Guitarist Jordan Tice also has a new album releasing this week, Motivational Speakeasy, which comes as something of a departure from his earlier efforts. Growing up in a Maryland bluegrass family, his earliest training was as a grasser, and his first album came out when he was 17. But study in college opened him up to new musical vistas, and subsequent projects showed him entering more progressive acoustic territory.
He now performs with experimental string quartet Hawktail, with Paul Kowert, Brittany Hass, and Dominick Leslie. Their milieu is modern instrumental acoustic music, with strong bluegrass and old time influences.
For his fifth solo record, Jordan has moved from the ensemble environment to a singer/songwriter/guitarist mode, featuring just he and his trusty six string. It finds him playing delta blues and folky finger style as well as employing the flatpick. All eleven tracks are his original songs.
Tice introduces today’s premiere, which almost didn’t make it to the final product.
“Ready to Go… Just a peppy bluegrassy kinda number with some musings on life and human nature thrown in for good measure. This song started with the turn around, ‘tell me you’re alright.. Ready to go,’ which I had stuck in my head for a good while before I crafted the rest of the song around it. This was almost cut from the record, but figured an uptempo tune would provide a nice pick-me-up later on in the record.”
Motivational Speakeasy will be widely available on Friday, September 25 wherever you stream or download music online. Pre-order links can be found on Jordan’s web site.
