Press Releases

• Apr 07 2017 LEGENDARY ARTIST RETURNS WITH FIRST SOLO ALBUM IN NEARLY TWO

  LITTLE STEVEN IS BACK WITH

  SOULFIRE

   

  LEGENDARY ARTIST RETURNS WITH FIRST SOLO ALBUM IN NEARLY TWO DECADES

   

  COLLECTION FEATURES ALL-NEW RECORDINGS OF SONGS

  SPANNING ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME CAREER

   

  PRE-ORDER BEGINS FRIDAY, APRIL 7^TH

   

  DIGITAL PRE-ORDER TO RECEIVE INSTANT GRAT DOWNLOAD OF

  “SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY”

   

  LITTLE STEVEN AND THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL TO HIT THE ROAD THIS SUMMER

   

  SOULFIRE ARRIVES EVERYWHERE ON FRIDAY, MAY 19^TH

   

  
  

   

  “I have very little interest in the modern world and I’m not in any way conflicted about that. I grew up in a renaissance period, a very lucky time when the greatest music ever made was also the most commercial. We’ll never see that again so for me, there’s only one criteria, which is greatness.

  That’s all I care about. Is what I’m doing reaching for greatness?

  Whether I achieve it or not, that is one hundred percent of my criteria.”  

  – Stevie Van Zandt

   

  (New York, NY) Wicked Cool/Big Machine/UMe has announced the eagerly anticipated new album from the legendary Little Steven. SOULFIRE arrives everywhere on Friday, May 19^th.

  SOULFIRE will be available on CD, digitally and on vinyl as a double LP. Pre-order begins today, April 7 and will be accompanied by an instant grat download of the recently unveiled album track, “Saint Valentine’s Day.” Additional instant grat downloads will be unveiled in the coming weeks, including the blazing title track, “Soulfire.” Pre-order SOULFIRE here: https://UMe.lnk.to/LittleStevenSoulfire

  SOULFIRE is Stevie Van Zandt’s first solo album in close to two decades and without question his purest and most uniquely personal artistic statement thus far. The album sees the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revisiting songs that span the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing directly on the hugely influential “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” approach he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums.

  “I’ve always been very thematic with my work, very conceptual,” Van Zandt says. “I need a big picture, I can’t just do a collection of songs, that doesn’t work for me. In this case, the concept became me. Who am I? I’m kind of my own genre at this point. So I tried to pick material that when you added it all up, really represented me. So there are a couple of covers, a couple of new songs, and some of what I feel are the best songs I’ve written and co-written over the years. This record is me doing me.”

  Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul made their long awaited return last October, prompted by a friend’s request to perform at London’s BluesFest 2016. Van Zandt had only just returned home from The E Street Band’s summer stadium run but as luck would have it, his autumn plans already included a trip to the UK to celebrate both his wife’s birthday and his friend Bill Wyman’s 80^th.

  “It was perfect circumstances coming together,” says Van Zandt.

  Little Steven quickly put together a Disciples of Soul for the 21^st century, an “ever-changing group of misfits, rogues, and roustabouts” complete with three backing vocalists and a full horn section currently featuring original Asbury Jukes/Miami Horns saxophonists Stan Harrison (tenor) and Eddie Manion (baritone). Stevie and his 15-piece big band crossed the Atlantic and blew the roof off London’s indigo at The O2 with what was supposed to be just a “one-night-only” performance highlighted by classic hits like “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” solo favorites, songs written for other artists, and inventive covers of tracks made famous by Etta James, James Brown, and The Electric Flag.

  “I thought, well, we’ve already learned 22 songs,” Van Zandt says. “Maybe we should make an album.”

  With his usually packed schedule clear until The E Street Band’s “Summer ’17” tour of Australia/New Zealand, Van Zandt decided to strike while the iron – and his big band – was hot. SOULFIRE was arranged and produced by Van Zandt at his own Renegade Studios in New York City, co-produced and recorded by GRAMMY® Award-winner Geoff Sanoff (Fountains of Wayne, Stephen Colbert) and co-produced and music directed by guitarist Marc Ribler – the latter musician recruited by Stevie as Darlene Love’s music director for Love’s 2015 Van Zandt-produced INTRODUCING DARLENE LOVE and then “borrowed back” to serve that same role with The Disciples of Soul. Background vocals on “I Don’t Want To Go Home” and “The City Weeps Tonight” come courtesy of renowned a cappella group, The Persuasions. SOULFIRE was mixed and mastered by Van Zandt’s career-long collaborators and friends Bob Clearmountain (Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Who, Bryan Adams), and Bob Ludwig (Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, The Band, Sly and the Family Stone).

  “This was the most fun I’ve ever had making a record,” Van Zandt says. “We did it quickly, while we still had the fire and energy from the London show. We just took it into the studio and banged it out, six weeks from start to mix. It’s one of those strange things, it really seems like it was meant to be.”

