Legendary South African blues rock, roots, Americana, rock guitarist and singer songwriter, Steve Louw released his new double album Between Time on Friday September 6th.
Released as a 2-CD digipack, double vinyl, & digital, the album is available from https://orcd.co/SteveLouwBetweenTime.
To coincide with today’s release of Between Time, Louw has released “Cruel Hand of Fate” featuring Joe Bonamassa; the fourth single taken from the new album.
Watch the official music video “Cruel Hand of Fate” via YouTube HERE.
“Before highways and cars people travelled by foot, horse and then train if you could afford it, or of you could jump on board,” says Louw about the new single “Cruel Hand of Fate.”
Continues Louw, “Trains have a mystery to them, their rhythm coming from way off and then fading into the future. As a kid I used to put coins on the train tracks and feel the warm squashed coin in my hand as the train clacked away.”
“The song is about a traveling musician who feels that his time is running out. He needs to jump a ride to see his love one last time. The song has the rhythm of the train tracks and a nod to the journey we are all on.”
Joe Bonamassa plays a beautiful country style solo which fits right in with the mystery behind “Cruel Hand of Fate.” Using a Fender Telecaster B Bender guitar, an invention which by moving the guitar’s bridge conjures a pedal steel effect, creates a counterpoint to the song’s brooding slide guitar.
“Steve Louw and I have been making records for many years now. When I introduced him to Joe Bonamassa in Vienna more than a decade ago, they got along very well. When Steve had the opportunity to invite Joe to play on his records, Joe was enamoured with Steve’s style and was happy to be a part of it. I think Joe has now played on three or four of Steve’s albums, and it’s always a thrill for us all. It’s a meeting of minds.” – Producer, Kevin Shirley
“Between Time came out wonderfully. I truly love the album.” – 14 x Grammy Award winning mastering engineer – Bob Ludwig
Louw’s new album, Between Time, arrives decades into a long career, stretching back to the 1990s, when Louw partnered with South African record producer Kevin Shirleywhile fronting Big Sky, his vehicle to acclaim in his native South Africa.
Louw broke back into the music scene rousingly with his 2021 solo album Headlight Dreams, which Shirley helped push into existence, telling Louw after a decade of silence that it was time for him to make another record. He assembled a crack band, including keyboardist Kevin McKendree (John Hiatt), drummer Greg Morrow (Billy Gibbons), bass player Alison Prestwood (Buddy Miller), guitarists Rob McNelley (Hank Williams Jr), and Doug Lancio (Bob Dylan).
Headlight Dreams received solid reviews and earned him his third South African Music Award nomination. Thunder and Rain followed hot on its heels, a rich and natural album of muscular folk and insistent rock, a blend that Louw has refined throughout his career.
With Between Time, he explores those moments that fall outside the strict constructs of time with songs that have past, present, and future, while using imagery that’s both timeless and present. Cut live in the studio with his same band; the music has a transcendent quality, a chemistry that blends craft and inspiration into something mystical.
The stars align on three songs recorded back-to-back on the same day. The heartfelt “Killers”, where ‘Killers with numbers not names, came killing across the plains’, flows into, ‘In the Badlands, sand turned to dust, outsiders stand, steel turned to rust’, on the driving “Giants Walk The Land” (co-written with Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie), and to a new beginning on “Time to Get On,” ‘As we face to the sun, it’s time to get on’.
Hearing the band discover the inherent passion and tenderness within the songs is part of the pleasure of Between Time. Their chemistry is evident on the low-down shuffle of “Do Me Good” and the country honk of “Alibi.” They swing hard on “Get Real Gone” and ratchet up the tension on “Flowers on The Graves of Doves,” a ringing, roiling number that conjures the mystery of early R.E.M.
You feel the band as much as you hear them, as on “Highway to the Sun,” the eight-minute exit to the 20-song collection. Louw is as much a member of the band as he is its leader. His steady, propulsive guitar playing providing as much of a connective tissue as his unguarded voice.
Added to that is Jim Moginie, whose eclectic guitar sound and creative force evoke the natural world’s power on “Giants Walk The Land,” and Hammond maestro Lachy Doley, who teases out the reassuring comfort lurking within “Streets of Rain.”
Between Time is a record filled with compassion and heart, a defining album for an artist who has consistently delivered great-sounding music over several decades.
