PRESS RELEASE: Former Drive By Truckers Shonna Tucker and John Neff have unveiled their new band Eye Candy with an incredible collection of songs called A Tell All, slated for release October 15th on Sweet Nectar Records. Ethereal vocals, beautiful arrangements and brutal truths characterize this collection of songs recorded by Kyle Spence, who co-produced with the band in their home base of Athens, Georgia. In the days leading up to the release, Eye Candy will showcase during the Americana Music Festival in Nashville on Thursday, September 19th. Additionally, the band recorded a stellar cover of “Roll On” for the new High Cotton: A Tribute to Alabama, to which Lucero, Jason Isbell and Old Crow Medicine Show also contributed songs.
A Tell All features ten songs about love and jealously, nights spent on the road and nights spent in the kitchen, the things men do to women and women do for men. “All these songs came fast, in a few months time,” explains Tucker, ‘There was no theme or plan at all. Inspiration came from what was happening around me and that was a lot of different things. The first single, ‘Since Jimmy Came’ is about a very young and single mom who thought she had found true love until she had her son. The realization of priorities. Nature at it’s finest.”
“Her plaintive Southern drawl rings out over upbeat, catchy folk songs that get the
audience on their feet without insulting their intelligence.” Red and Black
Eye Candy includes some of the most prolific players in the Athens music scene: Tucker on bass and vocals, John Neff on guitar and pedal steel, Bo Bedingfield on guitar, Neil Golden on keyboards, and Clay Leverett on drums. For nearly twenty years, John has been one of the town’s most sought-after collaborators in the studio and on the road. Bo is singer/songwriter and leader of the Wydelles, and has backed up several other local songwriters on drums and guitar. Clay led the Athens rock band Lona for eight years before starting honky-tonk band the Chasers, and has played drums and toured with Bright Eyes and Now It’s Overhead. Neil, former member of the Glands and Elf Power, also writes and sings for Golden Brown.
Shonna Tucker grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, listening to the same salty-sweet mix of soul and country that made up the Arthur Alexander and James Carr singles recorded there decades before. She played bass in the Shoals scene starting in high school, then began an eight-year stint as bassist and singer for the Drive-By Truckers. During Tucker and band mate John Neff’s time with the band, they released critically acclaimed albums like “Go Go Boots”, which rose to #35 on the Billboard charts and garnered significant praise. They both played on Betty Lavette’s “The Scene of the Crime” which was nominated for a Grammy, followed by “Potato Hole” with Booker T. Jones, which won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental album at the 52nd awards show. The band made appearances on both David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon’s late night shows, and toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The music she makes today in Athens, Georgia, flows from the same vein as the music she grew up with: songs that haunt and float like Dolly Parton’s “Down from Dover” and ones that pulse and move like Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” rockers that are right at home on the stage of the 40 Watt downtown and folk songs that are at home among the donkeys and hens on her farm outside town.
The record will be released October 15th on Sweet Nectar Records, and the band will hit the road to bring this killer collection of songs to life.
For more information on Shonna Tucker and Eye Candy visit www.shonnatucker.net.