Lisa Marie Presley whose critically acclaimed album ‘Storm & Grace’, her first new record in 7 years, is released on October 15th, has announced her first ever UK gig on October 4th at London’s Bush Hall.
Lisa Marie Presley
Much lauded singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt has been announced as the special guest for this one-off show. Amid penning and producing songs for others (including Lisa Marie, Paloma Faith and Jamie Cullum), cult British songsmith Ed Harcourt, recently recorded his sixth studio album which is set for release in January 2013.
Lisa Marie and her American band will be premiering songs from the album, an Americana-inspired collection which perfectly showcases Presley’s song-writing talent and smouldering alto voice. ‘Storm & Grace’ was produced by 12-time Grammy Award winner T-Bone Burnett, and featured collaborators include Richard Hawley, Ed Harcourt and 2 time Ivor Novello winner Sasha Skarbek who co-wrote the forthcoming single ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’.
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 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.
