CHARLES BRADLEY
BLACK VELVET
Final Album Out November 9 via Dunham/Daptone Records
Daptone Launches Microsite Featuring Murals Across the U.S. & Europe, Dedicated to the Screaming Eagle of Soul
Watch New Video Featuring Album Track “Luv Jones” HERE,
Time-Lapse Video of Chicago Mural Being Painted
Album Available in All Formats Including a Special Limited Edition Box Set
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Last month, Daptone Records imprint Dunham Records announced the release of Black Velvet, the fourth and final album from Charles Bradley. It was lovingly assembled by his friends and family and will be released November 9th. The 10-track album is a celebration of the life of the singer who would have turned 70th that same week. To help fans around the world celebrate the Screaming Eagle of Soul’s astounding life, Daptone has launched a microsite featuring murals painted by Chicago-based artist Joe Miller (https://thejoemiller.com), dedicated to Bradley located throughout the US. Murals will also be painted by local artists in select cities around the UK and the EU. Visit the site at www.daptonerecords.com/CBforev
In addition to featuring the murals as they go up leading up to the album release, the site will feature fan photos that use the hashtag #CharlesBradleyForever on social media. Those fans will also be entered into a contest to win a Charles Bradley gift package, with the winner to be announced in late November once all of the murals are completed.
Black Velvet is no anthology, greatest hits or other shallow rehashing of the songs that already made him famous. Rather, this album is a profound exploration through the less-travelled corners of the soulful universe that Charles and his longtime producer, co-writer and friend Tommy “TNT” Brenneck created in the studio together over their decade-long partnership.
It features new songs recorded during the sessions from each of his three albums, heard here for the very first time in all their scorching glory: “Can’t Fight the Feeling,” “Fly Little Girl” and the heart-wrenching single “I Feel a Change” (see the video HERE); hard core rarities like his funk-bomb duet with LaRose Jackson, “Luv Jones,” the psychedelic groover, “(I Hope You Find) The Good Life” and the ever-illusive alternate full band electric version of “Victim of Love”; sought-after covers of Nirvana’s “Stay Away,” Neal Young’s “Heart of Gold” and Rodriguez’s “Slip Away”; and the title track “Black Velvet,” a stirring Menahan Street Band instrumental to which Charles was never able to cut a vocal.
Daptone has also announced that, in addition to all regular formats, Black Velvet will be available as a special limited edition box set featuring the album on 180g Vinyl, a bonus 12″ with stripped down mixes and a message from Charles, full color photo book with extended liner notes from Tommy Brenneck, inner sleeves featuring a rare painting of Charles riding a horse through the sky, the true story which inspired the painting, transcribed in Charles’ own words, and more. The album will be available in all formats, including the box set, at https://ffm.to/charlesbradley.
The release of Black Velvet follows a string of critically lauded albums including his 2011 debut album No Time for Dreaming featuring his most successful single and a song that continues to resonate, “The World (Is Going Up In Flames)”; his 2013 album Victim of Love that included more of his signature deeply autobiographical songs; and 2016’s Changes, whose title track and lead single was the deeply moving Black Sabbath cover.
Charles was truly a transcendent singer who led a remarkable life, overcoming unimaginable adversity to achieve great success and international acclaim very late in his life. What was really special about him and made him different from everybody else in the world was how he understood his pain as a cry for universal love and humanity. He felt that if he loved enough–if we all loved each other enough-we could take away the world’s pain and sadness. That is why he jumped off the stage and literally tried to hug everybody he could. It’s why he took such great care of a mother that had abandoned him. It’s why he sang and danced like a lunatic. It’s why he screamed like an eagle. And that’s why we love him.
On September 23rd, 2017, Charles Edward Bradley passed away from cancer, surrounded by his family, friends and bandmates. Black Velvet is a celebration of his life, and is destined to join Charles’ first three albums alongside the cannon of essential soul records for the ages.
CHARLES BRADLEY PRESS QUOTES
“Bradley was a relentlessly transfixing presence onstage, able to quiet an entire audience with a ballad before turning a crowd frenzied with full-stage dancing and a deep, full-throated roar.” – Rolling Stone
“The way Charles Bradley sang, the way he commanded a stage, his weathered yet powerful scream – every bit of his essence was imbued with the gratitude, love and absolute urgency of a man who waited until his 60s to realize his dream.” – NPR Music
“Listening to Bradley sing, there’s no trace of retro-reinvention or reimagination; the man simply loved to sing soul, the stuff he listened to in his youth, and injected with a lifetime’s worth of steadily accrued showmanship and pain” – AV Club
“At first, he tried to be James Brown, but Bradley’s goodness was bright enough to shine its own kind of light.” – Pitchfork
“Bradley’s intensely personal lyrics stamped him as an original” – Chicago Tribune
“one of the most joyful and powerful contemporary vocalists in his genre” – Los Angeles Times
“Bradley sang as if he were running out of time, or oxygen… with genuine, fiery urgency-as if a lover, or love itself, or the world could be gone tomorrow” – The Ringer
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