ZZ WARD

One of the most profound lessons ZZ Ward learned from growing up listening to the
blues greats was to be authentic to your story. When the LA-based singer-songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist began to write new music, she found herself in the midst of one of
the biggest life changes a person will ever experience: motherhood.
The resulting music is her truest and most blues-infused to date. Freed from the pop
pressures of her previous major label, ZZ is able to fully embrace the blues, her most
formative influence. Her Sun Records debut, Liberation, features a program of originals
and re-imagined blues favorites done in ZZ’s singular way. Encompassing
greasy Chicago blues, foot-stomping Delta blues, rootsy garage rock, and vintage soul,
the album is almost a ZZ-curated survey of the blues. The 14-track album was produced
by multi-platinum producer Ryan Spraker (Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Weezer, In This
Moment).
ZZ’s first single, “Put The Gun Down,” from her 2012 debut, Til the Casket Drops, broke
into the AAA Radio Charts Top 10, and stayed there for 10 weeks. It was followed by the
single, “365 Days,” which hit #2 on the charts. Til the Casket Drops also snuck into the
Billboard Top 40 Alternative Chart. ZZ’s sophomore album, The Storm, released in 2017,
peaked at Number 1 on the Billboard Blues Charts, highlighted by singles featuring
GRAMMY-Award winners Fantastic Negrito, “Cannonball,” and Gary Clark Jr., “Ride,”
which was also the end title song for Pixar’s feature film Cars 3. This past summer ZZ
was personally picked by Slash to open the tour for his own blues album.