Black Thunder is the new album by Seattle-based artist Brittany Davis, arriving June 13 on Loosegroove Records, a label run by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard. The album's first single, "Amid The Blackout Of The Night" is out today (listen/share here). Featuring Davis on keys and vocals, Evan Flory-Barnes on bass, and D’Vonne Lewis on drums, the Josh Evans-produced offering recalls artists like Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in its immersive, incantatory spirit.
The trio — who barely knew each other previously — improvised Black Thunder in a surge of interactive creativity across two days in the studio. The pressure-cooker environment did away with overthinking and brought each musician’s A-game. Steeped in Black and Afrocentric cultural influences, this is Davis’ most poignant and cathartic work to date.
"Brittany, Evan, and D’Vonne have, in some way, been preparing for this recording all their lives. Honing their instrumental craft and ability, of course — but more importantly, preparing their ears, emotions, and egos to be fully present and create absolutely in the moment," Evans says. "To listen deeply and respond empathetically. To speak with uncomfortable honesty. To listen, and be vulnerable."
Davis — who has been blind since birth — arrives at Black Thunder via considerable headwinds. In 2023, she released her debut album, Image Issues, also via Loosegroove Records. Image Issues met critical hosannas, including recognition and appearance on NPR Tiny Desk Home, KEXP, World Cafe and SPIN. As NPR’s All Songs Considered put it, "Brittany's music is a potent expression of hope...giving the listener courage to face the challenges the world throws at them." And American Songwriter hailed her “voice that would fill the deepest cavern. The blind singer/songwriter is a marvel, imbued with talent and presence.” In 2023, Davis was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, which noted, “She uses her music to connect with people and fight for a more inclusive world.”
Black Thunder marks a shift away from Image Issues’ urban soul-funk built upon drum machines and programmed keys; instead opting for a fully live, organic performance, one that showcases her stylistic maturation, pure expression and the breadth of her versatility.
"She is channeling something or someone else," the producer adds. "Voices, spirits, the divine — something bigger than the room itself. Something more than just the three musicians playing — something older, something deeper."
"So many things I’ve never seen / but I’ve touched it all, it seems,” Davis sings on the album's first single, “Amid the Blackout of the Night." "She’s never seen the stars; she’s never seen the sun nor moon; she’s never seen the night. But how can she somehow still perfectly capture that feeling of looking up into the night sky?” Evans says. “Is there more to seeing than just sight?"
Black Thunder is the work of a sui generis artist charting a course all her own. By bulldozing easy narratives and accessing the realm of pure feeling, Davis’ latest missive is a creative thunderclap that will be impossible to unhear.
BLACK THUNDER
Track Listing
1. Ancestors
2. All You Get
3. Ancestors II
4. Amid the Blackout of the Night
5. Ancestors III
6. Black Thunder
7. Ancestors IV
8. Change Me
9. Ancestors V
10. Girl (Don’t You Know)
11. Girl (Now We’re the Same)
12. Ancestors VI
13. Mirrors
14. Ancestors VII
15. Sarah’s Song
16. Sun and Moon
17. Ancestors VIII
Black Thunder is out June 13 on Loosegroove Records. | Available now for pre-save and pre-order on digital and vinyl formats HERE.
