Ahead of Opening for Jools Holland, Elles Bailey Releases New Single & Video

13th July 2023 0 By Jon Deaux

Elles Bailey today releases a brand-new gospel roots rocking single ‘Devil Claims His Prize’ and its accompanying in-studio video.

This latest offering from multi-award winning, ever-forward-surging Elles Bailey sees her once again blend genres with flair to create what she rightly describes as “a dirty hypnotic roots rocker that meets at the crossroads of blues and gospel”.

The song was written with indie-rocker Brandy Zdan in Arkansas in 2019 and was inspired by the world’s lust for greed and power: “You can’t take it with you when the Devil claims his prize.”

This track features Elles’ well-honed band: Joe Wilkins on guitar; Jonny Henderson on Ivories, Matthew Waer on bass duties; and Matthew Jones on drums. As on so many of Elles’ recent tracks, the gospel-influenced backing vocals play a huge part in the sound and feature Cat Marsh, Grace Lightman, and Elio Evangeline.

The line-up has made for such sweet synergy in composition, performance, and production, as Elles reflects: “This version was a real production collaboration between myself and the musicians in my band, pulling in all our different influences to create this sound.”

And it’s a sound that has instant and lasting appeal, drawing on her band’s individual talents and their tight interplay, providing a platform for Elles’ inimitable lead vocals, enriched by such high-quality BGVs.

Elles is also premiering her video to the single ‘Devil Claims His Prize’ recorded at Middle Farm studio, completely live to tape and engineered by Peter Miles.

This single is released right off the back of Elles’ 18-date headline tour and in-between her festival appearances across the UK. The band has never sounded better, which is ideally timed as Elles is proud to announce she will be opening for Jools Holland on July 16^th at Kew Gardens.

Elles could not be more delighted l: “I feel incredibly honoured to be heading back to Kew Gardens with the band, to play ‘Kew The Music’ and open for the one-and-only Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. It’s truly going to be an incredible evening of live music!”

Reviewing Elles’ recent set at the Black Deer Festival, Blues Matters praised her performance saying “It’s easy to see why she has been collecting gongs for her music in both the blues and Americana worlds recently with songwriting that challenges boundaries and hits hard, packing a hefty punch. The venue was crammed to bursting and the crowd truly loved her and her band and set.”

Check out Elles for yourself at a Festival this Summer.

See below for the full list of festivals that Elles will be playing over the next few months and do check Elles’ website and socials for updates, further announcements etc.