Over het album

For their ninth album, the Grammy-nominated vocalist and her band of 18 years leave preconceptions in the dust, taking instantly familiar, American-born compositions, deconstructing them and presenting them anew in their own inimitable way. After hearing the Tierney Sutton Band’s take on these cornerstones of the American lexicon, it may be impossible to imagine them performed any other way.

“We first started looking at an ‘America’-themed CD three or four years ago,” says Sutton, whose vocal style has been described as “soft as silk and smooth as fine bourbon” by the Chicago Sun Times. Circumstances led the group in a different direction at the time, the result being 2009’s Desire, which earned the group its third consecutive Grammy nomination for Best Vocal Jazz Album.

But the concept that gave ultimately gave rise to American Road stayed with Sutton and the band—Christian Jacob (piano), Kevin Axt (acoustic and electric bass), Trey Henry (acoustic and electric bass) and Ray Brinker (drums and percussion)—until, having spent countless days and nights traveling America’s roads and playing in her towns and cities, they were able to finally bring it to fruition. All of the arrangements on American Road were conceived by the entire band, which, said The New York Times, has “refined the kind of rapport that could only be achieved over time…providing a continuous flow of support, strength and inspiration.”

In a recent interview with the Digital Jazz News blog, Sutton summed up her experience making the album. The music, she said, “sort of flowed out of us, and, she added, “We walked out of the studio feeling that it is our best work to date.”