There you have it: the title of this post reveals the title of my next album. "Hues of Blue" will be released to music streaming services on June 21st this year. A digital-only record, you will be able to download it and/or stream it on Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, Bandcamp, and nearly all of the major audio streaming providers.
Like all of my albums, this one is being released on the Scott Cooley Records label. It will be the 14th "full-length" or "long playing" studio album I've self-released as a solo artist, although it won't be as long as usual. Unlike my last album, "When You Need To Fly," which could be considered a double album with 19 songs on it, this one is a lot shorter. It will have 10 new previously-unreleased original songs, and one traditional song, for a total track count of 11.
As you may have guessed from the album title, several of the songs could be categorized as falling within the genre of blues, with some elements of folk and rock in there as well. On it you can hear me singing sad lyrics and playing in a bluesy style using instruments such as acoustic guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, mandolin, ukulele, piano, organ, and even some horn sounds played on a keyboard.
It seems that within the last year or so, I was maybe feeling a little more blue than usual. I won't get into politics, but I know I'm not alone feeling this way lately. There have been a lot of changes in the world and in our country that haven't been positive, and they've been hard to ignore. This is probably what motivated me to write and record new music with bluish hues.
I wrote and recorded them in a spare bedroom in my house, as usual. I could take photos or record videos to show you my behind-the-scenes journey and document the making of this album, but then I'd have to clean up my little recording studio/office area, also known as Scott Cooley Music Productions, and I don't feel like dusting it all off to make it camera-ready. If you saw it in its current state, I'd be a little ashamed/embarrassed, and you would be unimpressed and potentially grossed out, so I'll spare us all that.
Another thing I can reveal is the album cover. It is a photo of a cone of blue moon ice cream that has been dropped, with my name and the album title overlaid near the top. I made it myself using some simple software. Note that the text colors coordinate. If this were a physical album with real liner notes, I suppose I would take credit for the cover art direction and design.
It made sense to have the ice cream be blue due to the blues music, and the dropped cone represents having the blues, and there's also a song about ice cream on the album called "Scoop," so these things made my choices all make sense, tying several aspects together, as it were.
The first song, "Because of You," is a really old, previously unreleased one. Its lyric includes the word "hues," which made sense as the opener to me and helped to tie things together into a cohesive whole in the decision making process of the album title, album cover, and what songs to include.
It was probably the first blues song I ever attempted back in about 1990 in my earliest days of trying to write my own songs. I slightly edited it and re-recorded it recently. It is basically an exercise in rhyming with the word "blues," and although obviously the work of a novice, I've always liked something about it, hence the inclusion.
Speaking of song titles, here's the rest of them in the album position order (sequential track listing) with song durations (lengths):
1 Because Of You 3:28
2 Scoop (v) 5:06
3 Waiting At The Window (v) 2:55
4 More Than Meets The Eye (v) 6:08
5 One Fly In The House (v) 2:41
6 Fox Hunt 4:21
7 Hot Plate Situation 2:53
8 You Had To Let Me Go 3:54
9 Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out 4:37
10 Treasure Trove (v) 3:39
11 Rock Bottom Blues (v) 4:34
Note that the ones with a "v" after the title indicate that for these songs, I've made associated music videos that will also be available on release day via my official artist channel on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/scottcooley.
Speaking of "dropping" an ice cream cone and getting the blues, instead of dropping (releasing) a video or single well in advance of the album release, I'm going to drop the videos on the same day as the full album. The video for the song "Scoop" indeed depicts a dropped ice cream cone.
I'm not planning any playlist pitching, pre-save campaigns, release events, listening parties, or any of that kind of thing. On release day, I will just officially announce it again on this blog, set up pages for it on my website, and maybe do a few social media announcement posts about it.
The song files and cover image have been uploaded to the distributor, and the release date is set, so there's no turning back now. It's set in stone. If all goes well and according to plan, it's going to happen, like it or not. I got it as good as I could. It's close enough to what I envisioned. I had fun writing and recording these, despite them being a little depressing, although "Treasure Trove" is a positive uplifting outlier song, which oddly enough has a bluegrass vibe, so it's not all doom and gloom.
The cool thing about blues though is that it can cheer you up. I made the album alone, but I wasn't lonely, because sharing stories of struggle brings about resilience. Also, I had my dogs by my side, and in fact, the song "More Than Meets The Eye" is written from the perspective of a dog. Negative emotions signal the need for restoration, and can ironically, lower depression. Listening to (or making) blues music is medicine for the soul.
I'm not planning to tour or sell t-shirts or anything like that either. No live performances, no merchandise. Just a new studio album release. The countdown can now officially begin. I've teased this project with some not-so-cryptic posts already, but now the cat is officially out of the bag. I'm not planning to necessarily do anything else to build anticipation, but if you want to engage by dropping me a line by emailing me at scottcooley@scottcooley.com, I will happily answer any questions you may have.
Now you know practically everything there is to know about my new album. All that's left is to wait a few weeks, then find it and listen to it. I will create a page on my website for it with more detailed descriptions and the full lyrics. Maybe a social media announcement or two, maybe not. Otherwise, there's not much left to do but announce it and get through the hardest part - the waiting. I'm excited for people to be able to hear it.
I just wanted you to tell you about it, so that you will know about it. Hopefully, you'll look forward to it. I think it's good, and I hope you will make time to listen to it and see if you agree. Some of you are loyal core fans who always check it out when I release new music. Thanks in advance for sticking with me. I'm hoping that if you like it, you will decide to recommend it to other people who you think might also like it. I will sincerely appreciate that.
