10 Days Until My Next Album, Woo Hoo!

I already announced it: https://blog.scottcooley.com/2026/06/the-big-reveal-hues-of-blue-will-drop.html I told you the title, showed you the cover art, listed the songs.  My last post revealed almost everything about my new studio album.  That was over a week ago.  The countdown continues.

Now, in only 10 more days, it will be released worldwide to a music streaming service near you.  Whichever one you use, it will be on there.  Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc.  June 21st is the big day, which is Sunday this year.

Some more background would seem to be in order.  I probably started getting into blues after watching the Blues Brothers movie when I was a teenager.  A while after that, Stevie Ray Vaughn was on the radio.  Around the same time I got into Jimi Hendrix.  In college, I hung out with guitar players who were into playing blues and listening to Sunday night blues radio shows.

By the time I was Senior, I took Intro To Guitar for fun, and all I wanted to learn was blues.  Turns out you only need to know three chords.  When jamming with a rhythm player, the pentatonic soloing is a blast, and I've done it ever since.  I've written and released several blues songs on past albums, but this is the closest I've come to an album that sticks close to that genre throughout.

Now I have to keep building excitement with another post leading up to the release.  I felt compelled, even though there's not much else to cover.  One thing I could tell is when they were recorded.

Looking back at the files on my computer here in the home studio, I see that I wrapped everything up on 05/29 of this year.  Nine of the songs were recorded since my last album, so from mid-2025 'till recently, but a couple I had lying around in a folder from earlier, waiting for the right album to be included on.  One of them, "Treasure Trove" was done way back in 2021, and another, "Hot Plate Situation" was recorded in 2023.  At least that's when I finished them.

Looking at the Date Modified dates for the lyric files (which are Word docs that also include the chords in them), those two songs were finished in 2019 and 2023, respectively, and all the rest were completed in 2025.  So, I guess I had all the songs written by the end of last year.  

You should know I usually finish recording a song in about an hour, so I've done this sporadically of course, as my free time has allowed this year, usually on a Saturday.  Sometimes I write a song, record it, then repeat;  while other times I'll wait until I have a bunch written, then go into recording mode for a while.  This album used both approaches.

This year I've mostly decided which songs to include, what order to put them in, what the album title should be, created the cover art, and sent them to the distributor.

Another thing I could let you know about is the duration.  The total playing time should come in at around 44 minutes.  Definitely my shortest.  Only 11 song tracks. There's one over 6-minute song, and one over 5-minute song;  but those are offset by 3 that come in within the over 2-minute/under 3-minute range;  and the rest are either 3-somethings or 4-somethings.  

I guess you could call that short enough to listen to in its entirety in one listening session, so that can be a positive, as well as the fact that there's length variety to mix it up and hold your attention.

A weird thing about the sequence I can make you aware of is that I had some songs that were more bluesy than others, so I decided to make the order alternate so that every other song was one of the bluesy ones, separated by those that were less bluesy.  

It must have made sense to me for some reason at the time.  Maybe I thought if the title is advertising it as potentially being a blues album, I didn't want people to bail on it after hearing two in a row that were not very bluesy.

I wrote all the songs, decided how to arrange them, sang all the vocals, played all the instruments, did the engineering, mixing & mastering, I was the producer, etc.  Did it all myself, as usual.  Here are the "official" liner notes:

The 14th, shortest, and most blue studio album by solo artist Scott Cooley.  Copyright © 2026 by Scott Cooley.  Used by permission.  Sound recording copyright ℗ 2026 by Scott Cooley, released on the Scott Cooley Records label (catalog # SCR14).  All songs (music and lyrics) composed (written) by Scott Cooley, except “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” which is a traditional, arranged by Scott Cooley;  published by Scott Cooley and Scott Richard Cooley Music Publishing, ASCAP;  recorded by Scott Cooley in 2025-2026 at Scott Cooley Music Productions studio in Grand Blanc, Michigan;  produced, arranged, engineered, mixed & mastered by Scott Cooley;  and performed by Scott Cooley, which included:  lead & backing vocals;  rhythm, lead & slide acoustic guitar;  bass;  piano, organ, trombone & trumpet;  ukulele;  mandolin;  blues harp;  drums & percussion.  For even more information, see https://www.scottcooley.com/albums/hues-of-blue.  As always, thanks for your support, in whatever form that may take.

So, there you have even more information about my new studio record.  Lyrically, it covers many relatable human-condition scenarios that can cause blues to happen:  waiting, cheating, lying, ghosting, firing, poverty, breakups, addiction, frustration, worry, boredom, loss, luck, love, and lust.  Musically, if not some type of actual blues, the subject matter and/or instrumentation are bluesy, even with those that would fall into a non-blues category like folk or rock.  

Mostly folk.  And the blues ones are acoustic style blues, not really "country" blues, and maybe closer to Delta than Piedmont, if at all.  It's my own style of blues I guess, so call it what you want.  If you need an umbrella term for categorization, maybe Folk Blues would be most appropriate, but I'm no expert.

I am somewhat of an expert in having the blues, however.  I recently looked up why listening to blues music can actually make you feel better, happy even:

• Triggers dopamine in your brain
• Helps you process difficult emotions safely
• Activates the reward center with pleasure, joy & satisfaction
• Validates your own feelings of heartbreak, poverty & loss
• Gives you a powerful sense of community
• Makes you realize you're not alone in your struggles
• View your sadness from a safe distance
• Hearing about someone else's pain provides catharsis
• Lets you purge heavy feelings to clear mental space for joy
• Hearing the transformation of pain into art inspires resilience
• Sends you a message that you can overcome hardships
• Blue notes in the music create a yearning tension that resolves to satisfaction

So, you have all these benefits to look forward to!  My new album will do all of this for you...and so much more.  I guarantee it.  😉