A self-described clairvoyant massage therapist lit the spark for The Watters’ third album Intuition, which is due out this Friday, January 23rd.
Daniel and Jenna Watters – schoolmates turned band mates turned soul mates, whose adventurous path is woven through four megalopolises (Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville, and Austin) and features repeated codas back to Sedona, Arizona where they first met, it must be noted, while attending rival grade schools and playing on the same pee wee football team that Jenna’s dad coached – have been playing music together now for over 12 years, and it shows.
The Watters became an Austin band in 2015. “On one of our trips home to Sedona,” says Daniel, “we were convinced to take a long detour to Austin, TX and ended up at a show at The Continental Club Gallery where we decided that night we had to move here.”
Now, after recording two albums and playing relentlessly around Austin for five years, The Watters, whose airtight version of Americana/Soul often elicits comparisons to Fleetwood Mac (to whom they’ve been known to play Tribute shows around ATX), Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Rilo Kiley, have won a major grant from local music non-profit Blackfret and are preparing to release their new album Intuition.
Intuition was recorded live over five days at Good Danny’s Studio (Sheerwater, Wye Oak, Of Montreal) in Lockhart, TX in October 2019. It features JJ Johnson (Tedeschi Trucks Band) on drums, Anthony Farrell (Greyhounds) on Organ, Trevor Nealon (Band of Heathens) on Keys, and Joe Beckham on Bass. Horns and vocals were overdubbed at Birdhouse Studios and background vocals were recorded during Covid-19 lockdown. Intuition was mixed by Danny Reisch of Good Danny’s and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.
Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the new album. Intuition’s primary genre is morose and/or profound lyrics delivered with buoyancy and mirth. From the opening track “Fire Inside,” the album is brimming with bright horns and organs with perfectly executed harmonies and immaculate vocals enveloping the tracks in a warmth that often belies the lyrical content. Jenna Watters has a natural soulful sound in her big, soaring vocals, which is balanced out by tight musicianship and a groove that pulls you in and doesn’t let go. You can definitely hear a Memphis soul sound, but the group adds their own spin with bluesy guitar that feels at times like something Robbie Robertson would come up with. There is an ease to the band’s sound that is clearly the product of a natural symbiotic musical chemistry. Even as they work in soul, blues and rock, there is also a poppy sensibility to the songs on Intuition that makes each one catchier than the next and reminds you just how fun they must be in the live setting. As a whole, Intuition is an impressive effort for a band that continues to expand their sound to more expansive sonic territory.
The duo describes the inspiration behind the album:
““Below the heart, above the gut” — the album Intuition focuses on using the place “above the gut, below the heart” we call intuition to guide us. In 2018, I got a massage in Sedona, AZ from a family friend who is also a self proclaimed “Clairvoyant.” During the session, she had an epiphany and told me I had to write a song called “below the heart, above the gut.” While I was unsure how I would possibly write a song with that in it, I decided to give it a whirl and it turned out to be the titled track of the whole album”
LISTEN:
