With 10 albums behind them, Blinddog Smokin' is a band that excels at just about everything that they touch. Their larger-than-life upcoming album High Steppin’ (due July 17) is a kaleidoscopic romp through the wild side of roots music. The disc’s nine songs ricochet from rock ’n’ roll to juke joint blues to New Orleans jazz to raw Americana, all supported by the band’s twin pillars: hot ’n’ greasy funk and frontman Carl Gustafson’s epic storytelling.
High Steppin’ follows 2014’s Decisions, a collaboration with soul-blues legend Bobby Rush that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Blues Album.
The first single from High Steppin’ is “Pimp Shoes,” a great song with an equally interesting backstory, as told to us by the band:
With 10 albums behind them, Blinddog Smokin' is a band that excels at just about everything that they touch. Their larger-than-life upcoming album High Steppin’ (due July 17) is a kaleidoscopic romp through the wild side of roots music. The disc’s nine songs ricochet from rock ’n’ roll to juke joint blues to New Orleans jazz to raw Americana, all supported by the band’s twin pillars: hot ’n’ greasy funk and frontman Carl Gustafson’s epic storytelling.
High Steppin’ follows 2014’s Decisions, a collaboration with soul-blues legend Bobby Rush that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Blues Album.
The first single from High Steppin’ is “Pimp Shoes,” a great song with an equally interesting backstory, as told to us by the band:
“In 1976 the back door of a Lincoln Limousine opened to a pair of white, high-heeled, men’s shoes which emerged into the daylight with Richard Pryor in them as the pseudo preacher of greed, Daddy Rich. We may not have agreed with his philosophy or even his ostentatious style, but we had to believe he was a man who knew who he was and what he wanted, and he could flaunt it like a strutting rooster. So this cock of the walk surrounded by the imposing Wilson (Pointer) Sisters, leonine yet lovely, caused a stir wherever he arrived. Pimp shoes is about having that kind of confidence, swagger, and clarity. Such a man provokes or inspires a broad spectrum of emotions from envy to admiration, jealousy to jingoism, disgust to deification. 'Pimp Shoes' tries to fill the listener with that fun, yet puissant buoyancy that inspires the walk of a cock, and all the aplomb that goes with it."
We’re happy to present the World Premiere of the fun and funky “Pimp Shoes.” Check it out below and tell us what you think!
World Premiere First Listen
Blinddog Smokin' - "Pimp Shoes"