Shadow

Lauded vocalist Lizz Wright encapsulates an illustrious 20-year career as one of the great modern American singers with the studio debut album, Shadow, on her label Blues and Greens Records. Shadow’s producer and longtime collaborator/music director Chris Bruce (Seal, Bettye LaVette, Sheryl Crow) with Wright brought “Sweet Feeling” by Candi Staton into her world as part of the pre-production process of listening to an array of tunes. Wright comments, “I first heard Candi Staton as a child because of her gospel singing, which my father loved. I didn’t realise that she also sang contemporary music until years later. Her voice is like no other and sounds honest and at home in anything she sings, no matter the genre.” On “Sweet Feeling,” Wright digs her heels into the blues without apology. Making a home in the blues city of Chicago, she signals that now is the time and place to lean back and be in it. Wright says, “I’m excited to be singing the blues more now. It has a boldness, but it is also comforting. Singing the blues in Chicago is like finding sap in a great old tree. The blues is in the spirit of the city.