South African Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and frontman with the rock band Big Sky, Steve Louw‘s fourth studio album Traces Of The Flood is out now via BFD/The Orchard, as is the title track as his latest single.
“In this panoramic tale, set in the barren South African Karoo landscape, we are on an exploration, traveling from the sea to the source of an African river. In a timeless landscape, cut through by wind and water, we meet renegades and rebels, lawmen and ladies, on a journey which becomes one of self-discovery.”
“‘Traces Of The Flood’ is a song where you have to keep moving,” continued Louw. “The law is on your back. Storms are brewing. Fires are raging. You’re heading into the high mountains with a way to go.
“Horses, cadillacs and Bonnie & Clyde whippets cross the empty plains, leading you through where a river quivers and disappears into a desert forest. The spirits of the dead are all around you, in the high plains and on moonlit gravel. You’ve landed on a deserted beach and sought redemption in the heart of the river.”
If Hendrix had stuck around a few years longer and kept Dave Mason close at hand, they might have taken a pass at Bob Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ and come up with something similar, arrangement-wise, to Steve Louw‘s new single ‘Traces Of The Flood’. Lyrically it’s more akin to the short story format than just rhyming couplets, evocative, intriguing, leaving us without resolution, more hanging on something of a mystery.
It’s roots music in the manner of Mr Zimmerman, so it should come as little surprise that longtime Dylan touring guitarists Doug Lancio and Bob Britt feature on Traces Of The Flood, produced by longtime Louw associate Kevin Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Beth Hart).
Tracks featured are: ‘Traces Of The Flood’, ‘Tumbling Down’, ‘Echo Dream’, ‘Angeline’, ‘CBGB Xmas’, ‘Light Of Day (Woody’s Blues)’, ‘Across The River’, ‘Dark Pony’, ‘Into The Night’ and ‘Time To Move’. It is available to order on CD, vinyl and digital.
Traces Of The Flood follows the album’s lead single ‘Time To Move’, which you can read more about at RAMzine.
