Elles Bailey may well have picked up two awards from the prestigious UK Americana 2023 Awards (the highly coveted Artist of the Year Award and the very first Live Act of the Year Award and have been shortlisted for 3 awards at the forthcoming UK Blues Awards 2023 but she’s not standing still, basking in acclaim: this ever-creative, hardworking, genre-topping artist is moving forwards and releasing fresh material.
Elles releases her brand-new single ‘Hole in my Pocket’, taken from the Deluxe edition of her chart-topping album ‘Shining In The Half Light’: a new edition due out on 17th March.
‘Hole in my Pocket’ premiered on Radio 2 this week and is a blues-inspired roots rocker, suffused with Motown bass lines and marinated in soulful guitar riffs & gospel-inspired backing vocals that show just how perfectly Ms Bailey blurs and transcends the over-tidy picket fences between blues, roots rock and Americana.
Elles wrote the song with Matt Owens (co-founder of indie kids Noah and the Whale) and the track was co-produced by Elles Bailey, Peter Miles and Elles’ touring band: Joe Wilkins on guitar; Jonny Henderson on ivories’ Matthew Waer on bass duties; and Matthew Jones on drums.
“What a year, what a story, what an epic journey!” says Elles, “Thank-you for joining me on it. So many of you have asked for a deluxe version of ‘Shining in the Half Light’ including some live tracks from the record’s playlist. So, I got the whole cast together to record 5 of the tracks live at The Pool. It has been the one and only time we have been able to get the Shining in the Half Light crew all together in one room: a very special moment indeed, particularly in light of the experiences of the last few years. But it felt like it wasn’t enough; that we still had more of the story to tell.
“To do that, the band and I headed back to Devon in December 2022 — to Middle Farm Studios – exactly two years to date since the original recording —and there we tracked two new originals and two covers. These we recorded and mixed live to tape with no computers at all: a complete first for me and part of a beautiful learning curve.
“I think these tracks showcase this incredible band at their finest. It was a real blessing to make these tracks all together. It wasn’t about creating a ‘perfect’ recording, but about capturing a little spark of musical magic. I can’t wait for you to hear them’
‘Hole in my Pocket is now available to download or stream from all digital platforms HERE
Check out the video for Hole In My Pocket HERE
Shining In The Half Light’ Deluxe will be released and available on all digital platforms and on CD on 17th March, 2023
The album will be available to Pre-order on Monday 13th Feb, at 7pm www.ellesbaileypreorder.com
