William Shatner, yes that William Shatner, has announced a new guest-filled album of blues covers simply titled The Blues. The record will see the Star Trek actor team up with Canned Heat, Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Brad Paisley, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (Steely Dan, Doobie Brothers), Steve Cropper (Stax Records), James Burton (Elvis Presley), Sonny Landreth, Pat Travers, Albert Lee, and more.
This is hardly the first musical foray for Captain Kirk, as Shatner cut his first record, The Transformed Man, back in 1968. After giving a stone-cold-cool spoken word rendition of “Rocket Man” by Elton John at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards his style of performance became a trademark for any parody of the accomplished actor. Throughout the years, he has covered everyone from Bob Dylan to David Bowie and worked with an impressive collection of notable musicians.
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On The Blues, Shatner will tackle such blues classics as “Sweet Home Chicago”, “I Can’t Quit You Baby”, “The Thrill Is Gone”, “Crossroads”, “Smokestack Lightnin'”, and many more in his classic spoken word fashion. In advance of The Blues, due out October 2nd via Cleopatra Records, Shatner has shared covers of “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Let’s Work Together”, the later of which was recorded with Canned Heat who originally released the song in 1970.
Listen to William Shatner cover “The Thrill Is Gone” with Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night, and “Let’s Work Together” with Canned Heat off his forthcoming album The Blues. Scroll down to see the album’s full track list, and pre-order it here.
William Shatner, Ritchie Blackmore, Candice Night – “The Thrill Is Gone”
[Video: Cleopatra Records]
William Shatner, Canned Heat – “Let’s Work Together”
[Video: William Shatner – Topic]
