With his solo band starting its first tour in over 30 months this September, ALTER BRIDGE‘s Myles Kennedy has released another music video from his sophomore release “The Ides Of March”. The video for “A Thousand Words” finds Myles reconnecting with director Stefano Bertelli (ALTER BRIDGE‘s “Native Son”/Myles Kennedy‘s “In Stride” video) for another animated masterpiece. The video shows Myles reflecting on life at an open grave as he sings the thought-provoking lyrics “‘Cause in times like these, we must live and learn.”
It was recently announced that Kennedy will head out on “The Ides Of March” tour. The 15-date trek will kick off on September 7 in St. Petersburg, Florida and make stops in Atlanta, Georgia; Des Moines, Iowa; Nashville, Tennessee; and New York, Ne w York, among others, before it wraps up in Baltimore, Maryland on October 2. They will also be part of the Foothills Festival in Jasper, Alabama on September 11 and the Adelphia Music Hall Summer Concert Series in Marietta, Ohio on October 1. These shows will include the full trio that recorded “The Ides Of March” — drummer Zia Uddin and bassist/manager Tim Tournier — on the road as well. All shows are on sale now and more information on tickets/VIP packages for all dates can be found at www.myleskennedy.com.
“The Ides Of March” was released in May via Napalm Records.
During his time at home due to all touring being canceled, Myles created the framework for the song ideas that would make up “The Ides Of March”. He then called up his cohorts from his “Year Of The Tiger” debut — Uddin and Tournier — and the three musicians drove to Florida to record the album with longtime producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette.
From the slide guitar riffs of “Get Along” to the pensive blues style of closer “Worried Mind”, it is clear that Myles has crafted a formidable follow up to his debut solo album. While “Year Of The Tiger” was more of an acoustic exploration through Myles‘s mind, “The Ides Of March” finds him strapping on his electric guitar and pushing himself as a guitarist/songwriter. Tracks like “A Thousand Words”, “Wake Me When It’s Over” and “Moonshot” showcase the diverse musical arrangements that have garnered Myles fans globally across all of his projects. The epic “The Ides Of March” clocks in at over seven minutes, and Myles, Tim and Zia showcase their musical chops on the track.
In November, Myles told Kylie Olsson about how “The Ides Of March” compares to “Year Of The Tiger”: “It dawned on me last night as I was listening [to the new album], I was, like, ‘You basically made a rock record.’ [Laughs] I don’t know if I went into it with that intention initially. And I feel like it definitely is still a continuation of the overall style that was established for the solo project on ‘Year Of The Tiger’. There’s a fair amount of acoustic instrumentation; there’s a lot of lap steel [guitar]. I love the lap steel; I just love the way you can make it weep — it’s got a very vocal quality. But then I realized there’s just a lot of guitar and a lot more solos — you know, guitar geek stuff that I enjoy.”
A month earlier, Kennedy told Terrie Carr of the Morristown, New Jersey radio station 105.5 WDHA that it was a joy to reconnect with Uddin, Tournier and Baskette for the making of the new LP.
“Oh, yeah, it was great,” he said. “It was great, because we actually drove [to the studio in Florida]. So Zia, my drummer, who, we’ve played together for the last 30 years, off and on, since we were in high school. He’s, in my opinion, one of the greatest rock and roll drummers alive; he’s so good, it’s mind-boggling. So we started driving. We left Spokane, with the gear in tow. And then we met Tim about halfway. I think we met somewhere in Tennessee, maybe. Then we after driving to Orlando, we all quarantined. Zia did his drums and then he went home, and then Tim finished up. He hung around for a little while. And then I was there for, I think, seven weeks with Elvis.”
He continued: “It’s a fun environment. We all love each other dearly. I’m serious when I say this: we’re a bunch of middle-aged children. I mean, it’s as if we’ve taken a time machine and we’re in the seventh grade. And the humor is ridiculously silly. I don’t even know how to articulate how ridiculous it gets when you put all of us in a studio together. [Laughs]”
