American music maker Chakourah (Alecia Chakour) is pleased to announce the Friday, October 29 release of her brand new six-song EP, lotusland. (pre-order, pre-save HERE). Best known for her collaborations, Chakourah is a celebrated vocalist, percussionist and arranger who connects and uplifts artists across genres and generations. Co-produced alongside her brother, multi-instrumentalist Alex Chakour (Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Brittany Howard), the Chakour siblings carve out their own unique fantasy world of “R&B-laced, cinematic Arab-Americana” on lotusland. As a member of the 12-piece rock & soul circus that is the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Chakour takes the lead as writer, producer and frontwoman on lotusland—her first completed solo project in over a decade and the first in an emerging series of new work.
The EP’s first single, “West St.,” is a bittersweet love song between a girl and a creature from another world. They realize their time together can only be short, and that the best way to love each other is to let go and watch each other shine from a distance.
Born to a musician and raised as a backstage and studio baby, Alecia Chakour aka Chakourahspent her formative years soaking up the magic of many of the architects of rock and rhythm and blues, as well as her family’s deep well of musical traditions. It was in these spaces that her passion for exploration, community, harmony and texture developed that shines so vividly in her work today, as illustrated through her vast catalogue of live and recording credits (most recently with artists such as Kevin Morby, Gary Clark Jr., Danger Mouse & Karen O, Michael Kiwanuka, Lettuce, Mark Ronson and the Menahan Street Band).
Running at 22 minutes, her forthcoming EP, lotusland, is a lush, dreamy and playful exploration of grief, rebirth and beginning again. Equal parts psychedelic folk and avant-soul, the EP honors, but never replicates, life-long influences as wide-ranging as Marc Bolan, Junie Morrison, Fairuz and the Muppets.
Joining the Chakour siblings and rounding out the band on this record are frequent collaborators and an all-star extended family: Homer Steinwess on drums and Sam Cohen on guitar, with special appearances from Jared Samuel on organ, Cochemea Gastelum on saxophone and flute, and Alecia and Alex’s father Mitch Chakour on piano.