  Each of Van Zandt’s prior five solo albums had seen him expressing his utterly personal songwriting through a changing variety of sounds and approaches, an ambitious adventurousness that has fueled much of his creative output these past two decades. He expanded his parameters, as an actor on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, as host, historian, and rock ‘n’ roll advocate on Sirius XM’s one-and-only “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (not to mention creator of Sirius XM’s long-running “Outlaw Country” format). Van Zandt kept his skills sharp by composing the score for all three seasons of Lilyhammer and continued to work as producer and songwriter, lending his distinctive craft to records from an array of international garage rockers, but couldn’t kick a lingering sense of unfinished business.

  “I felt a bit guilty about having walked away from Little Steven the artist,” he says. “I left that part of myself behind and I shouldn’t have done that. I let the material down by not continuing to perform it,” he says. “I betrayed the work and I want to fix that. I didn’t give up on the material – there were a lot of other factors – but I do have a sense of wanting some redemption for it.”

  Van Zandt – who will remain a touring and recording member of The E Street Band – is now looking forward to hitting the road with his own big band. Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will celebrate SOULFIRE with an epic international tour schedule, set to begin April 22^nd with an eagerly anticipated return to Asbury Park, NJ’s historic Paramount Theatre and then continue with headline gigs and festival dates around the world. A full-scale North American headline tour will be announced soon – for regular updates and ticket information, please visit http://littlesteven.com/index.php/tour-dates.

  “I want to take this band to every place that wants to see us,” Van Zandt says. “It’s tricky with a 15-piece band, but I’m just trying to achieve my lifelong goal of breaking even!”

  Six solo albums and countless milestones in, Stevie Van Zandt has fully captured the singular vision he has refined and pushed forward for the length and breadth of his life and already brilliant career. SOULFIRE marks the much-needed return of a truly great artist, reenergized and unstoppable.

  “I’m back into it,” Little Steven says. “And this time I’m going to stay back.”

  # # #

  LITTLE STEVEN

  SOULFIRE

  (Wicked Cool/Big Machine/UMe)

  Release Date: Friday, May 19^th

   

  
  

   

  TRACK BY TRACK BELOW:

  1.“Soulfire” (co-written with Anders Bruus of The Breakers) “Doing the radio show keeps you very much in tune with what’s going on in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not the real world, we live in a completely parallel universe, but we’ve broadcast over 700 new bands in the past 14 years. A lot of them we signed to my Wicked Cool label, like The Breakers, who are a very good band from Denmark. This was a way of exercising my songwriting muscles at that time. I try to live with purpose, and that includes songwriting. I don’t get up every day and write a song just to write a song, I have to have a specific reason for it. So if I’m producing a band and I feel they need a little something extra or something specific, I’ll write it for them, or in this case, with them. To some extent, that’s what kept my songwriting alive over these past years.”

  2. “I’m Coming Back” (Originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1991 LP, BETTER DAYS) “I did their first three albums in 1976, 1977, and 1978 but then we didn’t work together for another 15 years. The lyrics were perfect for Southside at that point and they work for me, at this point.

  It’s one of my favorite lyrics that I’ve ever written.”

  3. “The Blues Is My Business” (Written by Kevin Bowe and Todd Cerney, recorded by Etta James in 2003) “I’ve never recorded a real urban Southside-of-Chicago blues thing before. I went though a blues period growing up but by the time I got to the recording studio, I’d kind of gone in a different direction. We worked it out for BluesFest and I liked the arrangement so much, we recorded it for the album.”

  4. “I Saw The Light” “I had half-written it for Richie Sambora & Orianthi but the next time I talked to him he had already written 40 songs so I didn’t bother finishing it. I came across

  it as we were making my album and thought, I like this, maybe I’ll finish it for me.”

  5. “Some Things Just Don’t Change” (Originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1977 LP, THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL) “One of my favorites. I wrote it with David Ruffin and The Temptations in mind. I was basically trying to write a classic Motown song. It can be an interesting artistic challenge writing for other people. As third generation rock ‘n’ rollers we grew up post-show business. It was art form by then, very autobiographical. That’s one of the reasons for its success as an art form, people relate to rock ‘n’ roll in a personal way. So part of you wants to write something traditional,

  something classic, but part of you always wants to keep it very personal.”

  6. “Love On The Wrong Side of Town” (Co-written with Bruce Springsteen and originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1977 LP, THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL) “Bruce had the riff and I did the rest. When you wrote, arranged, and produced the original versions, it’s not always easy to redo them. They become definitive. You did it that first way for a reason. I found it difficult to do much with this one but when we got to the end of the song I found an opportunity to change it up a little bit. I changed little things here and there on all the songs on the album but it definitely took a minute.”

  7. “The City Weeps Tonight” – “It was going to be the first song on my first solo album. I was going to do a chronological history of rock ‘n’ roll with my own records but the concept changed and I got political. It remained three-quarters finished all these years, but I always liked it.

  I love doo-wop so this was a great way to get that onto the record.”

