Dion Recruits Susan Tedeschi For 'Soul Force' And Announces New Album

12-08-2023

(Noble) The past few years have been some of the most productive over the course of Dion's storied career that spans multiple eras in music, culture and consciousness. Today's release "Soul Force" featuring powerhouse Susan Tedeschi, underscores his renewed and ongoing creative drive.

This is the second single released from Dion's upcoming new album of all original penned tracks, Girl Friends, showcasing powerful female collaborators. The first single "An American Hero" with Carlene Carter dropped back in October and paved the way for this new collection of songs.

Girl Friends, slated for March 8, is his third consecutive album through blues rock titan Joe Bonamassa's Keeping The Blues Alive Records. Dion explains, "I've noticed that men play a different tune when there are women in the room - and it's a different kind of jam when women are in the mix. I don't know why this is so, but it is. Maybe we men, at some primitive level, are competing for their attention. As I said, I don't know why or how. I do know it makes better music and we're all better for it." He concludes with an encapsulation of vision for Girl Friends,

"I wanted the best music possible. So, I wrote up a batch of duets for me and my 'girl friends,' the women who inhabit my headphones - the women who make me turn up the volume when they drop into my radio. I invited them to join me, one by one, and here they are, wailing on the guitar and into the microphone. You'll hear the feminine genius in every groove of this record, and you won't forget any of it".

Girl Friends finds Dion keeping musical company with a line-up of stellar female artists who are heard on the album's 12 original tracks, 11 of which were composed by Dion and Mike Aquilina with one written by Dion and the late Scott Kempner (The Dictators, The Del Lords). Joining Tedeschi and Carter are Rory Block, Shemekia Copeland, Debbie Davis, Randi Fishenfeld, Sue Foley, Danielle Nicole, Christine Ohlman, Maggie Rose, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Valerie Tyson. The album was produced by Wayne Hood and Dion, who were also producing partners on Blues With Friends and Stomping Ground.