Stevie Ray Vaughan Bandmate to Release First Solo Album

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member and world-renowned Nashville-based keyboardist Reese Wynans announces his first-ever solo album Sweet Release, a collection of songs honoring a paramount selection of blues-rock legends. The long anticipated album comes following a career that’s spanned over 50 years and literally hundreds of historical collaborations.Sweet Release also serves as Joe Bonamassa’s inaugural credit as a producer. Bonamassa has long been a fan of Wynans’ work, urging him to create a solo album and championing the project as producer. Today, the album is avaliable for pre-order and will be in stores on March 1st.

The fact is Reese Wynans is everywhere. For a full half-century, Wynans has been the engine-room behind America’s greatest roots music. With Sweet Release, this modest legend has delivered the long-awaited solo album that puts his own name top of the bill and places his world-class talent in the spotlight. “I’ve never had an album out with my name on it before,” he considers, “so I’m very excited. I’d like this record to make people feel happy and celebrate the music. Because that’s what we were doing...”

“Reese inspires me every day,” Bonamassa professes. “He encouraged me and was the heart and soul of the entire session. All the guest artists performed brilliantly and totally brought their best stuff from the very down beat. It was not lost on Reese nor me how blessed we were to work with such talent. All I know is what I know ... I love the man... He is as gracious and a gentleman as he is talented and an icon.”

Scan the history books and he’s there on every page: a vital strand of rock ‘n’ roll DNA, present at a thousand cultural flashpoints. Over the last five decades, you might have found him cutting his teeth with the early nucleus of the Allman Brothers Band or taking the stage with Boz Scaggs. Maybe you remember him bringing on the rise of Outlaw Country in Austin with Jerry Jeff Walker or saving the ’80s blues scene with Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductees Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble or most recently bringing his blues to the people with Joe Bonamassa. Adding his thumbprint on piano and B3, Reese has worked with the likes of Larry Carlton, Delbert McClinton, Los Lonely Boys, Joe Ely, Doug Sahm, Brooks & Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Hank Williams Jr., Buddy Guy – and many more. Not to mention, his roughly 500 live shows with Willie Nelson, unforgettable performance with Captain Beyond for the Sufficiently Breathless record, and three albums with Carole King.

“These songs are windows back into different eras and different times of my career,” explains Wynans. “It’s a collection of the songs I’ve played with musicians in the past, and it shines a light on blues artists that I think need a little bit more recognition.”

In the late-’60s, Wynans was playing alongside future blues-rock royalty in Florida up-and-comers, the Second Coming. “Dickey Betts was one of our guitar players and our bass player was Berry Oakley,” he says. “Duane Allman was in Muscle Shoals at the time and would come down on a weekend and sit in with us. For Sweet Release, we covered the old Les Dudek song, “Take The Time”, which reminds me of being back in Jacksonville during the dawn of that Southern rock era.”

Tracklisting

1. Crossfire
2. Say What!
3. That Driving Beat
4. You're Killing My Love
5. Sweet Release
6. Shape I'm In
7. Hard To Be
8. Riviera Paradise
9. Take The Time
10. So Much Trouble
11. I've Got A Right To Be Blue
12. Soul Island
13. Blackbird