After recently making her welcomed return, which included a thrilling performance as part of Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Festival in London last month, as well as a sold out residency at LA’s Sun Rose, Lady Blackbird releases her new single, the stunning psychedelic gospel hymn “Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)”, taken from her brand new studio album Slang Spirituals, out September 13th on BMG.
The soulful orchestral fanfares of this beautiful new track, that has sprung out of the traps being premiered as Zoe Ball’s “New To 2” on BBC Radio 2, and spun by Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music, were penned in hotel bars after exhilarating shows or in impromptu studio sessions and is a remarkable work of soul-searching and self-acceptance. It sees Lady Blackbird repeating the freeing line, “Heaven is just a game not meant to last,” playfully casting off her previous religious shackles over ornate swells of choral harmony.
"’Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)” is a track that embodies the whole Slang Spirituals journey, both lyrically and musically,” Lady Blackbird explains. “From the humble soul beginnings to the psychedelic star bound after life, it’s the story of finding freedom within oneself and singing about it with the acid choir of love!"
Collaborating once again with Black Acid Soul producer Chris Seefried, the pair produce a second album that not only embodies the freewheeling, emotive Lady Blackbird sound, but that also taps into deeply vulnerable lyrics that recount the singer’s challenging ascent to musical stardom.
“Once I entered my teenage years, I started to realize that religion was something that was put on me and it never felt right,” she says. “As I also began to develop my own identity as a queer woman, I felt judged as an outcast and labelled as a sinner. It was burying who I really was, and I needed to find a way out.”
In taking charge of her own life and her own sound, Lady Blackbird walks a new path, making each note on Slang Spirituals a step in a radically different direction. Across 11 tracks Lady Blackbird puts her sweeping, cinematic vocal power to use on everything from the finger-picking folk storytelling of “Man On A Boat,” euphoric gospel empowerment of “Like A Woman” and the seven-minute psychedelic soul instrumentation of “When The Game Is Played On You”.
Lady Blackbird’s debut album Black Acid Soul garnered 5* reviews and won unanimous praise across UK media. She’s dazzled the likes of London’s Union Chapel, The Barbican, KOKO, & Shepherds Bush Empire, as well as supported Gregory Porter on his UK tour and won ‘International Artist of the Year’ at the Jazz FM Awards. Without doubt, her appearance on a star studded Graham Norton show had the country captivated and Taylor Swift lost for superlatives,
“This is my journey of becoming,” she concludes. “It’s me rewriting the book to show the world who I truly am. From being labelled a sinner to finding my acceptance.”