  8. “Down and Out in New York City” (Written by Bodie Chandler and Barry De Vorzon and originally recorded on James Brown’s 1973 Black Caesar soundtrack) “I love the blaxploitation genre – we do a special on the radio show every year, the day after Thanksgiving, we call it ‘Blaxploitation Friday.’ My favorite has always been James Brown’s theme from Black Caesar. It has the immediate common ground for me of being about New York City. We did it for BluesFest, came up with a really cool groove and a new horn line and made it our own. It has a bit of a jazzy element, which I explored with my Lilyhammer score, but like the blues song, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever recorded before on a solo album

  so it was nice to get those genres onto a record.”

  9. “Standing in the Line of Fire” (Co-written with Gary U.S. Bonds and (L.) Anderson and originally found on Gary U.S. Bonds’ 1984 STANDING IN THE LINE OF FIRE) “Gary U.S. Bonds is somebody you don’t want to mess with. The records I did with him are so damn good, I thought, I can’t really beat this, I need to really change it somehow. So I added a piece of music I did for Lilyhammer –

  now it’s like Gary U.S. Bonds-meets-Ennio Morricone.”

  10.  “Saint Valentine’s Day” (Originally found on The Cocktail Slippers’ 2009 LP, SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE) “I wrote it for Nancy Sinatra but unfortunately never did the session. I recorded it with The Cocktail Slippers, similar to the way I was going to do it with Nancy, and then David Chase liked it so we did a more rock ‘n’ rolly guys’ version of it for his movie, Not Fade Away. For my version, I added a horn line that I think changes the whole complexion of the song, makes it more of a soul thing.”

  11.  “I Don’t Want To Go Home” (Originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1976 debut LP, I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME) “It’s the first song I ever wrote and I wanted to do it the way I’d originally imagined it. I’d spent five or six years trying to write songs but I was never really happy with them. I decided to go back and really study the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. To me, the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll songwriting was Leiber & Stoller, so I decided I’d write a Drifters song. I was on the oldies circuit at the time, playing with The Dovells, and I got to meet all of my fifties and sixties early rock ‘n’ roll heroes, spend some time with them. I wrote it for Ben E. King but then didn’t have the courage to give it to him.”

  12. “Ride The Night Away” (Co-written with Steve Jordan and originally found on Jimmy Barnes’ 1985 LP, FOR THE WORKING CLASS MAN; later recorded for Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1991 LP, BETTER DAYS) “Steve Jordan came over to my house one day and said, ‘I’ve got a Jimmy Barnes session, I promised him a song and I don’t have one so I’m not leaving until we write one.’ That kind of songwriting-on-a-deadline goes back to Leiber & Stoller as well – I love that whole Brill Building thing,

  I wish I’d been around for that period.”

  # # #

  LITTLESTEVEN.COM

  FACEBOOK

  TWITTER

  UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

  # # #
• May 09 2017 Little Steven shares new track; new album out May 19
  LITTLE STEVEN SHARES NEW SONG

   

  “LOVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN” AVAILABLE NOW

   

  NEW ALBUM SOULFIRE OUT MAY 19^TH

   

   ALBUM PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE NOW

   

  
  

   

  Little Steven shares his new song “Love On The Wrong Side Of Town,” co-written with Bruce Springsteen, from his eagerly anticipated new album, SOULFIRE (Wicked Cool/Big Machine/Ume). “Love On The Wrong Side Of Town” is the third song the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has released from the album set to arrive everywhere on Friday, May 19th. Entertainment Weekly premiered the song last week.

  LISTEN TO “LOVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN” HERE

  
  

  People originally heard “Love On The Wrong Side Of Town” on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1977 LP, THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL. “Bruce had the riff and I did the rest,” says Van Zandt. “When you wrote, arranged, and produced the original versions, it’s not always easy to redo them. They become definitive. You did it that first way for a reason. I found it difficult to do much with this one, but when we got to the end of the song I found an opportunity to change it up a little bit. I changed little things here and there on all the songs on the album but it definitely took a minute.”

   

  SOULFIRE is Stevie Van Zandt’s first solo album in close to two decades and without question his purest and most uniquely personal artistic statement thus far. The album sees the rock legend revisiting songs that span the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing directly on the hugely influential “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” approach he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums.

  Each of Van Zandt’s prior five solo albums had seen him expressing his utterly personal songwriting through a changing variety of sounds and approaches, an ambitious adventurousness that has fueled much of his creative output these past two decades. He expanded his parameters, as an actor on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, as host, historian, and rock ‘n’ roll advocate on Sirius XM’s one-and-only “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (not to mention creator of Sirius XM’s long-running “Outlaw Country” format). Van Zandt kept his skills sharp by composing the score for all three seasons of Lilyhammer and continued to work as producer and songwriter, lending his distinctive craft to records from an array of international garage rockers, but couldn’t kick a lingering sense of unfinished business.

