ZZ Wards new album Liberation
ZZ Ward has always been one of my favorite female blues singers. Ever since I saw her live in LA I have appreciated her combination of style, power, and a classical blues voice. Her new album Liberation has all of that and more. (The “liberation” referred to in the title is her freedom from labels pushing her into pop and her new home at Sun Records where she does the blues the way she wants to).
“Years ago somebody said to me, ‘you know what you want to do with your music, yet you always look to men to give you the okay,’” ZZ recalls. “This song, and this album, came from this feeling of not being that little girl asking for permission to do the music that’s in my heart.”
Released on Sun Records is both a return to ZZ’s roots and of self-discovery as a mother. “I didn’t plan to make a blues album about motherhood, it just sort of happened naturally,” ZZ said. “I’ve always written to get through things in life. Suddenly, I was faced with a new job that’s 24/7 with no breaks, and that’s what I wrote about. But when you get tested, you discover who you are, and this album comes from a feeling of empowerment.”
She was empowered to write 14 songs that move across gritty Chicago blues, foot-stomping Delta blues, garage rock, and vintage soul, both in original material and reimagined blues classics, done as only she can do them. Her ability to bring the classic past into the rootsy rock present while anathemizing what it means to be a woman and a mother is truly remarkable.
The 14 tracks on this album range from the raw blues of “Love Alive,” and the gritty, Creedence Clearwater Revival-inspired track “Naked in the Jungle,” that captures the chaos and exhaustion of new motherhood to the iconic “Mother” .
The title track, “Liberation”, is classic soul-drenched original blues ballad the recalls the emotional depth of Etta James and Nina Simone. But she reaches farther back with her take on the Robert Johnson classic, “Dust My Broom” (”I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”) with a screaming guitar, pounding drums, and her urgent, urgent vocals. “Sinners prayer” is a classic gut-grabbing lord-have-mercy-on-me song, bringing back the nostalgia of past times of the blues while the guitar riffs are right off the stages in Hollywood. The down and dirty low-end guitar throughline in “Grinnin’ in Your Face” and the harmonica riffs just snatch you up and make you ache with the pain of the blues. And then she throws you into the fast lane with Tommy Minga’s frenetic “Cadillac Man”. Whew!
In My favorite is “Lioness” with sophisticated arrangements, down to earth lyrics, and an earworm chorus. This is the mature, ready to fight for her cubs, no holds barred, out there blueswoman that you either love, or get out of her way. .
She ends the album with the hard-rocking “Next to You” powered by sophisticated drumming, harmonica accents, and of course her voice that just spears your heart and your ears.
ZZ Ward is part of the vanguard of female musicians pushing the blues into the 21st Century. She stands with the likes of Sue Foley , Samantha Fish, Ana Popovic, and Vanessa Collier in making the blues alive, relevant, and an absolute blow your mind joy to listen to. If you are a blues lover, like I am, this is a must have album.
Patrick O’Heffernan
Liberation can be streamed on all major platforms or at https://www.facebook.com/ZZWard/
Photo. ZZ Ward at the Grammy Museum
