Ray Davies Enlists the Jayhawks for Americana

Ray Davies, or Sir Raymond Davies as he’s formally known now that Queen Elizabeth has knighted him for his service to the arts, will release his first solo album in ten years on April 21st. Whittled down from a pool of over a hundred potential cuts, Americana is a mix of songs and occasional spoken interludes taken from or loosely based on Davies 2013 book of the same name (subtitled The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story). Like the memoir, the album is described as a jumble of observations on life in America from the perspective of a Briton fascinated by it all.

Backing up Davies on the LP, appropriately, are Minneapolis country-rockers The Jayhawks, who have been especially busy in that department of late, having accompanied Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding) on his forthcoming album as well. Americana was recorded at Davies’ Konk Studio in London in January 2016.

In related matters, brother Dave Davies has a show scheduled for April 29th at Atlanta’s City Winery.