Lisa Marie Presley - Storm & Grace
Lisa Marie Presley releases ‘Storm & Grace’, her first new record in 7 years, on October 15th through Universal Records.
The album, an Americana-inspired collection which perfectly showcases Lisa Marie’s song-writing talent and smouldering alto voice, was produced by 12-time Grammy Award winner T-Bone Burnett, and featured collaborators include Richard Hawley and Ed Harcourt.
With all the hoopla that has surrounded her, it’s easy to forget that Lisa Marie Presley is at heart a simple Southern girl whose earliest musical memories are of obsessively listening to 45’s in her bedroom at Graceland and of her dad catching her singing into a hairbrush in front of a mirror at the age of three.
The Memphis-born Presley reclaims those roots on her new album which is a marked departure from Presley’s previous albums, 2003's gold-certified To Whom It May Concern and 2005's Now What, which both debuted in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, "I love the songs, but I think I was hiding behind a lot of sonic layers because it was scary to go out there," Presley says.
"It’s easier to bury yourself in the noise so you don't stand out. This album is a lot more stripped-down and naked, both musically and lyrically."
The album’s rootsy tone is set immediately with the opening track 'Over Me,' with its echoey guitar line, burping bassline, shuffling backbeat, and lyrics that lament a lover who’s replaced her, while the ominous, swampy lead single "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" and the pedal-steel and mandolin-driven title track sound like they could have been recorded during an impromptu back-porch jam session.
Lisa Marie retreated from the music industry after the release of Now What and relocated to the English countryside with her husband and young twin daughters.
With some gentle prodding from new manager Simon Fuller, Presley agreed, in the summer of 2009, to sit down with some new song-writing collaborators, including three British artists : Sacha Skarbek (who’s written with Adele among others), and singer-songwriters Ed Harcourt and Richard Hawley.
The first song to emerge was a gentle ballad called 'Weary,' which Presley wrote with Hawley.
"That one turned the tide and sparked the whole sound of the record," she says. Over an eight-month period, Presley wrote 28 songs including 'Storm and Grace' and 'How Do You Fly This Plane?' with Hawley; 'Un-Break' and 'Close To The Edge' with Skarbek; and 'Soften The Blows' and 'Over Me' with Harcourt.
Taken as a whole, the record is a unflinchingly honest piece of work from this songwriter, who, though known for her tough frankness, has managed to create a tender, consoling thread that runs throughout the album.
When legendary producer and musician T Bone Burnett heard the songs, he immediately called Lisa Marie saying ‘I don’t want to do a big song and dance. I really like the record and I’d love to produce it. What I heard was honest, raw, unaffected, and soulful.
'I thought her father would be proud of her. The more I listened to the songs, the deeper an artist I found her to be. Listening beyond the media static, Lisa Marie Presley is a Southern American folk music artist of great value.'
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