“When I feel a connection to a song, when I love a song, when I start playing and feeling it enter my body, when I learn a song, it’ll come back out with my personality on it,” Juliana Hatfield explained during our 2018 interview with the prolific singer-songwriter-musician in conjunction with the release of her initial covers set Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John. Indeed, she also applied her unique personal stamp upon the songs of The Police for her second covers album Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police (2019) and now she’s vowed to do so once again with the discography of another iconic band.
Slated for release later this year on November 17th courtesy of American Laundromat Records as the follow-up to her 2021 studio album Blood, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO finds her reimagining ten songs culled from Electric Light Orchestra’s classic oeuvre, including the lead offering “Don’t Bring Me Down” originally featured on the band’s 1979 Discovery LP.
“ELO songs were always coming on the radio when I was growing up,” Hatfield reflects in an official statement. “They were a reliable source of pleasure and fascination,” she explains. “With this album of covers I wanted to get my hands deep into some of the massive ‘70’s hits but I am also shining a light on some of the later work…My task was to try and break all the things down and reconstruct them subtly until they felt like mine.”
With additional tour dates to be confirmed soon, Hatfield will grace a trio of stages over the next few months when she performs with Letters to Cleo’s Kay Hanley at Somerville, MA’s Burren Backroom on June 16th, as part of the bill for the One Roof Concert for the Homeless in Northampton, MA on June 17th alongside Gin Blossoms and Toad The Wet Sprocket among other artists, and at New York City’s City Winery for the Nuggets 50th Anniversary celebration on July 28th & 29th.
PRE-ORDER Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO via her Official Store
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