Alyssa Graham: Lock, Stock & Soul

Read More Alyssa Graham It's hard to listen to Alyssa Graham and not think about her beautiful voice, as it seems the light and easy jazz music is there to play around her voice. Alyssa Graham just wrapped up her UK tour and is now back in the United States. She is doing a brief tour through the mid-west, starting at Minneapolis' 400 Bar, and ending in New Orleans. The tour is probably in support of her Lock, Stock & Soul album, which was released earlier this year on Sunnyside Records. I've reviewed her previous album, Echo, and noted how great her voice sounded on the album. The jazzy music simply served as a backdrop to her wonderful vocals. It would seem with Lock, Stock & Soul that Graham is shifting to a classic 60s rock & soul (judging from her punny titled album.) According to her biography, it is true, her music on the new album is influenced by her longtime love of Neil Young, Nick Drake, and Bob Dylan. Graham had this to say about Lock, Stock & Soul, "We explored so much great music together during the making of this record. Everything from Johnny Cash to The Kinks to Francoise Hardy and Ryan Adams. One of the things Craig [Street, producer] reminded me was that it's all about what the song means-the emotion it brings out in you and how you connect to it. He really got me back into writing music. If you notice, on Echo, I didn't write or co-write any of the songs, but on this I wrote or co-wrote many of them. Since then, Doug and I have written a ton of songs that'll be on the next record." Alyssa Graham's tour dates below: 10/18 The 400 Bar          Minneapolis, MN 10/21 Just Jules Bar          Cedar Rapids, IA 10/23 Thirty Thirty Coffee          Peoria, IL 10/24 Shandie's          Paducah, KY 10/25 Mangia Italiano          St. Louis, MO 10/29 Kudzu's          Memphis, TN 11/01 Neutral Ground          New Orleans, LA vu () ♥ alyssagraham.com