"BADASS" (ROLLING STONE) GRACE ASKEW TO RELEASE SUN STUDIO-CUT NOIR ALBUM ‘SCAREDY CAT’ AUGUST 11

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."

INFLUENCES OF NEW YORK, NEW ORLEANS, AND HAITI COMBINE TO PRESENT LEYLA MCCALLA'S LP 'VARI-COLORED SONGS: A TRIBUTE TO LANGSTON HUGHES' (FEB. 4 / MUSIC MAKER)

FAMILY HERITAGE, LANGSTON HUGHES' "COMPASS," ALAN LOMAX RECORDING, AND HER OWN OPENNESS LEAD HER TO CREATE "AMBITIOUS, DEEP, GORGEOUS" (OFFBEAT MAGAZINE) DEBUT ALBUM

"A HARBINGER OF A TOWERING CAREER" – SING OUT

A tribute to Langston Hughes comes out of the interconnected worlds of New York, NY; New Orleans, LA; and Haiti for Leyla McCalla, marking the release of 'Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes' (February 4 / Music Maker Relief Foundation) the stunning debut album of the cellist/vocalist and former Carolina Chocolate Drops member.

"Hughes begins his book 'I Wonder As I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey' by traveling around Haiti," she points out. McCalla herself has undertaken a similar journey. Born and raised in the New York, NY area into a Haitian immigrant family, she adopted the Crescent City as her hometown.

She explains, "After I moved to New Orleans, I read Ned Sublette's [book] The World That Made New Orleans and I was blown away by how much Haiti was mentioned. There are so many Louisianans with Haitian origins. What is Cajun? What is Creole? There's so much overlap in cultures. Langston Hughes' work is all about providing history from a black perspective; He provides a good compass."

Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops lent McCalla a box set of Haitian folk music as she was preparing 'Vari-Colored Songs.' McCalla arranged "Kamèn sa w fè" by Ago Fixè from the Alan Lomax recording of Ago’s Bal Band made on Christmas Day, 1937 in Port-au-Prince. "What a great groove," she says.

Leyla recalls, "I discovered that there are different lines of Haitian folk music and heard recordings with ties to France and Africa. I fell in love with the troubadours in particular. It's a banjo tradition of rustic countryside music, old but also Haitian. The melodies so irregular, not like anything I had heard before in other types of music." "Manman Mwen," "Latibonit," "Mesi Bondye" also come out of the traditions of Haiti. "Dad helped me a lot, translating lyrics," she says.

She has traveled to Haiti each of the past three years and her mother lives here now, working in international development, each trip inspiring her to create 'Vari-Colored Songs.'

The traditional New Orleans song "Changing Tide" joins the album as well, a symbol of her present home and of its and her eclectic heritage. In fact, she played the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2012.

Tour dates: http://www.leylamccalla.com/tour/

Sing Out Magazine has raved, "What a voice, more Billie Holiday than anything, flourishing in such bare surroundings and bringing the words, whether joyous or dark, to life… As arranger, musician and vocalist she’s a remarkable talent, and this debut is assured and a harbinger of a towering career."