Americana Highways is honored to premiere this song by Bloodkin, “John Coltrane in Nagasaki,” from their forthcoming album Black Market Tango. Black Market Tango is Bloodkin’s first album of new material in ten years, and will be available on April 16.
The album cover art, notably, was created by Flournoy Holmes: http://www.flournoyholmes.com/flournoy-holmes-album-cover-artist.
The album was recorded and mixed by David Barbe at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA and mastered by Joe Lambert. “John Coltrane in Nagasaki” is Daniel Hutchens on vocals, guitars and harmonica; Eric Carter on guitars and backing vocals; John Neff on pedal steel, guitars and dobro; Jon Mills on bass; Aaron Phillips on drums; Jay Gonzalez on organ; and Ansley Stewart on backing and harmony vocals.
Rock out to the trademark killer guitar riffs and the grooves courtesy of Athens’ own Bloodkin. Turn it up and ride the rises and swells. Ask yourself how the heck did it take ten years between albums? Daydream about being at their next shows.
I wrote these lyrics after watching a documentary about John Coltrane; I was struck by how on his last tour he insisted on playing Nagasaki, because an atomic bomb had been dropped there at the end of WWII, and Coltrane said he was going to ‘retune the molecules’ in the atmosphere and help heal the city and its people. Which in a way, sounded nutty, but also sounded like just about the most amazing and noble thing I’d ever heard. So this song is aimed at the future, at my kids and everyone’s kids, those of ‘em who wind up being musicians, reminding them Coltrane set a great example, and someone needs to carry that spirit forward. It features another great Eric Carter riff! — Daniel Hutchens
I think I’d been messing around with variations of this riff for year. It finally formed and the right words came along to make it a happy musical marriage. In my head I was hearing it as the most EPIC THING IN THE WORLD! I thought this was a little different sounding for us and Ansley Stewart’s singing on it is just wonderful. We added some Jay Gonzalez organ to make it even a little bigger! — Eric Carter
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