   

  “I felt a bit guilty about having walked away from Little Steven the artist,” he says. “I left that part of myself behind and I shouldn’t have done that. I let the material down by not continuing to perform it,” he says. “I betrayed the work and I want to fix that. I didn’t give up on the material – there were a lot of other factors – but I do have a sense of wanting some redemption for it.”

   

  Van Zandt – who will remain a touring and recording member of The E Street Band – is now looking forward to hitting the road with his own big band. Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will celebrate SOULFIRE with an epic international tour schedule, with headline gigs and festival dates around the world. A full-scale North American headline tour will be announced soon – for regular updates and ticket information, please visit http://littlesteven.com/index.php/tour-dates.

   

  # # #
• May 19 2017 Zandt Foundation and NJ School Board Collaborate
  Steven Van Zandt’s Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and the New Jersey School Boards Association Announce Arts Curriculum Collaboration

  (Steven with Patty Maillet, Director of Business Development at New Jersey School Board Association)

  NEW YORK, May 19, 2017-Steven Van Zandt’s Rock and Roll Forever Foundation and the New Jersey School Boards Association today announced a collaboration to provide teachers and administrators in New Jersey’s public school districts with access to arts-based, STEAM-aligned professional development and a wealth of educational materials, free of charge.

  Even though the announcement comes only days after Van Zandt received an honorary doctorate from Rutgers University, the foundation has been developing educational materials through its TeachRock project for nearly a decade. Recent TeachRock collaborations with Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days A Week documentary and the critically acclaimed PBS Soundbreaking series have contributed to the vast collection of standards-aligned, popular music-based lesson plans housed at teachrock.org. The foundation’s materials represent diverse perspectives on American culture appropriate for social studies, history, language arts, general music, and even science classrooms.

  Now, Van Zandt plans to stand by the “Jersey roots, global reach” theme he developed during his Rutgers commencement speech by providing staff and materials to support the integration of the “A,” for “arts,” in New Jersey’s new STEAM public education program. Like many states, New Jersey has recognized that the existing “STEM” curriculum, which focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math, is strong, but incomplete. Van Zandt’s foundation will help round out that curriculum with arts-based materials that are proven to inspire student inquiry, dialog, critical thinking, and innovation. The foundation will further support the materials, and the state, with professional development services for teachers, free of charge.

  “We are the only country in the world where art is considered a luxury,” Van Zandt told the Rutgers crowd, “But your generation will put art back in the classrooms and back as an essential part of our quality of life for all of society.” Beginning today, Steven Van Zandt’s Rock and Roll Forever Foundation will take the first step in collaboration with the New Jersey School Boards Association.

  The New Jersey School Boards Association, a federation of the state’s local school districts, provides training and services to boards of education and their members. The organization is committed to the advancement of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) education in the state’s public schools.

  “As we advance science, technology engineering and mathematics, we cannot lose sight of the arts,” said Dr. Lawrence S. Feinsod, NJSBA executive director. “Research has linked the visual and performing arts with improved attendance, increased academic performance, decreased drop-out and discipline rates, and higher levels of college attendance. We are pleased to cooperate with the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation in this effort.”

  
  

  For more information about the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, visit: www.rockandrollforever.org/index.htm
• May 19 2017 New Album, Soulfire, Out Today!
  LITTLE STEVEN NEW ALBUM, SOULFIRE, OUT TODAY

   

  TODAY SHOW CHAT APPEARANCE AIRED YESTERDAY

   

  
  

   

  “It’s hard to imagine a more joyous and revelatory contemporary blue-eyed soul recording. The appropriately titled Soulfire is a tough, tight and clearly inspired project as well as a most welcome return from the musical shadows for Steven Van Zandt.”

  -American Songwriter

    

  Little Steven’s s eagerly anticipated new album, SOULFIRE (Wicked Cool/Big Machine/Ume) is out today. SOULFIRE is Stevie Van Zandt’s first solo album in close to two decades and without question his purest and most uniquely personal artistic statement thus far. The album sees the rock legend revisiting songs that span the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing directly on the hugely influential “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” approach he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums.

  Each of Van Zandt’s prior five solo albums had seen him expressing his utterly personal songwriting through a changing variety of sounds and approaches, an ambitious adventurousness that has fueled much of his creative output these past two decades. He expanded his parameters, as an actor on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, as host, historian, and rock ‘n’ roll advocate on Sirius XM’s one-and-only “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (not to mention creator of Sirius XM’s long-running “Outlaw Country” format). Van Zandt kept his skills sharp by composing the score for all three seasons of Lilyhammer and continued to work as producer and songwriter, lending his distinctive craft to records from an array of international garage rockers, but couldn’t kick a lingering sense of unfinished business.

  “I felt a bit guilty about having walked away from Little Steven the artist,” he says. “I left that part of myself behind and I shouldn’t have done that. I let the material down by not continuing to perform it,” he says. “I betrayed the work and I want to fix that. I didn’t give up on the material – there were a lot of other factors – but I do have a sense of wanting some redemption for it.”

