Wicked Cool/UMeE Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt and his solo group The Disciples of Soul will release a new studio album titled Summer of Sorcery on May 3.
The 12-track collection features mostly brand-new original tunes and is a follow-up to Little Steven’s 2017 record Soulfire, which found the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revisiting songs spanning his long career.
Van Zandt says Summer of Sorcery is concept album about “capturing and communicating that first rush of summer. The electricity of that feeling of unlimited possibilities. Of falling in love with the world for the first time.”
Van Zandt recorded Summer of Sorcery at his own Renegade Studios in New York City with his 14-piece ensemble, which features ex-Youngbloods keyboardist Lowell “Banana” Levinger and a five-piece horn section that includes original Asbury Jukes saxophonists Stan Harrison and Eddie Manion.
In advance of the album’s release, the song “Superfly Terraplane” debuted today at RollingStone.com and on Van Zandt’s official YouTube channel, and is available now for streaming or download. Fans pre-ordering the record also will receive the track as a free instant download.
Summer of Sorcery concludes with the epic eight-minute title track, which Little Steven says sums up the whole album, while featuring such “touchstones of musical influence” as Sly and the Family Stone, Sam Cooke, Tito Puente, The Beach Boys and James Brown.
The album will be available on CD, as a two-LP set and digitally. A limited-edition psychedelic-swirl vinyl version will be available at uDiscoverMusic.com.
Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul will celebrate Summer of Sorcery‘s release with shows on May 4 in Los Angeles and May 8 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The band then will tour Europe in May and June.
Here’s the album’s track list:
“Communion”
“Party Mambo!”
“Love Again”
“Vortex”
“A World of Our Own”
“Gravity”
“Soul Power Twist”
“Superfly Terraplane”
“Education”
“Suddenly You”
“I Visit the Blues”
“Summer of Sorcery”
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