Blues Legend B.B. King To Issue New Album And XM Radio Show This Fall

Date: 07/22/08 | By Njai Joszor
Filed under: Releases, B.B. King

B.B. King Blues legend BB King is set to release his first studio album in over three years next month entitled “One Kind Favor.” The now 82 -year- old singer is also busy prepping for his XM Radio debut.

Returning with the help of producer T Bone Burnett, King goes back to his blues roots for the first time in many years with a live effort.

"I saw B.B. at the Central Forest Ballroom in Dallas in '65 or something like that," Burnett tells Billboard. "I remembered exactly how that felt and how that sounded, so I wanted to go back and sort of re-create that very live sound. We all cut it just sitting around in a circle. I tried to be very true to who [King] was when I first heard him and that energy -- in other words, not try to update him in any way."

According to Billboard, the track list includes such blues chestnuts as Big Bill Broonzy's "Backwater Blues," Lonnie Johnson's "Tomorrow Night," Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and T-Bone Walker's "I Get So Weary."

King, 82, is on tour in North America through Thanksgiving. On Sept. 13, he will be on hand for the opening of B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in his hometown of Indianola, Miss.

In related news, B.B. King will begin hosting a weekly blues radio show with XM Satellite Radio this September.

B.B. King’s “One Kind Favor” hits stores August 26th.