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Guitar Master Dudley Taft Is
Screaming in the Wind on Latest CD, Coming May 20 from American Blues
Artist Group
New Album of Blues-Rock Produced by
Grammy-Winner Tom Hambridge Features Special Guest Reese Wynans on
Keyboards
CINCINNATI, OH – Blues-rock guitarist Dudley
Taft announces a May 20 release date for his new CD, Screaming in
the Wind, on his American Blues Artist Group label. The new album
was produced by Grammy-winner Tom Hambridge, best-known for his work with Buddy
Guy, Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood and Johnny Winter, and recorded at The
Switchyard and Rendering Plant in Nashville, as well as Taft’s new Muchmore
Studio in Cincinnati. The new recording facility is part of the house and
property Dudley recently purchased from legendary guitarist Peter
Frampton.
The new CD features a dozen songs, most of which are
originals penned by Dudley Taft, including several co-written with Tom Hambridge
(who also plays drums on a couple tracks) and Richard Fleming, plus
scintillating covers of songs by Skip James (“Hard Time Killing Floor Blues”)
and Freddie King (“Pack It Up”).
“Screaming in the Wind
is my third solo effort and the first album I’ve done produced by
someone outside the band. Several songwriting sessions in Nashville with
producer Tom Hambridge and songwriter Richard Fleming helped the songs take
shape before recording them,” says Taft. “It was refreshing to work with other
great songwriters for the first time, and it gives Screaming in the
Wind a different flavor.”
Taft’s regular band of John
Kessler on bass and Jason Patterson drums is augmented by the addition of former
Stevie Ray Vaughan keyboard player Reese Wynans on the sessions. “Reese plays
some wicked B3 organ on the CD,” exclaims Taft. “He really shines on a bunch of
the songs, elevating them to levels I never imagined. Check out his ripping solo
on ‘The Reason Why’.”
Other special guests on Screaming in
the Wind include the acclaimed McCrary sisters, who bring their
smooth gospel harmonies to the song “Barrio,” while the Muscle Shoals Horn
Section shines on “Pack It Up.”
“So far, I have done a Freddie King song
on every CD, and this was no exception,” states Taft. “I love the funky vibe and
tight arrangement of ‘Pack It Up.’ We poured gasoline on it and lit a
match.”
The title track of the album started as a custom instrumental
riff Taft did for the “American Blues Scene” website. “They told me it should be
a song,” he recalls, “and I think it may have turned out to be one of the
strongest on the album. Tom Hambridge and I worked hard to find the key imagery
in the lyrics to tell the story.”
Speaking of instrumentals, Dudley Taft
really cuts loose on the appropriately named track, “Red Line,” demonstrating
why he’s been dubbed one of the hottest guitarists on the planet. Fans of
classic ZZ Top riffs will be smiling from ear-to-ear when they hear Taft
“spanking the plank” on that one.
“The riff from Skip James’ ‘Hard Time
Killing Floor Blues’ got stuck in my head last year,” Taft remembers. “I thought
giving it a Led Zeppelin ‘Black Dog kind of interpretation would make it
fresh.”
The final song on the CD, “Say You Will,” has what Taft calls
“an epilogue, where the gears shift and a David Gilmour influence surfaces,
taking the listener off into oblivion. That was such a fun track to
record!”
Dudley Taft’s last CD, Deep Deep
Blue, released in May, 2013, received universal acclaim from fans
and critics alike, including being named on several “best of” lists at the end
of that year. He will support the new CD release with touring both in the U.S.
and overseas, where he already has a European tour planned in May and June that
will take him to the Netherlands and
Germany.
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