Multi-award-winning blues guitarist SUNJAY has announced his long awaited & very highly anticipated new studio album, Black & Blues Revisited (the follow up to his 2015 issue Black & Blues.)
The album is to be released via Mighty Tight Records on Friday 14th October 2022, The first single, Built For Comfort, released Wednesday 27th July, is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and Tidal from: https://ditto.fm/built-for-comfort
Black & Blues Revisited was produced by Sunjay and Josh Clark at Get Real Studios in Bath, U.K. and marks a significant passage in the musician’s life. “I’d just started recording the album when my mother suddenly and tragically died,” tells Sunjay
“There was so much to deal with, the shock was huge, and it took me a long time to recover. Thankfully Josh enabled us to keep the momentum going as he continued to work on various things until I could record again. Music has always been my catharsis. I’m grateful that I’m now in a much better place both personally and musically.”
“My mother was born in Goa, India. She gave me my forename, Sunjay. Though always very proud of me, I think there were cultural expectations of me becoming a Doctor or Lawyer! My father who (is British) taught me to play guitar initially, and I inherited his love of blues music.”
“Faced with these challenges I feel far closer to these songs now than I’d ever done before. Some of these songs, in fact most of them, I’ve been singing for years. However singing them now has a whole different meaning. In the Blues, references to death, the devil etc aren’t usually very far removed from real life.”
The stellar band on the album comprises; drummer (and occasional bassist!) Josh Clarke (Kate Rusby), bassist Josh Jewsbury (Eve Selis), keyboardist Bob Fridzema (King King, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Walter Trout), and harmonica player Lee Southall (Voodoo Blue). Together the musicianship is impeccable, tasteful and perfectly stated.
This week Sunjay kicks off with the first of three singles released to accompany Black & Blues Revisited. The first single is an upbeat rocking blues track entitled Built For Comfort.
Built For Comfort (video shared below) was originally written by Willie Dixon as a classic blues number. Sunjay’s powerful vocals, which are presented in this song in a raunchy blues-rock style, are just as energetic as the background music. Sunjay’s flawless guitar playing is featured during a lengthy musical interlude in the middle. This is followed by an organ/piano call and answered by a bluesy harp.
On the album there are also numbers penned by Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy, Jelly Roll Morton, and Robert Johnson as well as the British artist himself.
Black & Blues Revisited is available to pre-order from www.sunjay.tv.
Photo credit: Jane Jordan