Video: Leyla McCalla Shares Inspiring New Video For 'Open The Road'

Enveloped in indigo and embarking on a journey of self-discovery, Leyla McCalla and her band joyfully perform the track “Open The Road” in her new video for the song, out now. 

“Open The Road” is featured on ‘Sun Without The Heat’, McCalla’s fifth studio album and second for ANTI- Records. “She delves into West African and Brazilian polyrhythms flowing underneath lyrics that, at times, feel like a prayer or mantra,” explained The Bluegrass Situation. McCalla drew lyrical inspiration on this album from the writings of Black feminist Afrofuturist thinkers, including Octavia Butler, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and adrienne maree brown. Like these authors, McCalla looks to songwriting to increase faith and hope, encourage community thinking, and catalyze personal transformation. “Songwriting is a modality to tell the stories that need to be told,” she explains. “Sometimes these are painful stories to tell.”

McCalla recently spoke with Jason Woodbury of Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast about these elements of the album and her influences, and the interview was launched this morning; listen to it HERE.

The album’s title is also a literary reference which pulls from Frederick Douglass’s 1857 speech to a largely white crowd of abolitionists six years before the Emancipation Proclamation. His words echo in the song: “You want the crops without the plow / You want the rain without the thunder / You want the ocean without the roar of its waters.” Douglass’s point — which McCalla weaves into the song's central message —is that liberation and equity are not possible without committing to transformative action.

“We all want the warmth of the sun but not everybody wants to feel the heat,” McCalla explains. “You have to have both.”

This spring McCalla has also been giving some of her most engaging live performances to date, with New Orleans’ OffBeat Magazine saying of her Jazz Fest set: "I’ve not seen Leyla McCalla perform since way back when she was busking in the French Quarter. To put it mildly, a few things have happened since in her career, and now I see why she has acolytes who swear by her live show.” Remarking on her performance at Highwater Fest, Under the Radar added: "In spite of the rapidly rising temperature, Leyla McCalla's set was a cool and breezy one. The New Orleans-based artist impressed by playing guitar, banjo and cello over the course of her set. Though with folk underpinnings, McCalla’s set was delightfully jammy as well.”

In mid-June she will collaborate with legendary guitarist Marc Ribot on a performance at the New York Guitar Festival, among other select dates, before heading to Europe for a month long run in mid-July. All upcoming dates are listed below.

TOUR DATES

5/30 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile (with La Luz)
6/14 - New York City, NY @ New York Guitar Festival (in duo with Marc Ribot)
6/26 - Chatauqua, NY @ Chatauqua Institution
7/5 - Portland, OR @ Waterfront Blues Festival
7/19 - Amarante, Portugal @ MIMO Festival
7/21 - Koblenz, Germany @ Horizonte Festival
7/24 - Krems, Austria @ Glatt und Verkehrt
7/25 - Innsbruck, Austria @ Treibhaus
7/27 - Cambridge, UK @ Cambridge Folk Festival
7/28 - Malmesbury, UK @ WOMAD
8/2 - Crozon, FR @ Festival du Bout du Monde
8/24 - Kettering, UK @ Greenbelt Festival
8/25 - Northampton, UK @ Shambala Festival
9/7 - New Haven, CT @ CT Folk Fest
10/11 - Greenville, SC @ Fall for Greenville
10/12 - Mt Sterling, KY @ Gateway Regional Arts Center
11/2 - St Louis, Senegal @ Festival Au Tour Des Cordes
11/5 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique
11/8 - Dijon, FR @ La Vapeur
11/9 - Plaisir, FR @ La Clé Des Champs
11/12 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
11/14 - Luxembourg, Lux @ Philharmonie Luxembourg

Tracklisting

1. Open the Road
 2. Scaled to Survive
3. Take Me Away
 4. So I’ll Go
5. Tree
6. Sun Without the Heat
 7. Tower
 8. Love We Had
9. Give Yourself a Break
 10. I Want to Believe

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