FAYE SINGS THE BLUES: Miss Faye Carol to Release New LP
The announcement adds a blues-focused release to the vocalist's recording history.
FAYE CAROL, the vocalist known for her work across blues and jazz idioms, has announced a new studio album titled FAYE SINGS THE BLUES. The release adds to CAROL's recorded output and centers on blues repertoire, according to the announcement.
The 20-song double album is set for release August 21 via Getdown Records — the label the Bay Area vocal legend recently co-founded with her longtime pianist and musical director, Joe Warner. The album features a 4-piece horn section and guest turns from Taj Mahal, Robert Randolph, Eric Gales, James Carter, Wycliffe Gordon, Gerald Albright, Russell Gunn, Nicholas Payton, Kirk Whalum, Jon Faddis, Tia Fuller, and Jubu Smith.
Miss Faye has shared the album's first single, 'Never Make Your Move Too Soon,' a duet with pedal steel guitar player Robert Randolph, described as featuring horns and piano around her vocal and his singing steel.
Born in Mississippi, Miss Faye discovered her talent singing in the church choir after her family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. She toured nationally with gospel group The Angelaires before making her name with Oakland blues/funk mainstays Johnny Talbot & De Thangs in the 1960s, touring with Marvin Gaye and opening for Otis Redding, James Brown, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. She released her debut single in 1967, and over the following two decades she and her band became fixtures of San Francisco's jazz, blues, and cabaret scenes — among the first Black artists widely recognized in the cabaret world, earning a trio of Cabaret Gold Awards.
Miss Faye's band has long been an incubator for top Bay Area talent, including Benny Green, Dayna Stephens, and Marcus Shelby, and her vocal protégés include international stars Ledisi and Kehlani. She founded the after-school youth program Music in the Community in the late '90s and, in 2000, established School of The Getdown to celebrate and promote Black music within diverse Bay Area communities.
Faye Sings The Blues arrives on the heels of Miss Faye's 2026 comeback album Forever Dynamic, her first release since 2014, and combines imaginatively rearranged blues classics, including 'Let the Good Times Roll,' Dinah Washington's 'Blow Top Blues,' and the B.B. King hit 'Never Make Your Move Too Soon,' alongside originals.
Tracked mostly live at Oakland's 25th Street Recording, the album opens with Miss Faye's take on 'Soulful Dress,' a tribute to Sugar Pie DeSanto. 'Fine & Mellow' bridges blues, jazz, and funk with a trumpet turn from Jon Faddis. 'Bad, Bad News,' an original by Miss Faye, Joe Warner, and lyricist Gerald Lenoir, speaks to the pressures of the current moment, while 'Chill With You' — written by Miss Faye's daughter and former musical director Kito Kamili — features guitarist Jubu Smith (Frankie Beverly, Tony! Toni! Toné!).
Faye Sings The Blues will be followed by A Soulful Christmas and Blues, Baroque, and Bars, the latter charting Black musical evolution since the turn of the 20th century with guest appearances from Twista and KRS-One.
About Miss Faye Carol
A legendary Bay Area singer and educator now in her sixtieth year in music, Faye Carol has shared stages with Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Albert King, Bobby Hutcherson, Joan Baez, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, among many others. Equally adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, funk, and Latin genres, she co-founded an independent record label in the late 1970s and remains a mentor to generations of musicians, including protégés Ledisi and Kehlani.
Faye Carol's website is www.fayecarol.com.
