Sheila Vee to Release Debut Album RIDE with Michael Cleveland

New Jersey-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Sheila Vee has released 'Throw Me a Line,' the lead single from her forthcoming debut solo album, Ride. The track includes a contribution from 12-time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year Michael Cleveland and arrives alongside an animated visualizer, offering a first glimpse into the world of the project. Produced by Vee's longtime collaborator Bob Harris of bluegrass band Borderline, the eight-track album is set for release Friday, November 6 via Ampersand Records.

Ride marks a bold new chapter for Vee as a solo artist — her grittiest, wildest and most personal work yet, fusing traditional bluegrass with pedal steel, Telecaster twang and the loose, freewheeling spirit of a Grateful Dead jam. The album brings together a deep bench of bluegrass and roots talent, from Cleveland and Dobro great Rob Ickes to Scott Vestal, Andy Leftwich and more.

The single premiered exclusively via Bluegrass Today, highlighting Vee's 'approachable sound,' and anchored by Cleveland's fiddle, 'Throw Me a Line' shows the album's cosmic country heart. The song came out of pure household chaos: Vee was trying to learn new recording software while 'the kids were hungry, the laundry was piling up, and I was staring at a computer wondering why nothing worked,' Vee reflects. She calls the result: 'Bluegrass at its core, but with some strange little detours.'

Vee first made her mark as a founding member of the acclaimed Magnolia Street String Band, featured in Bluegrass Today, The Bluegrass Situation and The Bluegrass Standard, among others. As a woman of color in a genre where few have traditionally been visible, Vee has carved out a place in bluegrass that is fully her own.

With Ride, Vee makes room for the psychedelic, comic and deeply feminine sides of her musical personality — the parts that 'didn't always have a place in the band,' she admits. The album title works as a mantra: 'Just keep truckin' no matter how chaotic, painful and frightening everything seems,' Vee says. 'It's vulnerable in places, playful in others, and definitely not afraid of the strange.'

Across the record, Vee writes about chaos and despair with beauty and a streak of dark humor — rising oceans, asking for help while struggling, and riding until the wheels fall off. Ride includes performances from nationally recognized bluegrass musicians Michael Cleveland, Rob Ickes, Scott Vestal and Andy Leftwich, plus award-winning Swedish Telecaster 'chicken-picker' Erik Holmbom, alongside musicians from Vee's own community, including Bob Harris, Dan Whitener (Gangstagrass), Dave McDonald (The Last Whippoorwill), pedal steel player Liam Bornovski, drummers Joe McGuth and Brandon Revilla, bassist Lawrence Haber and her sister Rita Shukla on harmony vocals. 'No two songs have the same players, instruments or sound,' Vee says.

A solo album was never on her radar, but when songs 'began to pour out of me in such a short period of time,' as Vee puts it, 'I took it as a sign.' On stage with the Sheila Vee Band, the Sheila Vee Bluegrass Band and Magnolia Street String Band, she aims for 'new old tunes — familiar enough to make you feel at home, but with something unexpected in the mix,' she reveals. At its heart, Ride is an invitation. 'I'd love to see more women — and more women of color — feel empowered to step into these musical spaces and make them their own,' Vee shares.

Ride Track Listing

'Roll Like Thunder'

'Ride'

'Day's To Dust'

'Throw Me A Line'

'In My Arms'

'Hunt'

'Nowhere to Lay My Head'

'Dreamin'

Photo Credit: Alex Oliver (Animation Express)