Duff McKagan is celebrating the five-year anniversary of his acclaimed second solo album, Tenderness, with Tenderness Live From Los Angeles, a brand-new double-live collection arriving everywhere on Friday, May 31. Pre-orders are available now.
Recorded June 13, 2019 at Los Angeles’ historic El Rey Theatre just days following Tenderness’ May 2019 release, Tenderness Live From Los Angeles sees McKagan taking an intimate journey through his own canon of songs along with a few deeply personal cover versions, backed by 3x GRAMMY® Award-winning Tenderness producer Shooter Jennings and his band. Tenderness Live From Los Angeles is heralded by today’s premiere of an electrifying rendition of “River of Deceit”, originally performed by McKagan’s close friends, Seattle supergroup Mad Season – comprised of guitarist Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), drummer Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees/Walking Papers), and the late Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) and bassist John Baker Saunders (The Walkabouts) – and available everywhere now.
Duff McKagan expounds on the Tenderness era:
It was such a complete pleasure and honor to be able to work with Shooter Jennings and his stellar band for the recording of the songs that became the Tenderness record. Having Aubrey and John playing fiddle and pedal steel guitar on the tracks really led the music in a brand new direction for me. I strive for change and growth in life, and these guys ushered me into a brand new musical world. This relationship was made more special, when Shooter and the band agreed to tour Tenderness with me. Remember, Ted Kemp, Jamie Douglas, Aubrey Richmond, John Scheffler, and Shooter had been touring for years together. They are a tight-as-hell unit. I won the lottery!
This live recording from the El Rey in Los Angeles showcases not only the songs on the record, but some cover songs we started to fold into the live set as we toured. We’ve highlighted a couple tracks from this show – “Tenderness” being one of course, and our version of the Mad Season song, “River of Deceit”. Such a beautiful song written by guys from back home that I know now, and a couple who are no longer with us. It feels like a celebration to me. All of these live shows we did on that tour felt like a shedding, a prayer to better things, and a beautiful coming together of all you bad motherfuckers.
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Shooter Jennings adds:
One of the highlights of my life was making Tenderness with Duff McKagan. A thoughtful songwriter and even more thoughtful person. Touring with Duff checked another box of personal dreams come true! We had a blast out on the road. I remember playing the El Rey. The crowd was packed. I remember leaving the stage feeling like we had done something really special. Getting to mix the album all these years later was such a treat. To be able to mix it on the 1976 Frank Demedio custom API console (the same console that Prince recorded and mixed Purple Rain on) in legendary Sunset Sound Studio 3 (a.k.a. Snake Mountain), was like being able to distill a righteous memory through a flawless diamond. Sitting in that studio listening to the band play through those big speakers allowed for me to get lost in the music and let it guide me to bring this experience to record players everywhere!
Tenderness Live From Los Angeles is further highlighted by powerful takes on The Clash’s classic “Clampdown” and such Guns N’ Roses fan favourites as “You Ain’t the First”, “Dust N’ Bones”, and “Dead Horse”. But at its heart, the set casts a spotlight on McKagan’s own striking songcraft, with live versions of tracks originally featured on Tenderness, including the volatile rocker, CHIP AWAY, which earned extraordinary praise from the Maestro himself, Bob Dylan, who recently declared the song a personal favourite.
Named by Loudwire as one of 2019’s “50 Best Rock Albums,” Tenderness marked a powerful new chapter for the ever-evolving McKagan, taking on societal ills and his own personal transgressions against a rich sonic backdrop of Americana-fueled arrangements. Fueled by such songs as the nuanced “It’s Not Too Late” and the deeply hopeful title track, “Tenderness” was met by widespread acclaim from such outlets as Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Consequence of Sound, and us!
Tenderness Live From Los Angeles follows last year’s release of McKagan’s equally acclaimed third solo album, Lighthouse. The album sees Duff McKagan baring more of his artistic spirit than ever before, fusing acoustic elements with hard-edged rock ‘n’ roll to land at the sweet spot between soul-searching reflection and pure energy. Lighthouse was met by critical applause from such international outlets as Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Revolver, and American Songwriter (and again, us) for such singles as “Lighthouse”, “I Saw God on 10th Street”, and “Longfeather”, the latter hailed by Revolver as “folky, elegiac”. McKagan later performed “Longfeather” with an exclusive appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
In addition, an expanded digital edition of Lighthouse is available now at all DSPs and streaming services. The deluxe release includes eight additional tracks along with three exclusive live performance videos filmed last December at Easy Street Records in McKagan’s hometown of Seattle, WA. Highlights include an stripped-down acoustic rendition of Lighthouse standout, “I Just Don’t Know”, transformed from its powerful original version into a soaring, reflective ballad which showcases the vulnerability of the lyrics and McKagan’s vocal performance. Lighthouse (Expanded Edition) also features “This is the Song”, “It Can’t Come Too Soon”, and “Pass You By” (all originally found on McKagan’s This is the Song EP, released last May to honor Mental Health Awareness Month), along with the previously unheard “C’mon Boys” (featuring outlaw country badass Jesse Dayton) and live versions of “I Saw God on 10th Street”, “Just Another Shakedown”, and “Longfeather”. All three live tracks are accompanied by official videos from the intimate hometown event. In addition, a complete video capturing McKagan’s live in-store performance can be viewed in its entirety via YouTube.
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McKagan recently announced plans to celebrate Lighthouse with a major EU/UK tour. Lighthouse ‘24 TOUR gets underway September 30 at Dublin, Ireland’s The Academy and then makes stops in Scotland, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, France, and Sweden through late October. For complete details and remaining ticket availability, check out his official site.
Header image by Charles Peterson
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