Luxury Experience - Dana Fuchs

Blues rocker Dana Fuchs is back with a 12-track release, Bliss Avenue that grabs from the title track and works its magic all through the final track, Long Long Game. Released on the Ruf Records label, Bliss Avenue is her follow-up to Dana Fuchs - Love to Beg (reviewed in the Music Scene.)

Dana Fuchs – Bliss Avenue: Bliss Avenue, How Did Things Get This Way, Handful Too Many, Livin’ On Sunday, So Hard To Move, Daddy’s Little Girl, Rodents In The Attic, Baby Loves The Life, Nothin’ On My Mind, Keep On Walkin’, Vagabond Wind, Long Long Game

Personnel: Dana Fuchs – vocals and percussion; Jon Diamond – guitars; Jack Daley – bass; Shawn Pelton – drums, Glenn Patscha – Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, piano, keyboards, Tabitha Fair – background vocals, Nicki Richards – background vocals

Jon Diamond, Dana Fuchs, and Tim Hatfield produced Dana Fuchs – Bliss Avenue with Executive Producers Dana Fuchs and Thomas Ruf on the Ruf Records label. Dana Fuchs and Jon Diamond wrote all of the songs on the release with the exception of Handful Too Many written by Dana Fuchs, Jon Diamond, and Matt Neuroth, and Rodents In The Attic written by Dana Fuchs, Ann Klein, and Kevin Mackall.

Sit back and get ready to ride a musical rollercoaster with emotional, heartrending lyrics that Dana deftly delivers with her impressive vocal range complemented by a talented ensemble of musicians. Writing from an emotional cache of personal loss including that of her beloved brother Don to brain cancer, to the loneliness of being on the road, each song tells a unique story with evocative lyrics.

Of the album, she writes, “I’m so excited for people, especially those fans who have stuck so close with me, to hear Bliss Avenue, because I really purged my soul in a starker, more naked way, both lyrically and musically.”

“I got so emotional to the point of tears, singing several of these tunes that are so close to home, like So Hard To Move, Bliss Avenue, Long Long Game, and Vagabond Wind. I want this album to reach people in a way that’s meant to be inclusive. Not like, Here’s my world and my story, but rather, Here’s my story, can you relate?”

The release opens with the title track, Bliss Avenue, with a hard driving bass line that sets the pace for the heavy blues song, with the lyrics, “I got nobody. No place to call home. Got no one to lean on. You left me alone. … It’s gonna be a long night alone I got in store…” From the opening track you know that the journey is just beginning, and as Bette Davis said in the 1950 film, All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Next in the line-up is How Did Things Get This Way, followed by Handful Too Many. Dana started singing at an early age, by 12 she was singing in the First Baptist Gospel Choir in rural Florida, and Livin’ On Sunday has a rich gospel feel to it. The lyrics implore “…I want more than living on someday, but I’m not sure now how to live any other way, I want more, I want more than living on Sunday, I want more, I want more, I want more …”

So Hard To Move slows the pace, dream-like, which delivers loss like a velvet-gloved fist, powerful lyrics smoothly sung; Daddy’s Little Girl picks the beat back up, a catchy tune with great guitar work, and drumming by Shawn Pelton.

The hard driving southern rock song, Rodents In The Attic will have you tapping your foot in time; Baby Loves The Life opens with nice guitar riffs that roll into Dana’s vocals creating a perfect segue that lay down the bones of the song.

Other great tracks include Nothin’ On My Mind, Keep On Walkin’, and Vagabond Wind. The release closes with the track, Long Long Game, which has a roots feel to it with guitar picking and opening lyrics, “Whiskey bound on a whistling train, another town but it’s all the same, take a bow when they call your name, what’s the price you gonna pay for fame …,” that leaves you impressed and ready to hit the play button to ride the rollercoaster of emotions again.

For information on upcoming performances in the United States and internationally, please visit the website www.DanaFuchs.com