FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2024
Contact: kelly@epitaph.com

WATCH LEYLA MCCALLA’S BLOGOTHEQUE TAKE AWAY SHOW

‘SUN WITHOUT THE HEAT’ OUT NOW

PERFORMING AT AMERICANAFEST NEXT WEEK,
EUROPEAN DATES TOUR THIS NOVEMBER

Today Leyla McCalla shares her La Blogotheque Take Away Show, performing a beautiful cello arrangement of the track “Sun Without The Heat”. The Take Away Show was filmed last July at Colborne Road, in the heart of London’s Notting Hill.

Watch it HERE.

“I was directed to a small cafe on a street corner in London for a solo filming of the song “Sun without the Heat.” Leyla McCalla recounts. "I set up on the corner and the crowd was equal parts very curious about what I was about to do and completely nonchalant. It reminded me of previous eras of my life when I would go busking. The Moroccan man at the end was delighted to learn that my name is Leyla, an Arabic name which means dark as the night. He shared a song with me and it was very sweet. Everybody is a star! 🤩😂 Hope you enjoy!!”

Next week McCalla will perform the opening set at ANTI- Records' 25^th anniversary Americanafest Showcase in Nashville, also featuring performances from Neko Case, Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman and Christian Lee Hutson. She will also be speaking on multiple Americanafest panels and performing on their day stage at 3 pm on September 19.

“Sun Without The Heat” is the title track from McCalla’s latest album on ANTI-. It’s an album that is playful and full of joy while also holding the pain and tension of transformation; listen to it HERE.

McCalla drew lyrical inspiration on this album from the writings of Black feminist Afrofuturist thinkers, including Octavia Butler, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and adrienne maree brown. Like these authors, McCalla looks to songwriting to increase faith and hope, encourage community thinking, and catalyze personal transformation. “Songwriting is a modality to tell the stories that need to be told,” she explains. “Sometimes these are painful stories to tell.”

Born in New York City to Haitian emigrants and activists, McCalla’s music vibrates with three centuries of history and influences from around the globe. She possesses a stunning mastery of the cello, tenor banjo and guitar and, as a multilingual singer and songwriter, has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience. In addition to her solo work, McCalla is a founding member of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell) and alumna of Grammy award-winning Black string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Her 2022 album ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ told the story of the brave journalists at Radio Haiti who risked their lives to report news in Haitian Kreyol, highlighting the critical importance of a free and independent press to promote self and societal liberation. ‘Breaking the Thermometer’ was named one of the Best Albums of the year by The Guardian, Variety, Mojo and NPR Music, and her song “Dodinin” made Barack Obama’s short list of favorites. McCalla was also awarded the 2022 People’s Voice Award by Folk Alliance International, an award given to artists who unabashedly embrace social change in their creative work. 

After extensive headline and festival touring in the US, Europe and the UK the past few months, McCalla will be back in Europe coming November. All dates are listed below. Tickets are available HERE.

TOUR DATES

9/19 - Nashville, TN @ ANTI- Records 25th Anniversary Americanafest Showcase
9/27 - New Orleans, LA @ Saenger Theatre w/ Big Freedia + Ani DiFranco
9/28 - New Orleans, LA @ Black Americanafest at The Broadside
10/19 - Bloomington, IN @ BloominGrass
11/1 - Saint Louis, Senegal @ Festival Autour Des Cordes
11/5 – Brussels, BE @ La Botanique
11/6 – Le Préo, FR @ Oberhausbergen
11/7 – La Mouche, FR @ Saint-Genis-Laval
11/8 - Dijon, FR @ La Vapeur
11/9 - Plaisir, FR @ La Clé Des Champs
11/12 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
11/14 - Luxembourg, Lux @ Philharmonie Luxembourg
11/16 – Massy, FR @ Centre Culturel Paul B


ACCLAIM FOR ‘SUN WITHOUT THE HEAT’

“Once I get into Leyla — I can’t let her go” — Iggy Pop, 6 Music

“McCalla knows that you can’t have hope without fear, and she never ignores that the act of transformation itself can be traumatic. This edge, this acknowledgment of the stakes at play behind her messages of faith, pushes these songs past any risk of empty sentimentalism, and makes ‘Sun Without the Heat’ truly uplifting.” – MOJO ★★★★ 

“Uplifting and empowering ... The album rejoices in her musical heritage.” - UNCUT

"10 gorgeously crafted songs that veer from Afrobeat to Brazilian tropicalismo, as well as folk and country."— The Observer

“Inspired, joyous moments of musicality” – Clash 

“It's an exhilarating thing, hearing a musical virtuoso explore her voice's unanticipated potential in all of the ways that Leyla McCalla does ... tracing the intricate textures of post-colonial, pan-African experience with her poetic language of longing.” — NPR

“The most engaging, dynamic and, crucially, personal of her five solo albums" – SPIN 

Photo Credit: Chris Scheurich

  For More Info on Leyla McCalla, Contact:
Kelly Kettering | ANTI- Records Publicity | kelly@epitaph.com