  Van Zandt – who will remain a touring and recording member of The E Street Band – is now looking forward to hitting the road with his own big band. Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will celebrate SOULFIRE with an epic international tour schedule, with headline gigs and festival dates around the world. A full-scale North American headline tour will be announced soon – for regular updates and ticket information, please visit http://littlesteven.com/index.php/tour-dates.

  SOULFIRE TRACK BY TRACK BELOW:

   

  1. “Soulfire” (co-written with Anders Bruus of The Breakers) “Doing the radio show keeps you very much in tune with what’s going on in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not the
     real world, we live in a completely parallel universe, but we’ve broadcast over 700 new bands in the past 14 years. A lot of them we signed to my Wicked Cool label, like The Breakers, who are a very good band from Denmark. This was a way of exercising my songwriting muscles at that time. I try to live with purpose, and that includes songwriting. I don’t get up every day and write a song just to write a song, I have to have a specific reason for it. So if I’m producing a band and I feel they need a little something extra or something specific, I’ll write it for them, or in this case, with them. To some extent, that’s what kept my songwriting alive over these past years.”

   

  2. “I’m Coming Back” (Originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1991 LP, BETTER DAYS) “I did their first three albums in 1976, 1977, and 1978 but then we didn’t work together for another 15 years. The lyrics were perfect for Southside at that point and they work for me, at this point. It’s one of my favorite lyrics that I’ve ever written.”

   

  3. “The Blues Is My Business” (Written by Kevin Bowe and Todd Cerney, recorded by Etta James in 2003) “I’ve never recorded a real urban Southside-of-Chicago blues thing before. I went though a blues period growing up but by the time I got to the recording studio, I’d kind of gone in a different direction. We worked it out for BluesFest and I liked the arrangement so much, we recorded it for the album.”

   

  4. “I Saw The Light” “I had half-written it for Richie Sambora & Orianthi but the next time I talked to him he had already written 40 songs so I didn’t bother finishing it. I came across it as we were making my album and thought, I like this, maybe I’ll finish it for me.”

   

  5. “Some Things Just Don’t Change” (Originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1977 LP, THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL) “One of my favorites. I wrote it with David Ruffin and The Temptations in mind. I was basically trying to write a classic Motown song. It can be an interesting artistic challenge writing for other people. As third generation rock ‘n’ rollers we grew up post-show business. It was art form by then, very autobiographical. That’s one of the reasons for its success as an art form, people relate to rock ‘n’ roll in a personal way. So part of you wants to write something traditional, something classic, but part of you always wants to keep it very personal.”

   

  6. “Love On The Wrong Side of Town” (Co-written with Bruce Springsteen and originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1977 LP, THIS TIME IT’S FOR REAL)“Bruce had the riff and I did the rest. When you wrote, arranged, and produced the original versions, it’s not always easy to redo them. They become definitive. You did it that first way for a reason. I found it difficult to do much with this one but when we got to the end of the song I found an opportunity to change it up a little bit. I changed little things here and there on all the songs on the album but it definitely took a minute.”

   

  7. “The City Weeps Tonight” – “It was going to be the first song on my first solo album. I was going to do a chronological history of rock ‘n’ roll with my own records but the concept changed and I got political. It remained three-quarters finished all these years, but I always liked it. I love doo-wop so this was a great way to get that onto the record.”

   

  8. “Down and Out in New York City” (Written by Bodie Chandler and Barry De Vorzon and originally recorded on James Brown’s 1973 Black Caesar soundtrack) “I love the blaxploitation genre – we do a special on the radio show every year, the day after Thanksgiving, we call it ‘Blaxploitation Friday.’ My favorite has always been James Brown’s theme from Black Caesar. It has the immediate common ground for me of being about New York City. We did it for BluesFest, came up with a really cool groove and a new horn line and made it our own. It has a bit of a jazzy element, which I explored with my Lilyhammer score, but like the blues song, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever recorded before on a solo album so it was nice to get those genres onto a record.”

   

  9. “Standing in the Line of Fire” (Co-written with Gary U.S. Bonds and (L.) Anderson and originally found on Gary U.S. Bonds’ 1984 STANDING IN THE LINE OF FIRE) “Gary U.S. Bonds is somebody you don’t want to mess with. The records I did with him are so damn good, I thought, I can’t really beat this, I need to really change it somehow. So I added a piece of music I did for Lilyhammer – now it’s like Gary U.S. Bonds-meets-Ennio Morricone.”

   

  10. “Saint Valentine’s Day” (Originally found on The Cocktail Slippers’ 2009 LP, SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE) “I wrote it for Nancy Sinatra but unfortunately never did the session. I recorded it with The Cocktail Slippers, similar to the way I was going to do it with Nancy, and then David Chase liked it so we did a more rock ‘n’ rolly guys’ version of it for his movie, Not Fade Away. For my version, I added a horn line that I think changes the whole complexion of the song, makes it more of a soul thing.”

