Los Angeles-based GRAMMY-winning, Emmy-nominated singer/songwriter, Grey DeLisle, has announced her forthcoming double LP, The Grey Album, via Holler with the release of its lead single, “40 Something Runaway (ft. Cherie Currie).” The album is due April 4th via Hummin’bird Records.
In their premiere, Holler called “40 Something Runaway (ft. Cherie Currie)” a "swaggering slice of classic honky tonk country that mixes the old school twang of Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson with the '70s glam of Suzi Quatro and the garage pop sensibilities of The Donnas," adding, “As the most prolific voice actress in American animation history...it's unsurprising that it's Grey DeLisle's voice on '40 Something Runaway' that really grabs you by the ears and swings you around the room. She's a belting country powerhouse with a punch in her voice that could take out Reba in a sing-to-the-death karaoke contest."
“I had just landed at LAX after a short run of dates in the Midwest and I saw a woman around my age with no shoes on softly strumming her guitar," DeLisle told Holler. "I wasn’t sure if she was coming or going but I started to imagine what her story might be and wrote this song. Later that night I was invited out to The Smokehouse in Burbank to discuss being part of a tribute to Billy Vera and found myself sitting RIGHT NEXT TO CHERIE CURRIE! A real live RUNAWAY! I was so thrilled when she agreed to sing this with me."
Grey DeLisle turns out songs the way Stephen King turns out novels. The way Ryan Adams creates covers. The way Krispy Kreme delivers donuts. Sweet and satisfying, and staggering in sheer volume. “Prolific” doesn’t even begin to cut it.
One might be shocked to learn that she once endured a long songwriting dry spell after a bout of crippling stage fright, turning her focus on forging a brilliant career as one of Hollywood’s top voice actors (The Simpsons, Scooby-Doo, Spongebob Squarepants, and more) and being the mom of three children. In the isolation of 2020, the spark came back, and she began writing feverishly. The songs were coming so fast that she decided to record them with her longtime creative partner, Murry Hammond of Old 97’s, with whom she has collaborated for over two decades on countless musical projects (and one human being, their son, wunderkind visual artist Tex Hammond).
Using Hammond’s full complement of vintage recording equipment, the pair racked up the songs and played them for producer and longtime collaborator Marvin Etzioni. Etzioni produced DeLisle’s first solo record, The Small Time, in 2000, and introduced her to some of the stellar musicians the pair still work with to this day. The artists on The Grey Album are a Who’s Who of Americana and roots rock: strings by Tammy Rogers (Emmylou Harris, Neil Diamond, Patty Loveless), horns by David Ralicke (Lucinda Williams, Beck, Morrissey, John Cale), pedal steel by Greg Leisz (basically every major American artist who has ever used pedal steel).
The best part is, that they all separately contributed their parts in the coolest game of relay ever: after the original analog recordings were digitally mastered by renowned sound engineer Todd Burke (Ben Harper, Albert Hammond Jr., Belle and Sebastian), DeLisle would send the tracks off to Rogers, who laid down the heavenly strings, passed it on to Leisz for the pedal steel magic, then on to Ralicke for horns.
Along the way, DeLisle kept writing more and more songs, and meeting more and more artists with whom she just had to collaborate. At a dinner party, DeLisle was seated next to the Runaways’ Cherie Currie, which she took as a sign as she had written album track “40 Something Runaway” that same morning. Would Currie like to sing on it? She sure would! This kind of serendipity seems to follow DeLisle everywhere she goes. Stephen McCarthy (Long Ryders, Jayhawks) came on board for “Didn’t We Try,” and Etzioni lent his song “Convince Me” to the tracklist, one he originally wrote for Roy Orbison before his sudden death in 1988.
Over the course of five years, DeLisle weaved together these collaborative threads to form the tapestry of The Grey Album. The record is imbued with all of the Americana artistry of the many hands that brought it to life, delivered in the inimitable style of Grey DeLisle.
The Grey Album is available for pre-save/pre-order HERE, with “40 Something Runaway” available as an immediate download. Be sure to follow Grey DeLisle at the links below for all the latest news and updates.
THE GREY ALBUM TRACK LIST :
Hello, I'm Lonesome
Who To Love
A Coastal Town
Reach For The Sky
Mi Vida
Tomorrow (Without You)
Sister Shook
Daddy, Can You Fix A Broken Heart?
40 Something Runaway
A Promise I Can't Keep
Didn't We Try
Convince Me
I'm A Wreck
Don't Let Go Of My Hand
I Can't Be Kind
My Darlin' Vivian
The Last, Last Time
House On Fire
Take Me Dancing Again
Red Dress
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