Session star Michael Landau releases sultry blues We All Feel The Same

Michael Landau
Michael Landau (Image credit: Austin Hargrave)

Superstar session guitarist Michael Landau, who’s performed with the likes of Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, BB King, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, Boz Scaggs and David Bowie, has released We All Feel The Same, from upcoming album Rock Bottom, which is released on February 23. The album is the follow-up to 2012’s Organic Instrumentals.

“I wrote We All Feel The Same in St. John’s Newfoundland a couple of years ago,” says Landau. “St. John’s is the most easterly city on the North American content, it’s basically a huge rock way up there in Canada. The lyrics of the song suggest simplifying your life while holding strong to your beliefs about the world, and recognizing that most of us all strive for the same basic needs in life: freedom, respect and safety for our loved ones. The guitar on this track reflects all of the insane banter around us in the world today.”

The album features vocals from David Frazee, who performed alongside Landau in Burning Water, a band who released four albums in the 1990s.

“I’ve been playing mostly instrumental music for the past 10 years,” says Landau. “Out of nowhere I woke up one morning with the strong urge to play some hard edged music with vocals… guess it makes sense because it’s really the music I grew up on. So I reunited with my ole pal David Frazee from the Burning Water days. We wrote a lot of songs together, most of which ended up on this new Rock Bottom record.”

Also playing on the album are Landau’s brother and fellow Burning Water veteran Teddy Landau on bass, Larry Goldings on organ, and drummer Alan Hertz.

“We recorded the basic tracks on analogue tape then finished it in the digital world,” says Landau. “I mixed the record on an API console and kept it as big, open and natural sounding as I could.”

“We mastered the record to be played at a healthy volume on a real stereo system, or with a good set of headphones. I recommend listening to it with a hot cup of green tea, or perhaps eight Guinness beers, or any other drug of your preference…or maybe just let the music be the drug…?”

Rock Bottom is available to pre-order now.

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