Between Time – Track Listing
CD1
Alibi (4:07)
We Had It All (3:37)
Beggar Tonight (4:40)
Giant’s Walk The Land (4:45)
Killers (4:40)
StreetJanes Dream#3 (5:24)
Do Me Good (4:06)
Flowers From The Graves Of Doves (4:07)
Don’t Leave A Heart Alone (3:22)
Time To Get On (5:38)
CD2
Get Real Gone (3:33)
The Way Your Heart Beats (2:05)
Take Me For A Ride (3:56)
Streets Of Rain (4:07)
Cruel Hand Of Fate (5:19)
Free To Fly (2:10)
You ‘n Me Tonight (3:08)
Cold Cold Rails (3:45)
Ever Be Undone (4:44)
Highway To The Sun (7:59)
Album Credits
Produced by Kevin Shirley.
Recorded and mixed at Ocean Way Studios, Nashville, TN
Tracks 4,14 and 18 mixed at The Cave, Sydney.
Engineered by Austin Atwood
Mixed by Kevin Shirley
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME.
Musicians
Steve Louw: Acoustic Guitar and Vocals
Doug Lancio: Electric Guitar and Mandolin
Kevin McKendree: Keyboards
Alison Prestwood: Bass
Greg Morrow: Drums and Percussion
Additional Musicians
Jim Moginie: Electric guitar, keyboards (Track 4)
Joe Bonamassa: Lead Electric Guitar (Track 15)
Randy Flowers: Electric Guitar (Tracks 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 19, 20)
Rob McNelley: Electric Guitar (Tracks 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16)
Lachy Doley: Hammond Organ (Track 14)
Backing Vocalists
Kim Fleming: Backing Vocals (Tracks 2, 13, 16)
Devonne Fowlkes: Backing Vocals (Tracks 2, 13, 16)
Jade MacRae: Backing Vocals (Track 17)
Danielle DeAndrea: Backing Vocals (Track 17)
Steve Louw – Biography
Steve Louw (born 16 September 1955) is a South African musician and singer-songwriter who specialises in album rock, blues rock, country rock and Americana music. He was born in The Hague and has been active as a musician since 1981. He was inducted in the South African Rock Hall of Fame in 2003.
Louw, who was born Stephen Geoffrey Louw, learnt to play the guitar after being inspired by the music of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Neil Young, and formed his first band, Atlantic Rose, while in high school in Cape Town in the late 1960s. While a student at Stellenbosch University in the 1970s he became involved in the local music scene, playing his own songs in various line-ups.
His career as a professional musician began in the early 1980s when he formed the band All Night Radio with fellow former Stellenbosch University students Nico Burger (guitar) and Rob Nagel (bass). The group recorded two albums – The Heart’s the Best Part (1984) with US producer John Rollo, and The Killing Floor (1986), on which Louw began a partnership with producer Kevin Shirley that continues to this day.
Louw then formed the band Big Sky and in 1990 released their debut album, Waiting for the Dawn, again produced by Shirley. The album arrived just as South Africa began moving away from apartheid rule and the group’s music helped soundtrack a decade of positive revolution. The title track is today considered a South African rock classic. Big Sky released another five albums over the next 15 years: Horizon (1995), Going Down with Mr Green (1997), Best of the Decade (1999), Beyond the Blue (2002) and Trancas Canyon (2008); as well as the concert DVD Heart and Soul, filmed at Cape Town’s Little Theatre in 2008.
Louw and Big Sky achieved considerable success in South Africa with sell-out tours and several major radio hits including “Kathleen”, “Mr Green”, “One Cut With A Knife”, “Strange Room” and “Diamonds and Dirt”. In 1996 the band won the FNB South African Music Award for “Best Pop Music Performance” and “Best Rock Album” for the album Horizon.
In 1998 Big Sky opened for US singer-songwriter Rodriguez on his triumphant debut tour of South Africa, with the musicians in the band also backing the US artist. The tour is chronicled in the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man.
Louw gained an international profile after he collaborated with Brian May (Queen) and Dave Stewart (the Eurythmics) on the track “Amandla”, recorded for the 46664 Aids awareness project inspired by the work of Nelson Mandela.
In 2021 Louw returned with the album Headlight Dreams, produced by Shirley, and recorded in Nashville with crack studio musicians and featuring a guest appearance by US guitar legend Joe Bonamassa. The album has received critical acclaim and the first single, “Wind in Your Hair”, has become a popular Spotify hit.
Louw released his sophomore solo release Thunder and Rain on November 11, 2022, through BFD. The album was produced by Kevin Shirley and features Joe Bonamassa and Doug Lancio.
On September 6th, Louw will release his third solo album Between Time, produced by Kevin Shirley.
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