Well the day has finally come - Cherry's third studio album, "Heard It Here First". is available NOW! Just click the link below and there are snippets of the album tracks now on the audio player.
HEARD IT HERE FIRST OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
It's 2012. It's the third time around, and CHERRY LEE MEWIS means business. The 5ft-nothing, power-house singer songwriter has grabbed the musical bull by the horns, and together with her smokin' hot band including long time collaborator and guitarist Max Milligan, has produced an exquisite and exciting self-penned third studio album; the aptly titled Heard It Here First. An 11-track-breath-of-fresh-air in a somewhat predictable blues music scene. This album takes the solid roots of Cherry's debut album; 2007's Little Girl Blue and the foot-stomping vibe of her sophomore, 2009's Southbound Train, then pushes the boundaries even further, taking in the best of musical influences while still keeping that elusive Cherry Lee Mewis treatment that gives the record a real punch.
10 of the 11 songs are brand new original cuts, the one cover being a version of the 1920 ragtime skiffle of Papa Charlie Jackson's Keep It Clean, which slots in quite nicely among the 10 new stonkin' gems that make up Cherry's third blues effort.
"On this album, we really went to town with it, had fun with it and poured our heart and soul into it, and I feel it really takes you on a journey," explains Cherry. "You can dance, you can sing-a-long, or you can chill out and reflect. There's songs about good times, love, jealousy, humour and ends with a tribute to my grandad who I lost last year. There's even a short instrumental where my dobro player Nick Slater beautifully chills you out before the album's final track, a pick-me-up after the rollercoaster! This album feels like a life raft because I was in the middle of it - it was all done in real time - while I was writing it, which was a different experience than writing in retrospect like I had done previously."
On Man Overboard Cherry writes of 'sinking from the realisation she's been in this position before' in a relationship and admitting needing 'rescuing' from a partner that ends up being the 'thorn in her side' and the 'ball to her chain'. All done very light-heartedly of course. "It's actually a feel-good uptempo number that has been going down great at the gigs. It was inspired by our 11-hour ferry trip to the Orkney Blues Festival , which should have only taken 6 hours! So we sank a few jars and Man Overboard was born..." It has a can't-help-but-sing-a-long chorus of 'all this water!' that will stay in your head long after hearing it.
If you're planning on a trip to Memphis and the Mississippi anytime soon, throw away the guide book! Just have a listen to Goin' Down (To Memphis Tennessee) and you'll instantly be transported to the deep south as Cherry sings of her recent experiences in the land where blues began. The driving bass line and funky galloping groove help paint the picture of standing on Beale Street and 'dancing in Rum Boogie' before 'heading to BB King's', but she'll give you a stern telling off for not tipping the band!
"After two trips to Memphis and Mississippi in under a year, I had so much to sing about! I need a whole album just to document those trips! But I wanted to give a 'tipping of the hat' to the fantastic blues players I met out there at the Thrill at the Grill which I mention in the song and the classic southern hospitality I received from the people in Columbus Mississippi where I had the amazing experience of playing. Not to mention just the history of the place, how could I not write about it?!"
On the gypsy jazz sound of Long Distance Lover, Cherry sings of a failed faraway romance, too many miles getting in the way of a long time love. "I felt like I had to write this song because the relationship didn't end on my terms and came to an abrupt finish which was so out of the blue, it made me get a lil' crazy, but I got creative with it...!"
Hunt You Down - a toe-tappin' groove of hot-wired jealousy.."this is classic green eyed monster syndrome!" laughs Cherry, "we've all been there, if only scratching the surface. I actually don't get jealous with the other person usually, but i've had that over-bearing, being-held-tighter-will-make-them-stay-behaviour aimed towards me and it does quite the opposite..."
The pure, beautiful tell-it-like-it-is honesty the only two ballads, Way To Your Heart & Just Can't Live Without You, accompanied by the classic acoustic guitar sound of Max Milligan, tell of a love that longs to happen and all that's being asked for is a way in and a wounding heart that tries to move on but simply can't without it's soulmate.
All it takes is band member Robbie Stewart-Mathews's growlin' blues harp and Max's slick slide guitar together with Cherry's turbo-lunged vocals on the song On Loan to really get your mojo working. Not to mention the shufflin' jug band influenced, eyebrow-raising He Wants More - a woman's humorous perspective of being exhausted by continually having to fulfill the needs of her lover! "It really tells a story, each verse is like a soap opera, you have to tune in to hear what happens next in the song! I think this is more reminiscent of the traditional blues songs which were wonderfully narrative and had a beginning, middle and end."
Anchoring all 11 songs together are Cherry's firin' band who Cherry describes as being the 'lighter fluid to fuel my fire'. Accompanying collaborator and producer Max on acoustic guitar are, Nicky Slater (dobro), Robbie Stewart-Mathews (double bass, blues harp & backing vox) and Flow (drums), her 'Blues Gems' as she calls them; Cherry feels a real drive behind her at the live shows.
The album closes with Legend - a tribute to her grandad who passed away just last year. With lyrics that smart like a fresh paper cut, accompanied by just a sparse, haunting banjo, you feel like you're the friend who Cherry spills her heart out to in this one and a half minutes of pure openness and vulnerability. "These are actually my dad's words. It's a poem he wrote that stunningly sums up one of the fantastic male role models i've had in my life and I wanted to share them on a wider scale so Robbie and I put the poem to music of which we used an old traditional mountain song melody and totally stripped it to just Robbie's banjo and I'm extremely pleased with the result. It was hard to sing and not bawl my eyes out, we both did the song in one take and that was the take that we went with."
So there you have it, a set of sleek blues-tinged songs steeped in soul with a band so tight and electric, you don't know what's hit you, topped with Cherry's versatile, throaty yet warm, beltin' yet rein-tightening vocals that get you straight through to the core proving that that's what will keep her star rising on the blues and roots scene for a long time coming. Get to a live show - you'll feel you've witnessed a real lightning-captured-in-a-bottle moment.
"I recognise that in the fickle world of the hustlin' music game, an artist's strongest asset is their music - songs that will move people long after the image fades. That's what I keep coming back to," she says with a knowing smile, "that's all that matters...."