   

  11. “I Don’t Want To Go Home” (Originally found on Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1976 debut LP,  I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME) “It’s the first song I ever wrote and I wanted to do it the way I’d originally imagined it. I’d spent five or six years trying to write songs but I was never really happy with them. I decided to go back and really study the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. To me, the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll songwriting was Leiber & Stoller, so I decided I’d write a Drifters song. I was on the oldies circuit at the time, playing with The Dovells, and I got to meet all of my fifties and sixties early rock ‘n’ roll heroes, spend some time with them. I wrote it for Ben E. King but then didn’t have the courage to give it to him.”

   

  12. “Ride The Night Away” (Co-written with Steve Jordan and originally found on Jimmy Barnes’ 1985 LP, FOR THE WORKING CLASS MAN; later recorded for Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ 1991 LP, BETTER DAYS) “Steve Jordan came over to my house one day and said, ‘I’ve got a Jimmy Barnes session, I promised him a song and I don’t have one so I’m not leaving until we write one.’ That kind of songwriting-on-a-deadline goes back to Leiber & Stoller as well – I love that whole Brill Building thing, I wish I’d been around for that period.”
• 

  For Immediate Release

  June 20, 2017

  STEVIE VAN ZANDT JOINS FORCES TONIGHT WITH RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE^® NEW YORK TO COMBAT PEDIATRIC CANCER

  Music Legend to promote the House and Help and Inspire Children Through the Power of Music

  NEW YORK, N.Y. – Tonight, Ronald McDonald House^® New York will partner with Stevie Van Zandt as an official friend and ambassador of the House.  In his new role, the rock and roll legend, actor and music education advocate will promote the great work of the House and also provide unique mentorship to the cancer stricken children of the organization. As a partner of the house, he will provide the children with access to amazing musical activities and events throughout 2017.

   

  The Ronald McDonald House^® has a long tradition of partnering with influential personalities to promote its mission and help brighten the lives of children afflicted with cancer. Prominent friends of the House include musicians, athletes and social impact leaders. “I believe that being part of a band is special and that music can sometimes have healing powers,” said Van Zandt. “Through my partnership with the House, I am hoping that I can share this power and love for music with the people that need it most.”

  Van Zandt just released his first album, SOULFIRE, in nearly two decades. He will personally announce his new partnership at the annual Heroes Volunteer Event tonight at Guastavino’s in New York City. At the event, Van Zandt will officially present a special gift to the House children.

  “The House has always been blessed with great friends that help amplify our work here locally in New York,” said Ruth C. Browne, President and CEO of Ronald McDonald House^® New York. “With the help of other friends like Stevie, we are able to raise awareness for all the programs the House has to offer and help keep families close.”

  The Ronald McDonald House^® is the largest facility of its kind, with more than 300 sites worldwide. In New York, the organization helps keep families close by providing temporary housing for children battling cancer and their families. Afflicted families can visit and receive treatment at 16 different nearby partnering hospitals throughout the city.

  To learn more about Ronald McDonald House^® New York and the Stevie Van Zandt partnership, please visit www.facebook.com/rmhnewyork. To learn more about how to get involved or to make a donation, please visit www.rmh-newyork.org.

  # # #

  About the Ronald McDonald House New York

  Ronald McDonald House^® New York is keeping families close by providing temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families in a strong, supportive and caring environment which encourages and nurtures the development of child-to-child and parent-to-parent support systems.  Ronald McDonald House^®New York is the largest facility of its type in the world. The House can accommodate 84 families, and it is filled to capacity almost every night. The House’s location in Manhattan, in close proximity to 16 major cancer treatment centers, draws children and families from across the country and the world, as well as from the metropolitan New York City area.  Since its founding, more than 35,000 families have stayed at Ronald McDonald House^® New York.  For more information, visit www.rmh-newyork.org.

  About Stevie Van Zandt

  Stevie Van Zandt is a Musician, Performer, Songwriter, Arranger, Music Producer, Music Supervisor, TV Producer, Actor, Director, Broadway Producer, TV and Film Composer, Live Event Producer, International DJ, Activist, Historian, Teacher, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and is recognized internationally as one of the world’s foremost authorities on both Contemporary and Traditional Rock and Roll. Van Zandt is a founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, co-producing the band’s seminal albums “The River” and “Born in the U.S.A.”, and is a renowned musician in his own right recording and performing with his band, Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul. He is also a critically acclaimed writer and producer for many artists including Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Gary U.S. Bonds, Darlene Love, and more. In 1985, Van Zandt formed Artists United Against Apartheid and wrote “Sun City,” a song featuring over 50 major recording artists protesting the Apartheid system and considered by most political experts to be one of the fatal blows to Apartheid, leading to Nelson Mandela being freed only a few years later. He has twice been honored by the United Nations for his political activism, including the “Sun City” project and film, and his involvement in “International Peace Day”. Stevie Co-Starred in all seven seasons of the Sopranos playing principle character “Silvio Dante.” He Starred in, Co-Wrote, Executive Produced, provided the Music Supervision and Scoring, and Directed (the final episode) for the award winning series “Lilyhammer,” which was the FIRST original programming for Netflix. In 2001 he launched “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” his internationally syndicated radio show and the most successful syndicated Rock music radio show in the past 40 years. Stevie also created and produces the first two channels of original content on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, the Underground Garage (Channel 21) and Outlaw Country (Channel 60). In 2006, he launched his record label, Wicked Cool Records, to further support new Rock and Roll. Van Zandt is chairman of the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, a non-profit that has developed a History of Rock and Roll curriculum called “Teach Rock”, an online educational resource offered free-of-charge to educators and individuals everywhere. Interdisciplinary in nature, it is geared toward middle and high school students but includes resources for learning at all levels.

