The Reverend Shawn Amos Releases Debut Album “Blue Sky” With The Brotherhood
April 17, 2020 – American roots artist The Reverend Shawn Amos has released his new album Blue Sky, his debut with the newly formed Brotherhood band. The new album is a full-circle moment for the Rev, featuring a group of masterful musicians that includes drummer Brady Blade (Dave Matthews, Indigo Girls), bassist Christopher Thomas (Norah Jones, Carly Simon, Macy Gray) and longtime Rev guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts. “If you listen closely, you can hear the intent and thoughtfulness that it takes to make an album this complex sound so relaxed.” – American Blues Scene“That message of joy and togetherness might as well be the motto of the Reverend’s whole record.” – No Depression“Every one of these songs resonates like a bright, multi-hued “Blue Sky” of blues for us all, in these highly troubled times.” – Tahoe Onstage“…it will be a fan favorite all year long” – American Songwriter“”This material showcases Shawn Amos’s songwriting like no previous Rev outing, alternately furious, vulnerable; crazy, forlorn and tender.” – ElmoreStream Blue Sky:https://revshawnamos.ffm.to/blueskyspotifyBlue Sky marks a major step forward for The Reverend Shawn Amos, both sonically and personally. With a recent move from his hometown of Los Angeles to Texas, he found himself immersed in a world wildly different from his own, yet still somehow familiar. Surrounded by a variety of new sounds and genres, the Rev injects his bluesy, gritty sound with a revitalized creative energy while embracing a newfound sense of home. “On this one I really wanted to cede control to the guys,” Amos recently told Billboard in a feature interview. “It’s the first album I’ve made where I’ve shared so much space and shared songwriting. I wanted to be part of a band rather than a solo artist — that was a big motivating factor for me.” While his previous release, 2018’s politically-charged Breaks It Down, reckoned with the calamity of our current society, the new album looks inward as the Rev explores his own identity and embraces his singer/songwriter past. “On this album, I wanted to connect the dots between my current love of blues and my singer-songwriter past,” says The Rev. “When I first started recording blues material, I pulled up the bridge behind my Americana catalogue. Five years into this blues journey, I was ready to revisit that terrain, but in the end, I really believe that blues music is roots music. Making this album has allowed me to bring both sides of myself as a writer together.” The Rev is also embracing collaboration in a new way – unlike past Shawn Amos collaborations, the Brotherhood is in it for the long haul. More than a band, they have become a tight-knit group of brothers, who provide critical emotional and spiritual support as the Rev reckons with loss, dislocation, reinvention, and his own lifelong journey in understanding his blackness. “I sound free, because I’m as free as I’ve ever been as an artist,” explains the Rev. “I’m around people who make me feel safe, people I can lean on emotionally. It’s very much a collaborative experience…I couldn’t imagine making this music with people who are not friends.”
Shawn Amos has been featured on NPR Weekend Edition and ABC News, with accolades from Relix, Purevolume, Elmore and more. Prior to emerging as the Reverend in 2013, he made a name for himself as a producer (Solomon Burke’s Live in Nashville, and Shout! Factory box set Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones), and as an Americana singer-songwriter who’d grown up in a dramatically dysfunctional L.A. home, a story the Rev details in his serialized “Cookies & Milk” feature with The Huffington Post.
