Stony Plain
Records Signs Acclaimed Singer/Guitarist Colin Linden & Will Release His
Latest CD, Rich in Love, on September 25
Special Guests
Include Charlie Musselwhite, Reese Wynans, Amy Helm and Tim Lauer
EDMONTON, AB – Stony Plain Records announces the signing of
acclaimed eight-time Juno Award-winning singer/guitarist Colin Linden and the
September 25 release date for his latest CD,
Rich in Love. The
new CD marks a return to the same label that released Colin’s first studio
album,
The Immortals, in 1986, and also represents his first new
studio recording since
From the Water in 2009. Colin Linden’s
last album was a live recording released in 2011. To stream an exclusive
preview of the song, “No More Cheap Wine,” click here:
http://bit.ly/nomorecheapwine
Sporting a beautiful cover designed by Jim Sherraden of
Nashville’s famed Hatch Show Print, Rich in Love was produced,
recorded and performed by Colin Linden (guitars, vocals, ukuleles and
mandolins) and his band, affectionately known as The Rotting Matadors: John
Dymond on bass and Gary Craig on drums. Special guests include multiple Blues
Music Award-winner and six-time Grammy nominee Charlie Musselwhite on
harmonica, legendary keyboardist Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan), Amy Helm
(Levon Helm, Ollabelle) on harmony vocals and organist Tim Lauer (Rodney
Crowell, Keb’ Mo’, Allison Moorer, Lady Antebellum).
Linden, a long-time Nashville resident, and the two members
of his band have been playing together for over 25 years, and it shows on Rich
in Love, which sparkles with their seamless musicianship and collective
talents. Colin Linden’s singing is fresh, emotional and engaging. The songs
transport the listener through lustful encounters, remorse-laden retrospectives
and forlorn longing, while the music takes influences from blues, country rock
and roots. And then there is the playing, where every guitar pluck, bass note,
subtle drum sweep or organ solo from this consummate musician and his band adds
to the stories. It is a truly captivating package, a polished roots diamond, a
treasure to reflect on and restore the soul.
The 12
all-original songs on
Rich
in Love were written by Linden, solo or in tandem with other writers
such as his wife, Janice Powers (a published novelist), band member John Dymond
and Grammy winners Gary Nicholson and Tom Hambridge.
About the songwriting process for the new CD, Linden says,
“I felt like so much has changed since my last studio album in 2009. It was as
if I was writing from a different place for these songs. At some point I even
began to suffer from insomnia, and several of the songs were composed literally
in the middle of the night, such as “Date with the Stars.’
“While the music on my new album covers a lot of influences,
I still think of myself as a blues player, whatever I’m doing.”
According to Linden, “Delia Come for Me,” one of the songs
from the new CD, had a particularly interesting genesis: “It was partially
inspired by the 2011 execution in Georgia of Troy Davis for murder, whose
subsequent investigation raised serious questions about his guilt; a case which
reminded me of the old traditional country blues ballad, ‘Delia.’”
Rich in Love comes at a time when Colin Linden
is a very much in-demand musician, having played on Gregg Allman’s
Grammy-nominated Low Country Blues, as well as on Grammy-winner
Rhiannon Giddens’ most-recent album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, and
Diana Krall’s 2012 CD, Glad Rag Doll. In 2013, Linden was tabbed
by Bob Dylan to play guitar in the music icon’s band for his summer tour.
