FIRST ALBUM SINCE HER NBC THE VOICE PERFORMANCES ON TEAM
BLAKE
Sixth generation Memphian and serial rambler Grace Askew
stakes her claim with ‘Scaredy Cat,’ the new album recorded at Sun Studios, due
out August 11. It’s her first album since her highly-touted and much beloved
series of performances on NBC’s The Voice, for Team Blake, which vastly expanded
the national fanbase that she earned from years behind the wheel of a pickup
truck headlining shows; opening for Marty Stuart, Hayes Carll, Jesse
Winchester, and Ray Wylie Hubbard; and touring with James McMurtry and Lisa
Marie Presley.
‘Scaredy Cat’ highlights her smoky vocals with spare
arrangements inspired by the grit and muddy Delta roots of her hometown,
captured in single takes to tape. The songwriting feels as if she is letting
you in on a secret world. Rolling Stone Country premiered the first single
alongside a Q&A.
Askew has already earned considerable acclaim, most recently
for her 2013 EP and single, both entitled “Empty Rooms,” written in New Mexico.
Huffington Post said, “Smoky with atmospheric blues and
Resonator-guitar toned country licks, the EP's tunes creep under your skin and
grab hold.”
Yahoo! Music called her "smoldering and searing,"
continuing, "Grace Askew was the fabulous 'bluntry' (blues + country)
singer from 'The Voice' Season 4, the girl with the badass beehive, boots made
for walkin', and velvet 'n' sandpaper vocals who would've been right at home on
Jack White's Third Man Records roster."
Daytrotter raved about "her extraordinary voice,"
saying, "Mark our words, Memphis' Grace Askew will be the best thing to
ever come out of 'The Voice…' Askew has officially taped one of the finest
Daytrotter sessions of all-time. Just listen. She makes us believe in the
beauty of hurt and the elixir of booze."
Here's her performance of "These Boots Are Made For
Walkin'" live on The Voice.
Previously, Sing Out! Magazine said, "If Tom Waits had
a singer/writer daughter in Memphis, it would be Askew with her gallery of lost
souls on the graveyard shift. Gutsy, bluesy, and a bit boozy, she quietly sings
with jagged languor and a skewed spirituality. Discreet percussion, guitar and,
on occasion, wistful lap steel notes sagely frame her rough-hewn
sophistication."
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