The California Honeydrops’ seventh album (and first double album) Call It Home: Vol. 1 & 2 is set for release on April 6 via Tubtone Records. The lead track, “Call It Home” features music legend Bonnie Raitt, with whom the band supported on her 2016-2017 Dig In Deep tour. The song premieres at Noisey, who proclaim, “‘Call It Home’ is a smooth, sensuous song, with a guitar part evoking a hot summer day, an organ that sends you to the front pew and a brass section that feels like something straight out of The Blues Brothers.” Pre-order the album HERE.
In celebration of the release The Honeydrops will tour extensively, with stops in L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, D.C., New York, Australia and many more. See below for current dates, with more to be announced.
Recorded over the past year and a half, the new album takes its inspiration from the many facets and ever-changing nature of the idea of home—a subject frontman and co-founder Lech Wierzynski thinks a lot about. “Home’s been on my mind since I was a kid,” he says. “I was born in Warsaw, Poland. My parents brought me here as a kid and we moved around a lot. They were always talking about missing where they were from and I was always wondering who I was in that way, whether I was Polish or Amercan or both. I didn’t set out to make an album about that, but these songs just started coming out that way…” Drummer and co-founder Ben Malament mentions that it also grapples with the many changes their longtime home of Oakland, California has undergone in the past decade. “We’ve always been a Bay Area band and the Bay Area has been such a hotbed of change the last 10 years. It’s been interesting for us to see and live in, and it’s affected the way the band works.”
With a “tub full of songs” written by Wierzynski, the band—made up of Wierzynski (lead vocal, trumpet, guitar), Malament (drums, washboard, percussion), Johnny Bones (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Lorenzo Loera (keys, melodica) and Beau Bradbury (bass, percussion)—took to the studio on breaks from touring, collaborating on a multitude of tracks blending a diverse array of styles, in true Honeydrops fashion. On the decision to compile and release them all as a double album, Wierzynski says, “This was a breakthrough year for the band. I wanted something that captured the totality, instead of doing something small. That’s why you’ve got the whole cosmos on the album cover. This is my life. This band has never been for sale. This band has been everything for us. It’s something that we do for the love. I’m proud of that.”
The California Honeydrops got their start busking on the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area, where they quickly developed a passionate local following that has continued to grow over the course of nonstop American, European and Australian touring. In addition to Raitt’s Dig In Deep tour, the band has also supported such icons as B.B. King, Allen Toussaint, Buddy Guy and Dr. John. They have sold out headline shows at venues across the country and performed at major festivals including Outside Lands, Bluesfest Byron Bay, Monterey Jazz, High Sierra and many more. Their previous record, A River’s Invitation, was released in 2015 with KQED hailing it as “a winning new album,” and The Bluegrass Situation furthering, “The groove is Muscle Shoals deep, singer Lech Wierzynski’s voice is Sam Cooke wide, and saxophonist Johnny Bones bangs heavy on the door of Ben Webster.”
CALL IT HOME: VOL. 1 & 2 TRACKLIST
Vol. 1
1. Call It Home
2. Coming Around
3. Cry For Me
4. Standin’ Still Blues
5. Hold It Down
6. Your Sweet Love
7. Those Days
8. Live Learn
Vol. 2
9. Only Home I’ve Ever Known
10. Silicon World
11. Tell Me (I Wanna Know)
12. Drop By Drop
13. Good Good Lovin’
14. Things We Used To Do
15. In My Baby’s Arms
16. Starr Child
TOUR DATES
March 29–April 2—Byron Bay, Australia—Bluesfest
April 11—San Diego, CA—Belly Up
April 12—Los Angeles, CA—Teragram Ballroom
April 13 & 14—Las Vegas, CA—Bender Jamboree
April 19—Dallas, TX—Gas Monkey
April 20—Waco, TX—Brazos Nights
April 21—Lockhart, TX—Old Settler’s Festival
April 22—Houston, TX—The Studio
April 24—Nashville, TN—High Watt
April 25—Memphis, TN—Growlers
April 27—New Orleans, LA—House of Blues
April 28—Birmingham, AL—Zydeco
April 29—Asheville, NC—Salvage Station
April 30—Raleigh, NC—Lincoln Theatre
May 2—Richmond, VA—Capitol Ale House
May 3—New York, NY—Bowery Ballroom
May 4—Brooklyn, NY—Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 5—Washington DC—The Hamilton
May 8—Ann Arbor, MI—The Ark
May 9—Madison, WI—High Noon Saloon
May 10—St Louis, MO—Atomic Cowboy
May 11—Chicago, IL—Concord Hall
May 12—Minneapolis, MN—Cedar Cultural Center
May 17—Sacramento, CA—Harlow’s
May 19—San Francisco, CA—The Fillmore
May 20—Dana Point, CA—Doheney Blues Festival
May 24 & 25—Cumberland, MD—DelFest
May 27—Bradley, CA—Lightning In A Bottle
July 6 & 7—Quincy, CA—High Sierra Music Festival