Recently, he was the featured guitar player on the PBS-TV special saluting
gospel music, “In Performance at the White House,” backing such luminaries as
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, Shirley Caesar and the
aforementioned Rhiannon Giddens. In recent years, he’s also played on the
soundtracks for a number of feature films, including Inside Llewyn Davis,
The Hunger Games, R.I.P.D. and the acclaimed
documentary, A Place at the Table. And on August
29, he’ll be the music director for the special tribute to legendary Sun
Records founder Sam Phillips scheduled at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The catalyst for all of these performances has been the
celebrated producer extraordinaire T Bone Burnett, who has created some of the
most lauded music performed on record, television and film over the last 15
years. It was Burnett who originally selected Colin Linden to work on the first
season of the hit ABC-TV series, “Nashville.” Over the past three years, he’s
been working in that same role with his close friend and the show’s executive
music producer, Buddy Miller, as “Nashville” enters its fourth season of
production. Officially credited as “Performance Consultant and Coach” on the
show, Linden plays on almost 75% of the music heard on the program and
supervises all of the music shoots that take place on the screen. He’s also been
the bandleader for both national tours that the “Nashville” cast has taken on
the road across the country.
One of Colin’s additional projects, the roots music trio
known as Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, released the highly acclaimed album, Kings
& Queens, in 2011 on the file Under Music label,
which teamed the band up with such guests as Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash,
Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Patti Scialfa and Holly Cole, among many
others. The resultant North American tour, which saw the boys joined on the
road by a few of the “Queens,” was hugely successful, showcasing the group in
front of large audiences in major music venues.
About Colin Linden
Born
in Toronto, Canada, and raised in White Plains, New York, Colin Linden returned
to Canada in 1970. He was already a guitar prodigy at 11 years old, and when
most kids that age are playing sports, Colin was meeting and being mentored by
one of his musical heroes, the great bluesman Howlin’ Wolf, which helped set
the youngster on a course to pursue the sounds of his dreams. That encounter
helped fuel a career that has featured his work on literally hundreds of
albums. At last count, the total of recordings on which he has played
approaches 400, while over 100 albums bear the “Produced by Colin Linden”
credit.
As a
testament to his roots music acumen and early devotion to the idiom, Colin - at
the tender age of 15 and accompanied by fellow Canadian musician Doc MacLean –
embarked on a summer blues odyssey of the USA, working down from the border and
hitting Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, Memphis and other points south in
the Mississippi Delta. Along the way, they met up with and performed on
numerous occasions with a “who’s-who” of blues legends, including Sippie
Wallace, Buddy Moss, Little Brother Montgomery, Sunnyland Slim, Tampa Red,
Henry Townsend, Robert Wilkins, Sleepy John Estes, Son House and Sam Chatmon.
Colin Linden is a genuine renaissance man of roots music.
He’s a singer and songwriter of great skill, an in-demand and prolific record
producer (Bruce Cockburn, Tom Wilson, Colin James), a sideman to the stars as
guitarist for the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant and
Alison Krauss, and, for the past decade-plus, a member of the highly successful
trio, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.
Colin’s
songs have been covered by The Band, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Keb’ Mo’, and
Colin James, and his well-stocked trophy case includes eight Juno Awards (the
Canadian Grammy), multiple Maple Blues Awards, and a Toronto Arts Award.
He was nominated for a Grammy Award for the star-studded A Tribute to Howlin’ Wolf CD, and was nominated in 2002 for Lucinda Williams’ track on the Timeless
(Hank Williams tribute) album, which won for Country Album of The Year. That
same year his involvement in the O Brother, Where Art Thou project
was rewarded, as “O Brother” won for Best Album and the Down From The
Mountain soundtrack won for Folk Album of The Year (Linden and
Chris Thomas King had a song credited together on that one). Linden has a well-deserved reputation as a slide guitar
virtuoso of true originality and his riveting slide work can be heard both on
albums from numerous artists as well as on his own sizeable solo catalogue.
His
last studio album, From the Water, was viewed as an homage of sorts to his long-time musical collaborator
and closest friend, legendary keyboardist Richard Bell, who passed away in
2007. Bell’s accomplishments included being a member of Janis Joplin’s Full
Tilt Boogie Band. Linden and Bell played on over 100 albums together (more than
40 of them Linden productions), including records by The Band, Bruce Cockburn,
Lucinda Williams, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Colin James.
