Lex Grey & The Urban Pioneers - Usual Suspects (2018)

Personnel:
Lex Grey vocals, acoustic guitar on 1; percussion on 5, 9
Vic Mix guitars; Kaia Updike bass on 1, 3, 5, 8, 9; piano on 3,
flute, keyboard bass, background vocals on 5; violin on 7
Brian Dewan organ on 2, 3, 4 5; piano on 2, 7; accordion on 2
John Holland drums on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9; percussion,
background vocals on 5, 7; Walter Tates Jr. sax on 1, 4, 9
Tim Farrell bass on 4, 5; background vocals on 5, 7
Per Bergquist bass on 2, 7; Ed Was upright bass on 6
Mike Ragiani drums on 6; Chris Pasin trumpet on 6
Kenny Siegal lap steel on 7; Matt Messenger drums on 7
Rick Surrano Sr. harmonica on 8; Foggy Otis ukelele on 9
The whip-wielding mistress of modern blues is again bringing listeners to their knees: Lex Grey and the Urban Pioneers are preparing to release their seventh original album, "Usual Suspects."
Made up of award-winning musicians and recording artists from a variety of diverse backgrounds, The Urban Pioneers are an eclectic, wildly entertaining, little (and sometimes big) band with a captivating singer and frontperson.
Lex Grey is a multiple ASCAP award-winning songwriter who beckons audiences into her world of personal stories cloaked in smoke and stage lights -- a world of drama, humor and rowdy abandon that makes music lovers feel as though they're doing something wrong just by listening. The band juxtaposes bawdiness with intimacy, introspection and a vulnerability that draws you in like a warm embrace. Having earned a reputation as a legendary live band with a dazzlingly theatrical show, the group emerges from the studio capturing live performances that constantly deconstruct and reinvent their palette of sounds.
Though she cites Ma Rainey as her greatest inspiration, Grey's vocal stylings have been compared to those of Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey and, interestingly, Robert Plant, her voice an ever-morphing instrument that changes textures and tones on a dime. "Usual Suspects" fearlessly dances through genres while keeping its feet firmly rooted in blues, and it's certain to become one of the year's most talked-about blues.