Shawn James - The Dark & The Light (2019)

Take one listen to Shawn James’ music and you can hear his roots in the Mississippi delta by way of growing up on the fabled South Side of Chicago, his authentic, gutbucket blend of blues, folk, and soul music running the gamut of ecstatic joy and painful anguish.

His aching cover of Macy Gray’s “I Try” for GRAMMY.com’s “GRAMMY ReImagined” feature takes the original, a three-time nominee (for both Record and Song of the Year) and winner for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 43rd Annual GRAMMY Awards in 2000 to the church, bringing out the wrenching anguish and yearning at its core. The song will be available to stream on GRAMMY.com as well as all the leading DSPs, including Spotify and Apple Music.

“The emotional heaviness of the lyrics is what drew me to it,” explains James. “People can relate on some level or another regarding love, loss, addiction, and the reaction to dealing with those things.”

James’s reimagining included “adding a depth of sorrow and darkness not just to the lyrics, but the ambience and delivery of the performance,” slowing the song down to emphasize the depth of feeling as he tries to say goodbye.

The singer-songwriter has previously released four full-length albums, including his debut, Shadows, a live record (Live at the Heartbreak House), a covers EP (The Madrid Sessions) and the original songs of his most recent effort, On the Shoulders of Giants. His anticipated new release will be coming out in 2019 on indie label Parts + Labor Records, produced and recorded by Jimmy Messer (AWOLNation, Kelly Clarkson, Kygo, The White Buffalo).

James is a road dog, the hellhounds at his heels, performing more than 200 dates a year, including a November 12th appearance at the fabled Troubadour in Los Angeles. His songs have been featured on HBO, CBS and Sony Playstation’s The Last of Us 2. His track, “Through the Valley,” topped Spotify’s Global Viral Charts, while generating more than 60 million streams combined on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.



Track List:
01. Orpheus 03:58
02. Love Will Find A Way I 03:22
03. Love Will Find A Way II 03:06
04. There It Is 03:14
05. The Weak End 05:32
06. Burn The Witch 04:08
07. Haunted 04:18
08. The Curse Of The Fold 05:19
09. Chicago 04:32
10. When I'm Gone 03:50

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