Ebony McQueen is out now! Dave Stewart’s latest album tells the story of his discovery of music through the voodoo queen herself while growing up in Sunderland, is an epic collection of new songs.

So lets set the scene! Ebony McQueen’ is the name of a fictional voodoo blues queen, a living embodiment of the blues music that inspired Dave’s entire career. Dave says “She is basically my entry point into music and the title track is the entry point to this story. Ultimately, it’s a story about destiny. There’s a point in your life when something’s put before you and you can either choose this path or that path. If you’re open to it, the right path chooses you. And the whole story is about how that awakening happens”

Ebony McQueen is presented as both a download and a luxurious box set, with 25 new songs spread across the white, grey, and black vinyl LPs, alternate versions over 2 7″ singles, one coloured vinyl, and one splatter vinyl, both housed in beautiful metallic sleeves. Then to round of the music, you get acoustic versions and piano guide versions of most of the tracks on 2 cassettes making the package over 75 songs in total.

The icing on the cake is the luxurious lyric book, hand typed by Dave Stewart with a beautiful debossed signature from Dave across the front. The book is peppered with photos from Sunderland, some from archives from the era when Dave was a child, and when shipbuilding was the main industry, and some from Dave’s visits back to his hometown. The recording of the album is well documented throughout the rest of the book with photos from various recording sessions. The whole package has been designed by long-time Eurythmics collaborator Laurence Stevens.

Written and produced by Dave, the album was recorded at studios including Nashville’s legendary Blackbird Studio and his own Bay Street Recording Studio in the Caribbean, with contributions from a huge cast of musicians from Ringo Starr playing drums, to The Budapest Scoring Orchestra, as well as his regular collaborators from Nashville who have appeared on all of Dave’s recent albums. Tom Bukovac, Dan Dugmore, Michael Rhodes, Chad Cromwell & Mike Rojas, even Dave’s son Sam makes an appearance on one track.

Ebony McQueen the album is just the start of the story as Dave hopes to turn the album into both a stage show and a film.

The album has been in the making since 2019 and musically has Dave experimenting with sound as he always does, there are ballads, the fun songs, nods to The Beatles and Bowie, The Stones, and early influences from his father’s Rogers & Hammerstein records & Robert Johnson’s blues, but always the sound of Dave, and the guitar tracks, all meshing together to tell Dave’ story. There are the distinctive contributions of the team in Nashville, but also songs that would have easily fitted onto a Spiritual Cowboys album, or Greetings From The Gutter.

If you are a fan of Dave Stewart’s music and guitar playing, this box set is a must!

There is also a download card that gives you access to videos of Dave talking about the tracks on the album in-depth, and for the musicians amongst you, there are scans of notes made in the studio, changes to lyrics, instrument layouts and music score notes.

It’s not a cheap purchase at over £100, but there is a huge amount of value in this box, a download of the 25 main tracks is also available.

You can see a full gallery of scans

TRACKLISTING

LP1
Quaalude Prelude (0:39)
Ebony Mcqueen (3:52)
When You’re Feeling Down (2:14)
She Knows My Name (4:17)
As You Like It (2:58)
Walking on Blue (3:35)
People Change (4:59)
Unhappy Town (3:53)
Things Will Never Be the Same (without You) (4:10)

LP2
Mr Jolly (2:02)
There’s Got to Be a Devil (3:17)
Walking on Thin Air (2:04)
Ebony Says (3:03)
Daddy’s Got the Blues (4:04)
One Morning (3:01)
Baby Did It Blow Our Minds (4:00)
Sunshine (3:08)

LP3
Juniper (4:12)
Baby It’s You (5:56)
Waiting for the Rain (2:09)
What’s the Fucking Point (3:26)
Two Kids (3:43)
Jackie Where You Been (3:49)
Dream On (4:32)
Loada Coda (0:48)

7″ Single 1
There’s Got to Be a Devil (Original Version) (3:17)
Ebony Says (Original Version) (3:03)

7″ Single 2
Things Will Never Be the Same (without You) (4:10)
Walking on Blue (3:35)

Cassette 1
As You Like It (Acoustic) (?:??)
When You’re Feeling Down (Acoustic) (?:??)
Ebony Mcqueen (Acoustic) (?:??)
Unhappy Town (Acoustic) (?:??)
She Knows My Name (Acoustic) (?:??)
Walking on Thin Air (Acoustic) (?:??)
Jackie Where You Been (Acoustic) (?:??)
Mr Jolly (Acoustic) (?:??)
There’s Got to Be a Devil (Acoustic) (?:??)
Daddy’s Got the Blues (Acoustic) (?:??)
Baby Did It Blow Our Minds (Acoustic) (?:??)
Dream On (Acoustic) (?:??)
Ebony Says (Acoustic) (?:??)
Baby It’s You (Acoustic) (?:??)
Walking on Blue (Acoustic) (?:??)
Juniper (Acoustic) (?:??)
What’s the Fucking Point (Acoustic) (?:??)
Sunshine (Acoustic) (?:??)
People Change (Acoustic) (?:??)
Two Kids (Acoustic) (?:??)
One Morning (Acoustic) (?:??)
My Life (Acoustic) (Track is actually Things Will never Be The Same (?:??)
Waiting for the Rain (Acoustic) (?:??)

Cassette 2
Ebony Mcqueen (Orchestra and Melody) (?:??)
When You’re Feeling Down (Piano Guide) (?:??)
She Knows My Name (Piano Rough) (?:??)
As You Like It (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Walking on Blue (Piano Guide) (?:??)
People Change (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Unhappy Town (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Things Will Never Be the Same (without You) (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Mr Jolly (Piano Guide) (?:??)
There’s Got to Be a Devil (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Walking on Thin Air (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Ebony Says (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Daddy’s Got the Blues (Piano Guide) (?:??)
One Morning (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Sunshine (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Juniper (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Baby It’s You (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Waiting for the Rain (Piano Guide) (?:??)
What’s the Fucking Point (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Two Kids (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Jackie Where You Been (Piano Guide) (?:??)
Dream On (Piano Guide) (?:??)