Ida Mae Releases New Album 'Click Click Domino'

Today, Ida Mae released their new album Click Click Domino, through Thirty Tigers. Following their 2019 debut LP Chasing Lights and last year's Raining For You EP, their latest record finds the Nashville-via-London duo of Christopher Turpin and Stephanie Jean pushing the boundaries of americana music in multiple directions at once, taking listeners on a 13-track journey that spans barnstorming rockers, spacey and cinematic anthems, homespun folk ballads, and everything in between. Featuring contributions from Marcus King, Ethan Johns, and Jake Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet, Click Click Domino is an elevation in ambition and execution that reaches back into the past in order to reimagine the future.

Ida Mae will be performing at the Newport Folk Festival, which will take place July 23 - 26 in Newport, RI. "It's our great honor to announce we will be performing at the world renowned Newport Folk Festival this year in Rhode Island," said Ida Mae. "Having studied the performances of John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan, Rev. Gary Davis and so many others at Newport it means a great deal to be included in this year's lineup."

Click Click Domino has earned acclaim from outlets including Under the Radar, American Songwriter, Wonderland, Clash Magazine, Live for Live Music as well as Rolling Stone who writes of the title track, "With guitar assistance from shred wizard Marcus King, the tune is a heaving mass of scuzzy blues-rock riffs and thunderous drums that indicts social media for its isolating, alienating effects... Somewhere, Jack White is busy looking for new amp settings."

In their four-star review American Songwriter writes that Click Click Domino "​​expands Ida Mae's boundaries, revealing new layers on each playing." No Depression writes "On Click Click Domino, their endlessly engaging sophomore album, the spouses survey classic American styles like blues, rock and roll, gospel, and folk, summoning the kind of joyous energy generally associated with newbies. Countless others have studied and reinterpreted these familiar sounds, of course, but few match the enthusiasm they bring to their work."

Watch the videos for "Click Click Domino," "Road to Avalon," "Little Liars," and "Learn To Love You Better."

For nearly two straight years following the release of their critically acclaimed debut, Chasing Lights, Ida Mae lived on the road, crisscrossing the US from coast to coast as they performed hundreds of dates with everyone from Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss to Marcus King and Greta Van Fleet. While those shows were electrifying for the duo, it was what happened in between - the countless hours spent driving through small towns and big cities, past sprawling suburbs and forgotten ghost towns, across deserts and mountains and forests and prairies - that truly laid the creative groundwork for Click Click Domino.

Written primarily in the backseat of a moving car, Click Click Domino embodies all the momentum and possibility of the great American unknown, offering up a series of cinematic vignettes full of hope and disappointment, promise and regret, connection and loneliness. The songs here are raw and direct, fueled by an innovative mix of vintage instruments and modern electronics, and the performances are loose and exhilarating to match, drawing on early rock and roll, classic country, British folk, and 50's soul to forge a sound that's equal parts Alan Lomax field recording and 21st century garage band.

When it came time to record, the band planned on working once again with legendary producer Ethan Johns (Ray LaMontagne, Laura Marling, Kings of Leon), who'd helmed Chasing Lights back in England. With COVID-19 taking international travel off the table, though, Turpin and Jean decided to go ahead and make the record themselves, leaning on everything they'd learned working with Johns and other top shelf producers over the years like T Bone Burnett (Elvis Costello, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss), M. Ward, Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile), Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes), and Mike Crossey (The 1975, Arctic Monkeys). Working out of their house in Nashville, they set up a series of bare bones recording stations and began cutting tracks together in one or two take performances, balancing the spontaneity of the moment with the energy and intuition of the live show they'd spent the past few years perfecting

The new album follows the release of their highly-praised EP Raining For You last year, which was praised by Rolling Stone, Guitar World and Wide Open Country among others, and garnered huge support from Spotify, featured across playlists such as "The Most Beautiful Songs In The World", "Lost in The Woods", and Blues & Roots Rock playlists.

Ida Mae's 2019 debut record Chasing Lights reached #10 on Billboard's "Heatseekers" album chart. The record has been widely acclaimed by publications including The Independent, Billboard, and Rolling Stone Country, who dubbed Ida Mae one of "10 New Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know," as well as NPR Music's All Songs Considered.

Listen here:

Photo Credit: Joe Hottinger

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