New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Puss N Boots - the charming trio featuring Norah Jones,
Sasha Dobson, and Catherine Popper - have released "
Sister", the title track of their forthcoming second full-length album Sister, which comes out February 14 on vinyl, CD, and digital formats. "
Sister" was co-written by all three band members and features a lead vocal by Dobson, who also plays drums on the track, with Jones on electric guitar/vocals and Popper on electric bass/vocals. It follows the first single "It's Not Easy" featuring a lead vocal by Jones.
Puss N Boots has also announced upcoming tour dates including two NYC album release shows-February 14 at Rough Trade in Brooklyn and February 15 at Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan-and a run of Southeast US April shows that will include an appearance at the 2020 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 25.
Sister is a fetching collection of originals written by the band members collectively and individually, mixed with loving covers of songs by
Tom Petty ("Angel Dream"), Dolly Parton("The Grass Is Blue"), Paul Westerberg ("It's a Wonderful Lie"), and Concrete Blonde ("Joey"). Jones, Dobson, and Popper each take turns delivering lead vocals and also pick up multiple instruments throughout the album trading off on guitar, bass, and drums.
"This band has always been a great adventure," says Jones. "Sasha and Cat's fearlessness eggs me on to try new things, be it playing guitar, drums, writing a new way or wearing an elf costume on stage. We feed off of each other's eagerness to jump in, sink or swim. And singing together feels like the most natural thing in the world. It's a real privilege to have found this space together, try different things and to watch this band grow into what is at this moment. It is ever evolving and so fun."
"For me this band has always been an incredible and uniquely safe outlet for trying new things," addsDobson. "For example, I'd been writing all year on bass but was too shy to tell anyone, but when Norah asked me if I had anything new, before I knew it we were covering those tunes and I was playin' bass in the band!"
"We were rehearsing for something and we took a break," recalls Popper. "I sat at the drums and started messing around, Norah came back and picked up a guitar and riffed, and
Sasha picked up the bass, and in an hour we had "It's Not Easy". My bandmates just love to make music and it's been a great learning experience for me about setting my ego aside and taking a chance."
Puss N Boots first formed in 2008 as a live band performing around Brooklyn. With a repertoire anchored in Americana, country, folk, pop and rock, the band became an outlet for Jones, Dobson and Popper to switch instruments and allowed them to showcase a different side of themselves than on their various solo and side projects.
After years of live performances, the trio decided to make a full-length album which resulted in their 2014 debut No Fools, No Fun. Comprised of originals and covers, studio recordings and live performances, the album was praised by Rolling Stone, Paste, American Songwriter and led to TV performances on The
Tonight Show with
Jimmy Fallon and CBS This Morning.
The group has opened for
Neil Young and appeared at numerous festivals including the Clearwater Festival, Green River Festival, and the Newport Folk Festival. In 2019, Puss N Boots performed "The Grass Is Blue" at the GRAMMY MusiCares charity event honoring Person of the Year Award recipient Dolly Parton.
About
Norah Jones (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, pipe organ, drums)
Norah Jones first emerged with the 2002 release of Come Away With Me, her self-described "moody little record" that introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon and swept the 2003 GRAMMY Awards. Since then, Norah has sold 50 million albums worldwide and become a nine-time GRAMMY-winner. She has released a series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums—Feels Like Home (2004),
Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009),
Little Broken Hearts (2012), and Day Breaks (2016)—as well as albums with her collective bands The
Little Willies, Puss N Boots, and El Madmo. The 2010 compilation …Featuring
Norah Jones showcased her incredible versatility by collecting her collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Outkast, Herbie Hancock, and Foo Fighters. With Day Breaks, Norah returned to her jazz roots while also proving her to be this era's quintessential American artist, the purveyor of an unmistakably unique sound that weaves together the threads of several bedrock styles of American music: country, folk, rock, soul, jazz. Most recently, Jones has released a series of eclectic singles including collaborations with artists and friends such as Jeff Tweedy,
Thomas Bartlett, Brian Blade, Tarriona Tank Ball, Mavis Staples, and Rodrigo Amarante. The 2019 singles collection Begin Again gathered seven snapshots of creativity from one of the music world's most versatile and consistently intriguing artists.
About
Sasha Dobson (vocals, electric guitar, electric bass, drums)
Sasha Dobson is a dynamic New York jazz singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She grew up in a family of accomplished jazz musicians including her father, the great pianist Smith Dobson (Red Holloway,
Bobby Hutcherson, Art Pepper); her mother, the endearing and sought-after jazz vocalist and educator, Gail Dobson; and her brother, multi-instrumentalist and prodigy of jazz drums, Smith Dobson V. At the age of 12,
Sasha wowed the crowd performing at the Monterey Jazz Festival with her family and had since toured worldwide with her own band and Norah Jones, opened for
Neil Young and Willie Nelson, and been a featured artist at Farm Aid. Since her debut album
Modern Romance, produced by GRAMMY Award winner
Jesse Harris,
Sasha has collaborated with many leading musicians. She is currently working on a forthcoming EP with bassist and producer Don Was and drummer Jay Lane. She has been making NY appearances with her latest jazz project, a supergroup featuring
Peter Bernstein, Neal Miner, Dred Scott, and Ian Hendrickson-Smith.
About Catherine Popper (vocals, electric guitar, electric bass, drums, Haken Continuum)
Catherine Popper is a North Carolina native who has performed and recorded with numerous artists including Hem,
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Levon Helm,
Karen Elson, Rhett Miller, Willie Nelson,
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, Norah Jones, Tommy Stinson, Alejandro Escovedo, She and Him,
Jesse Malin, Boy George, Brian Fallon, Larry Campbell, and Jack White. She played in a pit orchestra for Head Over Heels on Broadway in 2018 and will be joining the pit for the upcoming musical, Diana in 2020.
