New Blues Revolution releases their long-awaited new album To Hellendale And Back, supporting the occasion with a Southern California-based CD Release Tour.

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Joseph Timmons in Other News // 0 Comments

Sometimes the album writes you. Like a Haiku. As a body of work, the CD concept began – or better said, these songs wrote themselves while the New Blues Revolution band was on tour. A personal voyage intertwining personal experience and that of family members – like ancient biblical characters sent to the desert to roam for years – to exile in Helendale. So nice it was named twice, Helendale or “Silverlakes” is a seeming mirage, but is in actuality a modern oasis in the Mojave Desert; man-made halfway between Victorville and Barstow in the Mojave Desert along the Mojave River. The Mojave River is usually bone-dry on the surface. But still waters run deep in the High Desert of California. The trip is the destination. Originally, the body of work had working titles of “Blue on Black”, then “Exile in Mojave” and finally, the current title was suggested because of the shared experience of our family graphic designer, who herself had been unwittingly trapped in Helendale many years earlier (and later we all made that trip – the band AND our loved ones to Helendale and back).

Of course, so as to beg the question, the name of the city in the CD was changed to “Hellendale”. There’s a kernel of truth in every good joke. Sent on a mission; was it spiritual, or more like the KGB? Was there really international mystery like the many Mata Hari’s, Tokyo Rose’s and archetypes we’ve seen, read or dreamt about? Once launched on this mission, this vision quest, this forced march, was it an existential quest: a search for meaning or love – to reflect and meditate on what really matters? Or was it merely daily bread? Or maybe it is Bourbon. The journey begins like a newborn heartbeat, peaks and then the denouement is left to each listener. Many of songs have desert references or motifs – that was the unifying experience – and metaphor. Grand themes: Life, loss, Love and Death, Work, Whiskey, Some playful and some deadly serious. The band cries out “I’m Stuck”. There’s an existential “end” at the beginning. There’s smooth and there’s jarring, Slings and arrows, Outrageous fortune. And then the sun sets over the desert as we ride back to town, civilization, our families and love; back before we ever left. Or was it a dream?

New Blues Revolution is a blues-inspired journey through the form of Robert Johnson meets Quentin Tarantino via Pink Floyd. NBR’s latest CD is the result of yet another stop on the road to create the music they want us all to hear. Each song/story tries to inspire a hypnotic state via strong grooves and a variety of emotion, from dark revelation to fun intrigue then romantic reflection. The first two songs “Souls on Fire” and “Whiskey Town” deal with internal demons and the struggle to survive or surrender — both dark with strong grooves and poetically powerful. “Baby Blue” is a “beach blanket” surf-style tune about every man’s unforgettable “Lolita” experience. “Black Widow” international intrigue, 60’s secret agent style — it’s fun, rocks hard and really grooves. “Sunset Psycho Twang” is the quiet before transcending to a higher place if only for a moment. NBR Motto: We hit hard, dance bravely and paint our music bold. That’s what we do.