Oct 207 min read

Eddie 9V releases official lyric video for new single "Halo"

TAKEN FROM THE NEW ALBUM "SARATOGA" RELEASED FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2024 PRE-ORDER ALBUM

Atlanta-based American guitarist Eddie 9V is pleased to announce the release of the official lyric video for their latest single "Halo".

The single is also available on all streaming platforms HERE.

"Halo" is the second single taken from Eddie 9V's forthcoming album Saratoga released by Ruf Records on Friday 22nd November 2024. The album is available to pre-order HERE.

The new album dovetails Eddie’s November and December UK Tour where he will support Robert Jon & The Wreck at Oxford, Academy 2 (Nov 30) and Nottingham, Rock City (Dec 1), followed by headline UK club shows Newcastle, Cluny 2 (Dec 2), Edinburgh, The Caves (Dec 3), London, The Black Heart (Dec 4), and Manchester, Retro Bar (Dec 5).

Tickets are available from www.alttickets.com/eddie-9v-tickets & www.eddie9volt.com/tour

Eddie 9V has an endless stockpile of cool stories – and you’ll find twelve of them on new studio album Saratoga. It’s a record that will thrill both newcomers and fans who have trailed Eddie since the start, showcasing his fresh, fiery spin on Southern soul, blues, rock and funk, with his signature wit and sharp observations of modern America placing him squarely in the here-and-now. “I do think it’s a wonderful road trip album,” he nods.

Eddie 9V has powered up. From the day he first slung a guitar on a local stage, the Georgia-born bandleader announced himself as an artist to watch. But in the last few meteoric years, Eddie’s music has crossed oceans and airwaves, transcending his cult-hero status to become a beacon for fans of real music everywhere. “Eddie 9V is something else,” wrote the UK’s Classic Rock Magazine – “A man who genuinely inhabits golden-era American roots, playing the most instinctive blues you’ll hear all year.”

Check out the gig listings and you’ll find this rising star playing a bigger club every time he blows through town. Scan the charts and you’ll find his most recent album, 2022’s Capricorn, locking horns with the giants of rock ‘n’ roll. “Capricorn debuted at #1 and that was a cool feeling for a week, until Bonnie Raitt kicked us off,” reflects Eddie with a smile. “But hey, that’s a cool story to be able to say…”

We’ve rode shotgun with Eddie for a couple of decades now. Born Brooks Mason in June 1996, he was playing guitar by the age of six (“One of those with the speaker in it – the most bang for your buck, y’know?”). Even then, manufactured pop music held nothing for him, and his years at Union Grove High School were instead soundtracked by local heroes like Sean Costello, alongside his studies of “older cats” like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King and Rory Gallagher.

“I wanted to see what made them groove and tick,” he explains. “I’ve been making up lyrics on the spot for years. I believe that came from my Uncle Brian at our family fish fries – he taught me about what made people laugh and what kept the audience’s attention.”

Coming up on his home state’s live circuit – first with covers band The Smokin’ Frogs, then with highly rated blues-rockers The Georgia Flood – Mason soon turned heads, even representing the Atlanta Blues Society at the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. But his true birth as an artist came when he buried his birth name and adopted that striking solo moniker. “A lot of people wanted me to be the Brooks Mason Blues Band, but that’s been done,” he reasons. “I wanted to start from scratch – and I ain’t never heard of no bluesman named Eddie 9V.”

From the start, Eddie’s output pricked up ears, with 2019’s “Left My Soul In Memphis” dubbed “fresh and life-affirming” by Rock and Blues Muse and the chaotic free-for-all of 2021’s “Little Black Flies” praised by Classic Rock Magazine as “like having all your best mates in the speakers”. In 2023, he got his best reviews yet for Capricorn, a record tracked at the near-mythical Macon studio of the same name, that led Classic Rock’s Henry Yates to declare: “As an artist, he sounds fully charged."

But the great artists evolve, and in both its songcraft and execution, Saratoga finds Eddie painting with more colours from his palette. “I was shooting for a more Americana-type album this time, less blues songs and solos and more focusing on the songwriting,” he explains of the eleven originals co-written with his brother, the much-respected Southern musician, Lane Kelly. Unlike the anarchy of earlier albums, meanwhile, the sessions mostly saw the multi-instrumentalist siblings hunkered down at their own Echo Deco Studio in Atlanta, self-producing the new tracks with Patrick Meese and inviting guest players to supply horns, fiddle and lap steel.

“It was definitely more me and my brother in our home studio recording everything. There’s a lot of guests, for sure, but it was mainly overdubbing. We did the songs “Saratoga,” “Delta,” and “Halo” at Crown Lanes Studio in Denver, Colorado, and it was nice to take a break, walk outside, see the mountains, feel the fresh air. At our studio, it’s just muggy with mosquitoes. But sometimes it’s good to not have distractions.”

Likewise, the new songs of Saratoga deserve nothing less than your full attention. Eddie’s latest album announces his new groove with the crisp, purposeful beats of the opening title track, an instant favourite that gets under your skin with its almost disco-style harmonies and joust of horns and slide guitar. As Eddie says: “That song is about being in a lonely tiny town that feels impossible to escape.”

