Eddie 9V has an endless stockpile of cool stories; you’ll find twelve of them on Saratoga. It’s a record that will thrill both newcomers and fans who have followed Eddie since the start, showcasing his fresh, fiery spin on Southern soul, blues, rock and funk, with his signature wit and sharp observations of modern America placing him squarely in the here-and-now. “I do think it’s a wonderful road trip album,” says Eddie.  “I was shooting for a more Americana-type album this time — less blues songs and solos and more focusing on the songwriting,” Eddie explains of the eleven originals co-written with his brother, respected Southern musician, Lane Kelly.

   “Saragota was written under a perfect western landscape,” explains Eddie. “We had an off-day on the road and I was sitting on an Airbnb porch picking a riff I had recently come up with. I was writing all these little lyrics while looking out to a huge mule deer directly in front of me eating grass and carrots that I was throwing to them.  It was definitely more my brother and I in our home studio recording everything,” adds Eddie. “There’s a lot of guests, for sure, but it was mainly overdubbing.  We did the songs “Saratoga,”  “Delta,”  and “Halo” at Crown Lanes Studio in Denver, Colorado. It was nice to take a break, walk outside, see the mountains, and feel the fresh air. In our studio, it’s just muggy with mosquitoes (he laughs).  Sometimes it’s good to not have distractions.

     From the day he first slung a guitar on a local stage, the Georgia-born bandleader announced himself as an artist to watch. In the last few meteoric years, Eddie’s music has crossed oceans and airwaves, transcending his cult-hero status to become a beacon for fans of real music everywhere. “Eddie 9V is something else,” wrote the UK’s Classic Rock – “A man who genuinely inhabits golden-era American roots, playing the most instinctive blues you’ll hear all year.”

   “Eddie 9 Volt has created a unique artistic identity on his latest, ‘Saratoga’,” writes Blue Notes & Conversations’ John Muller. “Focusing more on his songwriting this time around these sessions found Eddie writing in a whole new direction — finding, in the process, his own indelible voice as a singer-songwriter. Eddie’s signature wit and sharp observations of contemporary America make the songs on ‘Saratoga’ truly special,” concludes Muller.

                          Eddie 9V – Some Background 

    Born Brooks Mason in June 1996, he was playing guitar by the age of six (“one of those with the speaker in it – the most bang for your buck, y’know?”). Even then, manufactured pop music held nothing for him, and his years at Union Grove High School were instead sound-tracked by local heroes like Sean Costello, alongside his studies of “older cats” like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King and Rory Gallagher.

    Coming up on his home state’s live circuit – first with covers band The Smokin’ Frogs, then with highly rated blues-rockers The Georgia Flood – Mason soon turned heads, even representing the Atlanta Blues Society at the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. But his true birth as an artist came when he buried his birth name and adopted that striking solo moniker. “A lot of people wanted me to be the Brooks Mason Blues Band, but that’s been done,” he reasons. “I wanted to start from scratch – and I ain’t never heard of no blues-man named Eddie 9V.”

Source: dougdeutschPR