  # # #

  Press contact:

  Ken Weinstein

  weinstein@bighassle.com
• Jun 30 2017 Little Steven's New Solo Album Out On Vinyl Today
  LITTLE STEVEN’S NEW SOLO ALBUM, SOULFIRE, AVAILABLE ON VINYL TODAY

   

  ACCLAIMED ALBUM PRESSED ON 180-GRAM DOUBLE LP 

  AND HOUSED IN GATEFOLD SLEEVE

   

   

    

  Little Steven’s sensational new solo album, SOULFIRE, is available today on 180-gram black vinyl via  Wicked Cool/Big Machine/UMe. The album, released digitally and on CD on May 19, is presented as a double LP housed in a gatefold sleeve with the music on sides 1-3 and a unique etching of Steven Van Zandt on side 4. The vinyl is available to purchase here.

  SOULFIRE, Van Zandt’s first solo album in close to two decades is without question his purest and most uniquely personal artistic statement thus far. His return to the spotlight has garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike with Rolling Stone exclaiming, “rock’s ultimate sideman reclaims the Jersey Shore sound he helped invent,” and USA Todayremarking that the album’s “incendiary impact just about makes up for his long absence.” Adding, “Cynicism, irony and cultivated hip detachment have taken their toll on rock ‘n’ roll. With SOULFIRE, Van Zandt aims to blow all that out and lead listeners back to its more passionate essence.” American Songwriter enthused, “It’s hard to imagine a more joyous and revelatory contemporary blue-eyed soul recording. The appropriately titled SOULFIRE is a tough, tight and clearly inspired project as well as a most welcome return from the musical shadows for Steven Van Zandt.” Billboard declared the album “hearkens back to Van Zandt’s classic first solo album of gritty, greasy, horn-accented ’60s-style rock and soul,” while Paste proclaimed, “rockier than Motown or the Sound of Philadelphia, this a joyous invitation to live and love.”

  SOULFIRE sees the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revisiting songs that span the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing directly on the hugely influential “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” approach he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums.

  Each of Van Zandt’s prior five solo albums had seen him expressing his utterly personal songwriting through a changing variety of sounds and approaches, an ambitious adventurousness that has fueled much of his creative output these past two decades. He expanded his parameters, as an actor on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer, as host, historian, and rock ‘n’ roll advocate on Sirius XM’s one-and-only “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (not to mention creator of Sirius XM’s long-running “Outlaw Country” format). Van Zandt kept his skills sharp by composing the score for all three seasons of Lilyhammerand continued to work as producer and songwriter, lending his distinctive craft to records from an array of international garage rockers, but couldn’t kick a lingering sense of unfinished business.

  “I felt a bit guilty about having walked away from Little Steven the artist,” he says. “I left that part of myself behind and I shouldn’t have done that. I let the material down by not continuing to perform it,” he says. “I betrayed the work and I want to fix that. I didn’t give up on the material – there were a lot of other factors – but I do have a sense of wanting some redemption for it.”

  Van Zandt – who will remain a touring and recording member of The E Street Band – is currently touring Europe with his band, the Disciples of Soul. A full-scale North American headline tour will be announced soon – for regular updates and ticket information, please visit http://littlesteven.com/index.php/tour-dates.

  # # #

  Press contacts:

  Ken Weinstein

  weinstein@bighassle.com

  Tim Plumley

  Timothy.Plumley@umusic.com
• Aug 08 2017 Little Steven and Disciples of Soul "Soulfire Tour 2017"
  LITTLE STEVEN AND THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL

  UNVEIL “SOULFIRE TOUR 2017”

   

  LEGENDARY ARTIST ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN HEADLINE TOUR

   

  DATES BEGIN SEPTEMBER 23^RD AT THE CAPITOL THEATRE IN PORT CHESTER, NY

   

  EPIC EUROPEAN RUN GETS UNDERWAY IN NOVEMBER

   

  TOUR CELEBRATES ACCLAIMED NEW ALBUM, SOULFIRE, AVAILABLE NOW

   

  
  

   

  “A Master class in full-bodied soul. Six out of six stars” – Gaffa

   

  “A keen student of rock and roll, this was Van Zandt offering up a master class of all the different aspects of the music he loves. Soul, funk, doo-wop – even reggae – all formed part of the set. If Phil Spector had broadened his horizons further, this would be the end product. It was a massive, multi-layered, sensory experience, which tugged at the heartstrings one moment and left you grinning from ear to ear at the next. If you could put it on prescription, the world would be a much happier place!” – Lancashire Telegraph

   

  (New York, NY) Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul have announced details of their anticipated North American headline tour. The “Soulfire Tour 2017” begins September 23^rd at the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY and then travels North America through late October. The tour will be preceded by a very special co-headline appearance at the upcoming Laid Back Festival – a tribute show to Gregg Allman that includes Jackson Browne and Peter Wolf — set for Thursday, September 21^st, at Holmdel, NJ’s PNC Bank Arts Center. Citi® is the official credit card of the “Soulfire Tour 2017.”

