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. Freed from the pop pressures of her previous major label, ZZ is able to fully embrace the blues, her most formative influence. Her Sun Records debut, Liberation, features a program of originals and re-imagined blues favorites done in ZZ’s singular way. Encompassing greasy Chicago blues, foot-stomping Delta blues, rootsy garage rock, and vintage soul, the album is almost a ZZ-curated survey of the blues. The 14-track album was produced by multi-platinum producer Ryan Spraker (Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Weezer, In This Moment).
ZZ’s first single, “Put The Gun Down,” from her 2012 debut, Til the Casket Drops, broke into the AAA Radio Charts Top 10, and stayed there for 10 weeks. It was 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. ZZ’s 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 past summer ZZ was personally picked by Slash to open the tour for his own blues album.
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