High Desert Queen and Blue Heron To Release 'Turned To Stone Chapter 8' Split Album

03-21-2023

Cover art

(Purple Sage) Ripple Music announces the release of "Turned To Stone Chapter 8: The Wake", the new split record featuring Southwestern heavy and stoner rock merchants High Desert Queen and Blue Heron, to be issued on May 26th, 2023.

About joining forces with High Desert Queen, Blue Heron frontman Jadd Shickler says: "We dig High Desert Queen as musicians and as people. We invited them to Albuquerque to play the release party for our first single, which I think was their first-ever out-of-town gig. They returned the favor by having us play with them at Ripplefest Texas last summer, and I think all of us in Blue Heron are pretty impressed by their go-getter attitude. Along with all that, several of us are actual friends outside of band stuff, so it just felt like a natural pairing that Todd at Ripple was on board with. We're stoked that it worked out, and with luck, we'll be playing some shows with them to promote the record later this year!"

Pairing up two highly esteemed bands of the Southwest underground scene, "Turned To Stone Chapter 8" is a gigantic masterclass of heavy rock, with six tracks that will take you on a riff-fueled journey with no further ado! Between High Desert Queen's versatile and massive-sounding heavy and Blue Heron's raucous and desert-shaped songcraft, it is no understatement to say that we are in presence of true forces of nature, an alliance between two up-and-coming greats of the US stoner and desert rock scene.

"Turned To Stone Chapter 8" will be available on May 26th in various vinyl formats as well as digitally, with preorders available now on Ripple Music. The artwork was created by award-winning comic and poster artist Johnny Dombrowski. Listen to Blue Heron's debut single "Able Baker" below: