[Cover photo credit to David McMurry]
Over the course of his seven-decade long career, the Virginia-born, Los Angeles-based artist, songwriter and Producer Swamp Dogg has become an influential and cult figure in American music, exploring R&B, Soul, and Country music, releasing more than two dozen albums.
The artist has now announced Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St, his first record with Oh Boy Records that will be released on May 31, 2024. He has also released the album’s first single and opening track “Mess Under That Dress.” This Friday, March 8th, the feature-length documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted will premiere at SXSW before he performs at Luck Reunion on March 14.
Produced by Ryan Olson (Poliça, Gayngs), it was recorded with an all-star band including Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, and Kenny Vaughan.
The 12-song collection blends past and present, blurring the lines between Folk, Roots, Country, Blues, and Soul. Special guests like Margo Price, Vernon Reid, Jenny Lewis, Justin Vernon, and The Cactus Blossoms also add to the album.
Swamp Dogg explains:
Not a lot of people talk about the true origins of bluegrass music, but it came from Black people. The banjo, the washtub, all that stuff started with African Americans. We were playing it before it even had a name. I’m trying to touch on every kind of music I grew up loving and listening to. This is my way of letting people know that I’m not just a soul singer or whatever they think I am. I’m so much more.
Born Jerry Williams, Jr., Swamp Dogg first encountered bluegrass music on the radio growing up in Portsmouth, VA, in the 1940s. However, he would go on to spend much of the ’50’s and ’60s immersed in the world of Soul, Funk, and R&B, both as an artist and as a A&R man/producer working with the likes of Patti LaBelle, The Commodores, and The Drifters.
Blackgrass marks a full circle moment for Swamp Dogg, who as far back as the early 1970s was covering tunes like John Prine’s “Sam Stone,” and Prine would later return the favor by appearing on Swamp Dogg’s 2020 record, Sorry You Couldn’t Make It. Those performances turned out to be some of Prine’s final recordings before his death, making Blackgrass’s release on Prine’s Oh Boy label all the more poignant.
Swamp Dogg adds:
It means a hell of a lot to put this record out on the label that John started. He wrote some of the greatest songs of all time, songs that could make you dance inside. He was like a pastor on Sunday, getting you to think about what’s going on in the world and how we should be coping with it. I always want to give thanks to John.
Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St tracklist:
1) Mess Under That Dress
2) Ugly Man’s Wife
3) Curtains On The Window
4) Have A Good Time
5) To The Other Woman (feat. Margo Price)
6) Songs To Sing
7) Count The Days (feat. Jenny Lewis)
8) Gotta Have My Baby Back
9) Your Best Friend
10) This Is My Dream
11) Rise Up (feat. Vernon Reid)
12) Murder Ballad
Tour Dates:
3/11 – New Orleans, LA – Chickie Wah Wah
3/14 – Spicewood, TX – Luck Reunion
