Ever-funky quartet The New Mastersounds have announced the release of a brand new live album, The Nashville Session. Recorded at the Welcome to 1979 studio in Nashville, TN, the New Mastersounds plugged in and got to funking, pure and simple. The band captured ten tracks spanning their 16-year career, and pressed them immediately onto vinyl.
The new album will be released on April 22nd, with only 1,000 copies exclusively released on vinyl. As the digital format doesn’t drop until May 27th, these one-of-a-kind vinyls will serve as the only way to listen to The Nashville Session until further notice.
“We made the decision to record in this context because our older tunes have been evolving over a decade and a half of live presentation as once-spontaneous improvised sections gradually became fixed into the live arrangements. Much of the change has come about since organist Joe Tatton joined the band in 2007,” explains drummer Simon Allen in a statement. “It was also the perfect time to capture the cheeky, spontaneous and confident energy of a live show at the point—straight off of tour—when the band was at the top of its game. As lovers of ’60s and ’70s funk and soul jazz, we have never much enjoyed the sound of modern digital live recordings. Somehow the balance of frequencies such recordings deliver is never what we crave; our music just makes the most sense to our ears and to our feet when everything is crunched onto tape, exactly the way the music that first influenced us was recorded.”
The only non-original song performed was “In The Middle,” a James Brown track arranged by Grant Green. You can listen to “In The Middle,” here. Pre-orders for the album can be found via Pledge Music, and don’t miss NMS on the road! Tour schedule below:
The New Mastersounds Tour Dates
4/13 – Live Oak, FL – Wannee Festival
4/14 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl *
4/15 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
4/16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl (early show)
4/16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
4/17 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Wolf Den
4/19 – Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall *
4/20 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair *
4/21 – Fairfield, CT – Warehouse *
4/22 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground *
4/23 – Schuylkill Haven, PA – Some Kind of Jam Festival
4/24 – Morgantown, WV – Mainstage *
4/26 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry *
4/27 – Greensboro, NC – The Blind Tiger *
4/28 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West *
4/29-4/30 – New Orleans, LA – Joy Theatre
5/4 – Lexington, KY – Cosmic Charlies
5/5 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom *
5/6 – Columbus, OH – Park Street Saloon *
5/7 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In *
5/27-5/29 – Chillicothe, IL – Summer Camp
6/2-6/5 – Hunter, NY – Mountain Jam
6/23-6/26 – Rothbury, MI – Electric Forest
6/30-7/3 – Quincy, CA – High Sierra Music Festival
8/5-8/7 – Loveland, CO – Arise Music Festival
* w/ Moon Hooch