Kenny Neal - Stright From The Heart

Down in Louisiana, they do things differently. The Southern state�s musical giants have always had their own distinct recipe for American roots: spiced with jazz, steeped in swamp-blues and cooked up a little differently by every artist who performs it. As a second-generation child of the Bayou State, Kenny Neal has taken his own inimitable guitar, gale-force harp and roadworn voice all over the globe. But in 2022, the Grammy-nominated blues master�s latest album, Straight From The Heart, finds him drawn by the siren call of his hometown and musical ground zero, Baton Rouge.�This is the first album I�ve ever recorded on my own turf, and it truly came straight from the heart,� says Neal, who both led and produced a crack team of local musicians at his own Brookstown Recording Studios. �All the tributaries of the blues converge here, flowing into one rich tradition.�You�ll hear all of Neal�s travels in Straight From The Heart, but this latest album brings it all back home in every sense. Lining up in the studio alongside his Baton Rouge compadr�s, the respect that Neal commands on the scene also drew some special guests, including hot-tip blues sensation Christone �Kingfish� Ingram (who co-writes and plays stinger guitar on Mount Up On The Wings Of The King), pop royalty Tito Jackson (on Two Timing) and two songs with Rockin� Dopsie Junior & The Zydeco Twisters. You�ll even hear Neal�s supremely talented daughter Syreeta drive the vocal outro of Two Timing.�It was like a family reunion,� says Neal of the good-natured sessions. �It was excellent because I had all the musicians that grew up under me here in Baton Rouge. And just being in my own studio, not worrying about the clock.�Straight From The Heart is a fitting title for a record that salutes the many loves of Neal�s life. There�s the brass-driven opener Blues Keep Chasing Me, which tips a hat to his recently departed friend, Lucky Peterson. There�s the touching piano-led Someone Somewhere, which salutes his beloved father, harp master Raful Neal, who put him on this path. Elsewhere, Neal�s deep love for every side of his home state is underlined by the zydeco chop of Bon Temps Rouler and New Orleans, whose lyrics reference everything from �sippin� on Hurricane� to �sittin� on the Bayou catching catfish�. Faced with such an open-hearted record, it�s impossible not to reciprocate. And as the world opens up and Kenny Neal embraces his natural habitat of the road, this Louisiana icon will bring a little bit of that Baton Rouge spirit onto every stage he treads. �It don't cost nothing to share a little love and a little respect,� he says. �And we can all rise above��