The Storm ZZ Ward

• 1 Ghost 03:00
• 2 Cannonball 03:58
• 3 Help Me Mama 03:06
• 4 The Storm 03:13
• 5 Domino 02:50
• 6 Let It Burn 03:08
• 7 Bag of Bones 03:17
• 8 She Ain't Me 02:51
• 9 If U Stayed 03:33
• 10 Hold On 03:12
• 11 Ride (From “Cars 3” / Bonus Track) 04:05
• Total Runtime 36:13

Info zu The Storm

ZZ Ward didn’t have to look far for inspiration on her second full-length album, 2017 s The Storm. Equally evocative of blues grit and hip-hop bounce, the Los Angeles-based vocal powerhouse and multi-instrumentalist leapt forward by taking a deeper look at some of her earliest inspirations including Howlin Wolf, Robert Johnson, and Vera Ward Hall and Big Mama Thornton.

For me, this album wasn’t really about experimenting, she admits. It was more about simplicity, honing in on what I love about music and what makes me who I am as an artist. Growing up, I listened to a lot of hip-hop and blues, and I love those two genres so much. Sometimes, to evolve you don t need to go outside of yourself; you can reach further inside of yourself instead.

It s a realization earned over a whirlwind five years. The Fedora-rocking, guitar-shredding, harmonica-wielding blues siren peppered an old backporch musical recipe with hip-hop urgency and hashtaggable wisdom on her 2012 mixtape Eleven Roses. Followed by her full-length debut Til The Casket Drops yielded a veritable hit in the form of Put The Gun Down. The latter generated 7.4 million-plus Spotify streams and held strong in the Top 10 of AAA radio for 10 weeks as well as receiving over 100 high-profile licensing placements and syncs, including the feature film We re The Millers. Kendrick Lamar [ Cryin Wolf ] and Freddie Gibbs [ Criminal ] were quick to collaborate, while Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Elle, Interview Magazine, USA Today, NPR and more extolled her. She lit up the screen on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, Conan, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, The View, and many others and practically set stages ablaze on tours with Eric Clapton, Gary Clark, Jr., and Fitz & The Tantrums and at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Firefly, and Made In America.

ZZ Ward
One of the most profound lessons ZZ Ward learned from growing up listening to the blues greats was to be authentic to your story. When the LA-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist began to write new music, she found herself in the midst of one of the biggest life changes a person will ever experience: motherhood.

The resulting music is her truest and most blues-infused to date. ZZ’s smolderingly soulful single, “Mother,” out July 19th, and upcoming Mother EP, out October 4th, speaks to both an authenticity of living and a sense of intrepid creativity. These releases are ZZ’s first for Sun Records, and commemorate an exciting era for her as she returns to her blues roots on a label that is the vanguard of Americana.

“I didn’t plan to make a blues album about motherhood, it just sort of happened naturally,” ZZ shares. “I’ve always written to get through things in life. Suddenly, I was faced with a new job that’s 24/7 with no breaks, and that’s what I wrote about. But when you get tested, you discover who you are, and this album comes from a feeling of empowerment.”

At the time she wrote this fiercely individual body of work, ZZ found herself without a home for her music after a decade on a major label. It was a painfully complex time, and she sought solace in the blues, her most formative influence. ZZ started singing the blues at the age of 8, spurred on by her bluesman father and his righteous record collection. She started performing blues music when she was just 12 years old. However, as a professional female musician, ZZ often felt she had to compromise her blues tendencies to satisfy music industry demands. “I used to care so much about what other people wanted my music to sound like, but after I became a mother my priorities changed,” she says.

For ZZ’s new music, she began to write about her life as a new mother through a lens of the blues. She had just toured for the first time as a working mother, bringing her son along the way, and she had a second baby. Motherhood and the challenges working mothers face began to seep into her songwriting. It was a time of self-rediscovery, and empowerment and she took this sprawling catalog of music to multi-platinum producer Ryan Spraker (Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Weezer, In This Moment).

Songs began to take shape that reached back to the soul-blues stylings of Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and Nina Simone. Also seeping into ZZ’s new music were the artists she was weaned on by her father—the sounds of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Etta James, and Big Mama Thornton. Signing to Sun for this new era was serendipitous. “It was the perfect alignment for me.—Howlin’ Wolf recorded for Sun!,” ZZ enthuses.

Her first single, “Mother,” is a wailing Chicago blues-styled song with ZZ’s gritty vocals taking center stage but being dexterously accompanied by searing lead guitar blues soloing. “That’s a mother’s cry,” ZZ says. “It’s that feeling of being weighed down with this new situation. I never expected men to hear it and relate, but I’ve heard more than a few feel it, too.”

The six-song Mother EP is a treasure trove for the dirty shine crew.

ZZ muddies up past hits like “Put The Gun Down” and “Lil’ Darlin’,” kicking them down the dirt road of her blues liberation. ZZ also exuberantly dives into Sun’s esteemed catalog and turns in a raucous blues rave-up of “Cadillac Man” and a knee-buckling-beautiful soul version of “I Have No One” replete with horns and backing vocals.

“Put The Gun Down” was ZZ’s first single from her 2012 debut, Til the Casket Drops. It broke into the AAA Radio Charts Top 10, and stayed there for 10 weeks, followed by the single, “365 Days,” which hit #2 on the charts. Til the Casket Drops also snuck into the Billboard Top 40 Alternative Chart. Her sophomore album, The Storm, released in 2017, peaked at Number 1 on the Billboard Blues Charts, highlighted by singles featuring GRAMMY-Award winners Fantastic Negrito, “Cannonball,” and Gary Clark Jr., “Ride,” which was also the end title song for Pixar’s feature film Cars 3.

This isn’t just a one-off for ZZ—her blues journey will continue. This summer she will be opening for Slash, who also just released a blues-fueled album, and ZZ will be releasing more blues-oriented music in 2025. “This is who I’ve always wanted to be—a blues artist, on my terms,” she says. “It just took me a long time to get here.”

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet