New York, NY (Top40 Charts) As released this month via GroundUP Music, "Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers" is the first ever live album released by award-winning singer and songwriter Lucy Woodward. This "Rocketeers" release features Woodward's bespoke 18-person jazz collective - featuring musicians from countries like Spain, Italy and Ghana -- with dynamic arrangements. Listeners can expect both high-energy explosions and hauntingly-intimate meditations.
Newly-released second single, "Tryin' Times" - a follow up to first single "Plain Gold Ring" - is a fresh take on the Donny Hathaway classic. Per Woodward: "I grew up in NYC, a city which has, for me, a life-affirming pulse. I wanted to capture that energy, the conversations of the subway, people wanting tobe heard in a city of millions. I wanted the sound of people's outcry and the sound of the fight for change while equally wanting to dwell in a feeling of chaos or even rage. When arranger Jelle Roozenburg and I were talking about the song, I walked around the room in this fast-paced beat showing him how New Yorkers got around. We talked about honking horns and construction sites all having a conversation with each other like they were part of a machine."
The release of "Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers" - the roots of which arguably dating back to Woodward's Big Band cover of Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet," as placed within the "Ice Princess" movie and the "Birds of Prey" trailer, to name a few of its placements - comes within three months of the release of Woodward's seventh and arguably-most-personal studio effort to date, "Stories From The Dust." Upon release, "Dust" was named "Album Of The Week" by the UK's Mail On Sunday and yielded notable kudos from Sir Rod Stewart CBE.
"Stories From The Dust" was crafted with GRAMMY Award-winning co-producer and co-writer David Garza (Fiona Apple) at the helm of most of the songs on the album. Its tracks and melodies pull you toward Woodward's poignant insights of matters of the heart in the world's fragile present. David and Lucy spent several weeks in downtown Los Angeles writing these stories about women, the ones she grew up with - the fiercely independent and unconventional women who raised her - and those she merely observed from afar, whether in the sandbox or on the subway. Woodward soon found herself writing songs like she'd never written before, or had never even thought about writing before. Woodward says, "a different kind of songwriter in me snuck up on me and hit me hard."
Recorded at Sonic Ranch on the border of Mexico and Texas, "Dust" features longtime friend and bass extraordinaire Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie, Tedeschi Trucks) and keyboardist Larry Goldings (James Taylor, John Mayer) who wrote with Lucy for the album. Bill Withers and Nina Simone -- a few artists she already loved -- were her touchstones, and she added inspiration from the deep rivers of Americana, blues, flamenco singing and the sounds of the female voices from Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66. "Stories From The Dust" is rootsy and melodic, continuing a decades-long streak of craft oriented, critically acclaimed full length albums from the New York native.
- Lucy Woodward is a London-born native of New York currently living between NYC and The Netherlands.
- Her Atlantic Records debut led to 2 BMI Music Awards won in 2004.
- Follow up critically-acclaimed albums include 2007's "Hot & Bothered" (Barnes & Noble), 2010's "Hooked!" (Verve), 2016's "Til They Bang On The Door" (GroundUP/Universal) and 2019's "Music!Music!Music!" and 2020's "I'm A Stranger Here" with Charlie Hunter.
- Session work/has toured with credits include Snarky Puppy, Pink Martini, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Chaka Khan and Carole King, and has appeared on countless soundtracks.
- She has played numerous international jazz festivals and venues including London's Ronnie Scott's and Royal Albert Hall. She also has guest appeared with Big Bands all over Europe such as WDR and the Danish Radio Big Band.
UPCOMING U.S. & EUROPEAN TOUR DATES:
8/9/2024 - Harderwijk, Netherlands
9/4/2024 - Sheen Center, New York City
9/20/2024 - Bad Homburg, Germany
10/13/2024 - Hannover, Germany
10/15-19/2024 - Bern, Switzerland
10/24/2024 - London, UK
12/17/2024 - Leiden, Netherlands.
