Musical couple, Eric Lieberman and Alicia Aragon lead California-based Americana Soul Band with Songs to Inspire!
Blue Largo, named after an obscure Bill Doggett song from the 1950s, will be releasing their fifth album, “Got To Believe” on September 9, 2022. The Americana Soul band’s new album tends to life’s major issues about love, loss, confronting challenges and ultimately prevailing through the hard times.
“Got To Believe” has ten original songs, plus a cover of Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” The album’s opening song, “A World Without Soul” will be the band’s official music video, simultaneously due out on September 9.
Eric wrote the ballad “Soul Meeting” for Alicia. The driving, horn laden blues shuffle “What We Gotta Do” is about why musicians do what they do. “Soldier In The Army of Love,” about fighting against oppression and tyranny, is dedicated to the people of Ukraine. “Ronnie” is about the special friendship between Blue Largo’s piano player, Taryn Donath and the late San Diego musician Ronnie “Night Train” Lane, a larger-than-life Texas style bluesman, in a perennial cowboy hat and snakeskin boots. “Gospel Music” is about the incredible power of that music. Eric wrote the melancholy “Rear View Mirror” feeling that these days “there’s so much in the rear view mirror, and maybe not so much in the headlights.” The full-blown country song “Santa Fe Bound,” was written for a dear friend who passed away in 2019, and features pedal steel guitar virtuoso Dave Berzansky (Hacienda, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash). Last but not least, “Disciple of Soul” is a reggae tribute to one of Eric’s greatest life long inspirations, musician/humanitarian/radio programmer/memoirist Stevie Van Zandt.
When Blue Largo formed in 2000, they played 1940s and ‘50s blues covers by the likes of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Louis Jordan and T Bone Walker. They released two albums: 2001’s “What A Day” (produced by Mavis Staples’ bandleader Rick Holmstrom) and 2003’s “Still in Love With You.”
In 2006 Eric was diagnosed with a neurological condition known as Focal Dystonia, which severely affected the coordination in his right hand. But he said “no” to the potential end of his guitar playing, and for the next 15 years he spent five hours a day following a strict regimen to create new neurotransmitters to replace the damaged ones, including learning to read brail and taking formal piano lessons.
By 2015 Eric felt confident enough to record again, resulting in the band’s third album “Sing Your Own Song” and in 2018 they released “Before The Devil Steals Your Soul,” which was nominated for The San Diego Music Awards’ “Best Blues Album” for that year. Both of these albums saw a noticeable shift towards original song writing, which has now come to full fruition in “Got To Believe.”
Radio promoter David Avery, of Powderfinger Promotions calls “Got to Believe” a “powerhouse of various roots styles!” It ranges from vintage soul to Americana, reggae and country, and still it all seems to flow seamlessly. Moreover, the songs’ messages of love, hope and unity are most certainly something the world can very much use right now.
