Hold On, by Chanda Rule & Sweet Emma Band

Hold On

by Chanda Rule & Sweet Emma Band

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in a slick digipack, artwork by schoett design, photos by Daniel Meier

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$12 USD or more

1.	Another Man Done Gone 07:37	buy track
2.	I'll Fly Away 04:58	buy track
3.	Rosalie 05:53	buy track
4.	Sun Goes Down 04:22	buy track
5.	Motherless Chile 08:15	buy track
6.	Carry It Home To Rosie 04:39	buy track
7.	Hold On 05:00	buy track
8.	Sinnerman 07:20	buy track
9.	Come Sunday 05:14	buy track

about

My musical tastes have always predated me. The bluesy gospel hymns of my grandmothers...old moans born in fields...and rhythms that hovered above oceans from long before have worked my dreams as long as I can remember.

As a child, like many, I often dreamed of flying. One night I was so high and so free and so weight-less...a gentle wind on my skin...the warm sun pressed against my closed eyes. I remember being incredibly happy and at some point, in my dream – I thought, “Wow, this is really happening.” And I opened my eyes. I saw the expanse of sky before me, the sea of green below me. And then I looked back – and saw a flock of black bodies flying behind me like a starling murmuration. A black sun. Hundreds, maybe a thousand of grandparents and great grandparents, familial and non. A sea of ancestral energy. Supporting me. Guiding my flight.

This work is a musical libation to them. I honor them with each of these songs that have been steeped in the field’s of the American South. Over the years I have been surprised and sometimes incensed at the claims to this music that fell from the lips of my enslaved ancestors. It is their music. They created it, sang it, labored through it, cried through it, shared their souls in ways that were acceptable to their new world through it. With the exception of “I’ll Fly Away”, written by Albert Brumley and inspired by work and prison songs of African Americans (listen to Alan Lomax’s field recording of “Prison Song”) and Come Sunday, written by Duke Ellington, the songs featured on this album were originally written and sung by unnamed and undocumented African American mothers, fathers, workers, prisoners, preachers, sons and daughters.

I gave many of the songs a lyrical update. I think those that came before me would have approved. I used to sing the songs because the melody carried me to new places and the lyrics were a retelling of a time that I never had to live through. But I have found out that they also guide and support us through a new time. This new space where Another Man Done Gone is not an escaped convict but a prisoner of industrialized incarceration, an innocent victim of gun violence, a target of crimes that aim to squeeze love into boxes drawn by hate. This time where we are still so glad when the Sun Goes Down as we await the comfort of night and the possibility embedded in the dawn. They support an awareness of Holding On to a vision of liberation, of looking forward when the ground beneath our feet seems to move backwards. These songs remind me to Fly Away to places of joy – be it through music, through lyrical expression, or through dreams of a greater by and by. Mojuba with each note. Mojuba with each lyric that takes on new meaning in the new millennium. Mojuba for each soul that imagined a beautiful world for their daughters, who looked forward, and held fast. I pray that their spirit sings through my voice.

credits

released May 22, 2020

Chanda Rule – voc
Mario Rom – trumpet
Osian Roberts – tenor sax
Paul Zauner – trombone
Jan Korinek – hammond organ
Christian Salfellner – drums, percussion

Special Guests:
Harmonica on "Another man done gone“ by 3 x Grammy Nominee Billy Branch, curtesy of Alligator Records, recorded by Blaise Barton at JoyRide Studio, Chicago USA

Tabla on "Another man done gone" and "Sun Goes Down" by Avirbhav Verma, recorded by Sunny at BMS Studio Chandigarh, India

Distribution Europe by Membran
Distribution North America, Africa, India by CDBABY
Rest of the world by Kontor

Recorded on June 11th & 12th 2018 by
Juan Jose delRio at JJdelRio Studio Vienna

Mixed by Christoph Burgstaller at Burgstaller Studio Vienna July 2018

Mastered by Christoph Burgstaller at Burgstaller Studio Vienna July 2019

Produced by Paul Zauner

All Arrangements by Chanda Rule, Mario Rom, Osian Roberts, Paul Zauner, Jan Korinek, Christian Salfellner

All songs, exept Fly away and Come Sunday published by PAO Music

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Chanda Rule & Sweet Emma Band Chicago, Illinois

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