  Citi® is the official pre-sale credit card of the “Soulfire Tour 2017”.  As such, Citi® cardmembers will have access to purchase pre-sale tickets beginning Tuesday, August 8^th at 10AM local time until Friday, August 11^th at 10PM local time through Citi’s Private Pass® program. For complete pre-sale details visitwww.citiprivatepass.com. For complete details and ticket availability, please visit littlesteven.com.

  LITTLE STEVEN AND THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL: SOULFIRE TOUR 2017

  NORTH AMERICA

  SEPTEMBER

  21 – Holmdel, NJ – Laid Back Festival #

  23 – Port Chester, NY – The Capitol

  25 – New York, NY – Gramercy Theater *

  27 – Staten Island, NY – St. George Theater

  29 – Boston, MA – The Orpheum

  OCTOBER

  1 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory

  2 – Baltimore, MD – The Lyric

  4 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount

  6 – Northfield, OH – Hard Rock Live

  8 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues

  9 – Toronto, ON -Danforth Music Hall

  13 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore

  15 – Seattle WA – Showbox SODO *

  18 – San Diego, CA – Humphreys

  19 – Los Angeles, CA – Orpheum Theatre

  22 – Dallas, TX – The Bomb Factory *

  24 – San Antonio, TX – Tobin Center

  26 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live *

  # Festival Appearance

  * Presale tickets available through  www.citiprivatepass.com

  The “Soulfire Tour 2017” celebrates the recent release of Little Steven’s sensational new solo album, SOULFIRE, available now via Wicked Cool/Big Machine/UMe. The album is available as CD, digital download, and 180-gram black vinyl, the latter presented as a double LP housed in a gatefold sleeve with the music on Sides 1-3 and a unique etching of Little Steven on Side 4.

  SOULFIRE is Stevie Van Zandt’s first solo album in close to two decades and without question his purest and most uniquely personal artistic statement thus far. The album sees the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revisiting songs that span the length of his career as artist, performer, producer, arranger, and songwriter, focusing directly on the hugely influential “soul horns-meet-rock ‘n’ roll guitars” approach he first pioneered on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ classic first three albums.

  SOULFIRE has quickly drawn rapturous applause from fans and critics alike, with Rolling Stone declaring, “Rock’s ultimate sideman reclaims the Jersey Shore sound he helped invent.” “Cynicism, irony and cultivated hip detachment have taken their toll on rock ‘n’ roll,” raved USA Today. “With SOULFIRE, Van Zandt aims to blow all that out and lead listeners back to its more passionate essence.” “It’s hard to imagine a more joyous and revelatory contemporary blue-eyed soul recording,” enthused American Songwriter.  “The appropriately titled SOULFIRE is a tough, tight and clearly inspired project as well as a most welcome return from the musical shadows for Steven Van Zandt.” SOULFIRE “hearkens back to Van Zandt’s classic first solo album of gritty, greasy, horn-accented ’60s-style rock and soul,” noted Billboard, while Paste proclaimed, “Rockier than Motown or the Sound of Philadelphia, this a joyous invitation to live and love.”

  SOULFIRE was arranged and produced by Van Zandt at his own Renegade Studios in New York City. He is of course known around the world for his utterly personal songwriting and an ambitious adventurousness that has fueled much of his creative output these past two decades. In addition to his ongoing role as a touring and recording member of The E Street Band, Van Zandt has also expanded his artistic parameters to include landmark work as an actor on The Sopranos and Lilyhammer as well as host, historian, and rock ‘n’ roll advocate on Sirius XM’s one-and-only “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (not to mention creator of Sirius XM’s long-running “Outlaw Country” format). Van Zandt has also expanding his musical boundaries to include composing the score for all three seasons of Lilyhammer and additional work as producer and songwriter, lending his distinctive craft to records from an array of international garage rockers.

  Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul made their long awaited live return last October at London’s BluesFest 2016. Van Zandt will return to Europe this fall for an additional leg of the “Soulfire Tour 2017,” with multiple stops slated for England, Scotland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Spain.

  For more, please visit:

  littlesteven.com

  facebook.com/LittleStevenVanZandt

  twitter.com/StevieVanZandt

  # # #

  Press contacts:

  Ken Weinstein

  weinstein@bighassle.com

  Tim Plumley

  Timothy.Plumley@umusic.com