[Cover photo credit to Brad Ogbonna]
Minneapolis-based artist Chastity Brown is readying new album Sing To The Walls for release on June 17th, 2022. After surviving the isolation of the early pandemic and witnessing the global racial reckoning that manifested itself in the riots only blocks from her South Minneapolis home, she is surprised that the album has turned out to be “a love album” in an unplanned way. The single “Wonderment” has been released, giving us a sense of tone.
The album was started in Stockholm, Sweden with session drummer and producer Brady Blade, with the rest completed at Brown’s own home studio with her longtime drummer Greg Schutte. Additional production and mixing was done by Chris Bell in Austin, Texas.
During lockdown, she found that new songs “kept coming and coming”, nearly 100 songs since her 2017 album Silhouette Of Sirens, and the ten that have made their way onto Sing To The Walls are about “hope, connection, and love”.
Brown comments:
I think it’s an audacious response. Like how funk music came after Malcolm, Martin, and everybody got murdered in the ‘60s. Then the ‘70s popped off, and there was funk! This isn’t funk, but it’s rooted in that same kind of response. I just want to feel good. Straight up.
This album does not serve sorrow. And in that way, it’s my trying to emulate Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God—seeking personal spiritual fulfillment while rejecting expectations. What matters to me is my survival—and for my survival, it’s been necessary to try to embrace some joy.
TOUR DATES:
Supporting Valerie June ***
05/11/22 FERNDALE, MI The Magic Bag ***
05/13/22 CLEVELAND, OH Beachland Ballroom & Tavern ***
05/14/22 COLUMBUS, OH Athenaeum Theatre ***
05/15/22 INDIANAPOLIS, IN Hi-Fi ***
05/16/22 BLOOMINGTON, IL Castle Theatre ***
05/18/22 CHICAGO, IL Old Town School Of Folk Music ***
05/19/22 MILWAUKEE, WI Turner Hall Ballroom ***
05/20/22 MINNEAPOLIS, MN Pantages Theatre ***
05/21/22 IOWA CITY, IA Englert Theatre ***
06/03/22 EUSTON, UK Red Rooster 2022
06/06/22 LEAMINGTON SPA, UK Temperance
06/08/22 LONDON, UK Green Note presents The Water Rats
06/09/22 NOTTINGHAM, UK Cosmic American at The Running Horse
06/10/22 BRADFORD, UK Music In The Hall at St. Georges Hall
06/18/22 ARLINGTON, IL Hey Nonny
06/20/22 ANN ARBOR, MI The Ark
06/21/22 BUFFALO, NY The Ninth Ward
06/22/22 SYRACUSE, NY The 443 Social Club & Lounge
06/24/22 PHILADELPHIA, PA. Philadelphia Folksong Society
06/25/22 BOSTON, MA City Winery Haymarket Lounge
06/26/22 BROOKLYN, NY The Atlantic BKLN
Dates with Lilli Lewis **
06/28/22 RICHMOND, VA Tin Pan **
06/29/22 DURHAM, NC The Pinhook **
06/30/22 LA GRANGE, GA Pure Life **
07/01/22 DULUTH, GA Red Clay Music Foundry **
07/02/22 ATHENS, GA Hendershots **
07/03/22 NASHVILLE, TN City Winery Lounge**
07/05/22 DES MOINES, IA xBk
