Spadei, the supergroup consisting of Wally Ingram, Tom Freund, and Stevie Blacke are thrilled to announce their debut album Left Right Here forthcoming on Six Degrees Records on January 27, 2023. Lead single “Grateful Winds” exemplifies Spadei’s blissful meditative grooves. The track eases you into an atmosphere where vocals, flute, sitar, bass, and percussion beautifully intertwine to uplift your mood. “Grateful Winds” is out now with a Kaya Project remix dropping November 30. Stream and download “Grateful Winds”: https://spadei.lnk.to/gratefulwinds
All the members of Spadei are accomplished music veterans in their own right. Wally Ingram is the rock world’s version of Kevin Bacon: there aren’t too many degrees of separation between him and just about every star on stage over the past decades. He’s been a favorite of everyone from Sheryl Crow and Eric Burdon to Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, David Lindley, Bob Weir & Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, JJ Cale, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bruce Hornsby, Shawn Colvin, John Trudell, Tracy Chapman, Steve Kimock, Anders Osborne, Blues Traveler, Crowded House and was one of the members of the popular GRAMMY-nominated band Timbuk3.
Singer/songwriter Tom Freund’s musical resume is just as impressive as he has released more than a dozen records, collaborated with legends such as Elvis Costello and Jackson Browne, and his longtime collaborator Ben Harper with whom he’s made numerous albums and toured the world. Tom has also recorded and toured with rock legend Graham Parker as well as appearing with him in Judd Apatow’s “This Is 40.” Tom has spent much of his career traversing genres, melding whatever sounds that have happened to catch his whimsy. His songs have been featured on TV shows including Better Things, Parenthood and One Tree Hill. For his latest television project, the Amazon show Pete The Cat, Freund has co-written, sung and played songs with Elvis Costello, KT Tunstall, Dave Matthews and Diana Krall.
In the last 20 years, Stevie Blacke has had an illustrious career as a string arranger and multi-instrumentalist. He plays just about everything with strings and has recorded and/or performed with the most successful people in the business including Snoop Dogg, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Alice in Chains, Cher, Weezer, Beck, Pink, Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, Steve Vai, Elton John with Timbaland, Rihanna, Madonna and more. It’s a virtual who’s who of popular music.
The executive producer, Joby Pritzker is SpaDei’s 5th Beatle or rather the “4th SpaDei” whose participation was instrumental in launching the new project. Joby is a multi-instrumentalist, music/burning man event producer, and record producer for his newly launched label. He has been a longtime creative conspirator with all the members of the band going back to his college days with Tom.
Although the members have had illustrious musical careers, the Spadei project is truly special for each of them. Wally states, “This recording project was born out of the collaborative improvisational sessions at Stevie Blacke’s amazing studio full of stringed and percussion instruments from all over the world. A musical wonderland for creativity and capturing magic in a bottle! There was no preconception really. We first got together with Tom Freund to basically JAM and see what might come of it!? We are all old friends and between the 3 of us we cover a lot of musical bases and there was no limit to where the music might take us.” Tom Freund adds, “We have been cooking this up for some time, it was a need to hear some music we could all feel was good for our mind and bodies, at a spa, or while doing yoga, meditation or even on a train to St Louis! To chill.” Stevie Blacke concurs, “We started this project out of a desire to create improvisational live music, which is how we recorded the basic tracks for all our songs… live. We would just go in the studio and play, all together…at the SAME TIME!!! Such a novelty in this day and age of home studios. Then we’d do overdubs and make something of it. It was a labor of love over a span of 3-4 years of recording.”
The result is Left Right Here, a collection of musical soundscapes created for the soul and set to the tempos of your resting heart rate. It came about after conversations about how uncreative “spa” or “relaxation” music was and the desire to create something that was enjoyable to listen to and at the same time help elevate your mood. And coming from more of a Rock n Roll and psychedelic approach. The perfect soundtrack when dealing with the stressful and uncertain post pandemic era.
The album was also a therapeutic exercise for the musicians to help navigate through life’s anxieties. Wally Ingram, being a stage four cancer survivor, learned the value of meditation and visualization to manage it. He explains, “I feel like this music goes hand in hand with the incredibly powerful and often overlooked practices of mindfulness, breathing and physical movement (yoga/dance). All of these are just as important and along with medical and psychological treatments are mutually beneficial.”
The guest musicians who rounded out the sound on Left Right Here include Kirtan vocalist, musician Amritakripa aka Kripa, as well as the amazing singer Donna DeLory (Madonna, Solo Artist). David Immergluck of the Counting Crows on Pedal Steel and even some background vocals. Joel Harper contributed some wood flutes and didgeridoo. While Left Right Here music executive producer and the 4th Spadei member Joby Pritzker played piano and percussion.
Eventhough the musicians involved in this project have their own ongoing projects, Spadei would very much love to take the band on the road. The band looks forward to getting more involved with like-minded events centered around healing music, yoga, or perhaps spas and retreats.
Looking back the band concludes, “We’ve loved making this body of music over the course of the past few years now. We hope that it is another toolset to use for mindful maintenance. And that it helps provide a soundtrack for navigating your journey through life’s hills and valleys.
Enjoy the Ride!”