“Halo” struts from the speakers on Eddie’s falsetto howl, before the lush yearning of “Cry Like A River” and “Love Moves So Slow” (co-written by Spencer Pope) brings vintage soul into the modern age. The brittle riffs and spacey vocal of Delta mark another gearshift, flowing into "Red River’s" reflective-yet-kinetic groove. “Wasp Weather” speaks to Eddie’s love of rapid-fire streams of consciousness. “That’s my favourite lyrically ’cos I like spewing words that don’t make sense into songs. ‘I got a big mud house that I can’t keep clean, it’s useless’ – I love that line.”

The album plays out in style with the trilling alt-folk of “Truckee.” “We got high and did shrooms and camped on the Truckee river in California,” he explains of the inspiration – the wistful “Tides” and “Love You All The Way Down.” Eddie even slips in a brass-blasting take on Mac DeMarco’s “Chamber Of Reflection,” before bringing the record home with “The Road To Nowhere’s” shuddering, tremolo-drenched country lament, his trademark twang utterly transformed into a vintage croon.

Eddie 9V is right: this latest album takes us all over the musical and emotional map, while announcing that his recent career peaks are just the start. “Capricorn was a big jump for us,” he reflects. “But I’m already writing new songs, y’know?”

Album Track Listing

1. Saratoga (3:34)

2. Halo (3:03)

3. Love Moves Slow (3:29)

4. Tides (3:13)

5. Cry Like The River (3:20)

6. Red River (3:04)

7. Delta (4:10)

8. Wasp Weather (2:26)

9. Truckee (3:01)

10. Love You All The Way Down (5:39)

11. Chamber Of Reflection (3:08)

12. The Road To Nowhere (3:12)

Saratoga

Eddie 9V - guitar and vocals

Lane Kelly - bass

Chad Mason - keys

Spencer Pope - keys

Seef Anam - drums

Noah Sills - alto sax

Andy Wild from The Night Sweats - baritone sax

Ethan Fogus - pedal steel

Halo

Eddie 9V - guitar and vocals

Kevin Scott - bass

Chad Mason - keys

Spencer Pope - keys

Seef Anam - drums

Noah Sills - alto sax

Scott Box - saxophone

Danny Wytanis - trombone

Leah Belle Faser - background vocals

Chelsea Shag - background vocals

Dustin McCook - lead guitar

Love Moves Slow

Eddie 9V - vocals, guitar, drums, and bass

Spencer Pope - keys

Leah Bella Faser - background vocals

Tides

Eddie 9V - guitar, vocals, and bass

Lane Kelly - Wurlitzer and organ

Cody Matlock - lead guitar

David Green - drums

Cry Like A River

Eddie 9V - vocals and drums

Lane Kelly - bass

Spencer Pope - keys

Noah Sills - horns

Dusty Mccook - guitar

Leah Belle Faser - background vocals

Red River

Eddie 9V - vocals, bass, drums, guitars, and percussion

Spencer Pope - Wurlitzer and organ

Delta

Eddie 9V - guitar, vocals, and drums

Lane Kelly - bass

Chad Mason - keys

Spencer Pope - keys

Noah Sills alto - sax

Andy Wild from The Night Sweats - baritone sax

Wasp Weather

Eddie 9V - vocals, guitar, drums, and bass

Chad Mason - piano

Sam Baumel - fiddle

Leah Belle Faser - background vocals

Truckee

Eddie 9V - guitar, vocals, and percussion

Lane Kelly - bass

Rhett Huffman - piano and organ

Dusty McCook - slide guitar

Love You All The Way Down

Eddie 9V - acoustic guitar and vocals

Lane Kelly - bass

Chad Mason - Wurlitzer

Spencer Pope - organ

David Green - drums

Cody Matlock - electric guitar and background vocals

Scott Box - horns

Ian Newberry - pedal steel

Chamber Of Reflection

Eddie 9V - guitar, bass, vocals, and drums

Spencer Pope - Fender Rhodes

Noah Sills - horns

The Road To Nowhere

Eddie 9V - vocals, drums, bass, and guitar

Lane Kelly - combo organ

Production Credits

Recorded at Echo Deco Studio in Atlanta, Georgia (Jan 23 - July 24, 2022) and Crown Lanes Studio in Denver, Colorado (November 2022)

Produced by Lane Kelly, Eddie 9V and Patrick Meese

Engineered by Mark Anderson and Lane Kelly, except “Love You All The Way Down” (produced, recorded and engineered by Damon Moon at StandardElectric Recorders in Scottdale, Georgia, May 2024)

Executive Producer: Thomas Ruf

Mixing by Lane Kelly at Echo Deco Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, except “Halo” and “Saratoga” (by Gerardo Ordonez at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas)

Mastered by Pauler Acoustics

Cover design by Lane Kelly

EDDIE 9V

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2024 UK TOUR

TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM

ALTTICKETS.COM & EDDIE9VOLT.COM

*Special guest of Robert Jon & The Wreck

*OXFORD, ACADEMY 2

SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2024

190 Cowley Rd, Oxford, OX4 1UE