Leyla Mccalla Releases Album Title Track “Sun Without The Heat” Today
Coming out this Friday, Leyla McCalla’s new album and fifth studio recording, ‘Sun Without the Heat’, is playful and full of joy while also holding the pain and tension of transformation. Throughout the record's ten tracks, McCalla achieves a balance of heaviness and light with melodies and rhythms derived from various forms of Afro-diasporic music including Afrobeat, Ethiopian modalities, Brazilian Tropicalismo, and American folk and blues.
Today she is sharing the album’s title track “Sun Without the Heat” - listen to it below.
Listen to “Sun Without the Heat”: https://youtu.be/hEWxTUksc0s?si=hRs3a18T-EhKxs5E
McCalla drew lyrical inspiration on this album from the writings of Black feminist Afrofuturist thinkers, including Octavia Butler, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and adrienne maree brown. Like these authors, McCalla looks to songwriting to increase faith and hope, encourage community thinking, and catalyze personal transformation. “Songwriting is a modality to tell the stories that need to be told,” she explains. “Sometimes these are painful stories to tell.”
Born in New York City to Haitian emigrants and activists, McCalla’s music vibrates with three centuries of history and influences from around the globe. She possesses a stunning mastery of the cello, tenor banjo and guitar and, as a multilingual singer and songwriter, has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. In addition to her solo work, McCalla is a founding member of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell) and alumna of Grammy award-winning Black string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
Her 2022 album ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ told the story of the brave journalists at Radio Haiti who risked their lives to report news in Haitian Kreyol, highlighting the critical importance of a free and independent press to promote self and societal liberation. ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ was named one of the Best Albums of the year by The Guardian, Variety, Mojo and NPR Music, and her song “Dodinin” made Barack Obama’s short list of favorites. McCalla was also awarded the 2022 People’s Voice Award by Folk Alliance International, an award given to artists who unabashedly embrace social change in their creative work.
Tonight McCalla and her band are playing a hometown show in New Orleans at the Broadside, followed by exciting performances at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and New York City’s Joe’s Pub this weekend around the album’s release. All upcoming dates are listed below.
TOUR DATES
4/9 - New Orleans, LA @ Broadside
4/11 - Washington, DC @ The Kennedy Center
4/12 - New York, NY @ Joe’s Pub
4/13 - Albany, NY @ The Egg
4/20 - North Charleston, SC @ High Water Festival
4/26 - New Orleans, LA @ NOLA Jazz & Heritage Festival
4/28 - Tallahassee, FL @ Word of South Festival
5/2 - Washington, CD @ Poetry Out Loud (solo)
6/14 - New York City, NY @ New York Guitar Festival (in duo with Marc Ribot)
6/26 - Chatauqua, NY @ Chatauqua Institution
7/5 - Portland, OR @ Waterfront Blues Festival
7/19 - Amarante, Portugal @ MIMO Festival
7/21 - Koblenz, Germany @ Horizonte Festival
7/24 - Krems, Austria @ Glatt und Verkehrt
7/25 - Innsbruck, Austria @ Treibhaus
7/27 - Cambridge, UK @ Cambridge Folk Festival
8/2 - Crozon, FR @ Festival du Bout du Monde
8/24 - Kettering, UK @ Greenbelt Festival
8/25 - Northampton, UK @ Shambala Festival
9/7 - New Haven, CT @ CT Folk Fest
11/8 - Dijon, FR @ La Vapeur
11/9 - Plaisir, FR @ La Clé Des Champs
11/12 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
11/14 - Luxembourg, Lux @ Philharmonie Luxembourg