often written about, award-winning rock author and journalist, Kandia
Crazy Horse has decided to dig in and release her own music. With a
captivating and resonating husky voice Kandia delivers “California” a
song Creative Loafing describes as “(A) slow-rolling tune featuring her
soulful vocals over a backdrop of acoustic and steel pedal guitar…we
look forward to hearing more.”
Kandia delves into her
inspiration for making the record: “It all began with Crosby, Stills
& Nash—my California Dreaming,” says Kandia Crazy Horse.
“Specifically, with those exhilarating, Latin-tinged harmonies of
“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes…which somehow beamed in from an alien world…and
Henry’s (Diltz) cover photograph for their debut Atlantic LP, which
mesmerized me even as a toddler; I still don’t know why. This was the
source of a lifelong love that eventually propelled me to write a paen
to CSN and that whole woodsy, urban country Laurel Canyon lore: my debut
single, ‘California’.”
“Although they were
quite different from the mostly southern soul music and latter-day
Motown I was raised on, Crosby, Stills & Nash struck me because they
could sing on par with the local DC luminaries Roberta Flack, Les
McCann, and Donny Hathaway that I loved,” says Kandia. “And they were on
Atlantic Records—The House that Ruth (Brown) Built, the label of my
father’s hometown hero Brother Ray Charles. Some folks’ heroes were
cowboys, but mine were always producers such as my honorary Papa, Jerry
Wexler. So Stephen Stills and his brethren were legitimized in a way
most ‘70’s rock was not; and his explorations of bluegrass and other
roots music both enhanced my familial background with country and led to
Stills’ earlier band, Buffalo Springfield, becoming my favorite and
artistic model.”
In some cosmic sweet
spot between Stills’ self-proclaimed “Cuban bluegrass” and the
Afrolachian-derived singing of her regional forebears, Flack, Marvin
Gaye and Bill Withers (whose debut Stills played on), young Kandia began
to craft a potent inner vision where Laurel Canyon’s “Take it Easy”
ethos and southeastern hardscrabble could co-exist. Featuring Kandia’s
fellow Stills-loving pedal steel ace Ben Peeler—the simply gorgeous and
sunlight-filled single “California” arrives to extend country and
western’s long-beloved narratives of the Golden State as America’s
ultimate Paradise.
“California” was
produced and mixed by longtime Shakira collaborator, Albert Menendez.
Kandia’s new endeavor as singer-songwriter has been heralded by Bold as
Love Magazine as a revelation: “…who knew she’s got such an engaging
voice, one that’s slightly raspy and that leans towards heartache?”
The Florida-based
Bluebilly Records brings to the forefront a new, extended voice in
urban-based country music and a forward-looking stable for independent
Americana artists emerging from the national scene and beyond.
Single "California" available on iTunes, Amazon & GooglePlay: https://itunes.apple.com/us/
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