There’s little that Morgan Freeman hasn’t done throughout his seven decades in show business. He’s won Oscars and Golden Globe Awards, starred in countless movies and Broadway plays, narrated documentaries, championed environmental causes, and lended his star power to political campaigns. And now just one year short of his 90th birthday, he’s broadening out into music with the release of his upcoming album, Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience.
The 12-song LP is a journey through 100 years of blues music, and features guest appearances by Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Shemekia Copeland, Anthony Big A Sherrod, Lady Adrena, and many others. It comes out Aug. 7, but right now you can hear Freeman and Taj Mahal team up for the Son House classic “Death Letter Blues.”
“I heard the blues for the first time on my grandmother’s porch in the Mississippi Delta, and it has never left me,” Freeman said in a statement. “Having Taj Mahal kick off this album with a cover of Son House’s classic ‘Death Letter Blues’ strikes the perfect tone for the introduction of this album. Releasing this on Juneteenth is not just symbolic — it is the truth of where this music comes from and who made it. I hope people listen and remember.”
It’s no coincidence the album is being announced on Juneteenth. “This music was born from the same history that Juneteenth commemorates,” album producer Eric Meier said in a statement. “‘Death Letter Blues’ is one of the rawest, most honest pieces in the American songbook, and hearing Taj Mahal inhabit it with a full symphony behind him — recorded between the hallowed walls of Royal Studios and Abbey Road — is something that is groundbreaking and unique. We’re incredibly proud to introduce our album with this track.”
A three-date tour has been booked to support the album. It kicks off Aug. 7 in Houston, continues Sept. 26 in Memphis, and wraps up Oct. 17 in Gulfport, Mississippi.
This doesn’t mean that Freeman is giving up his day job. He continues to play the U.S. Secretary of State in the Paramount+ show Lioness, and he recently narrated the Netflix documentary series The Dinosaurs.
Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience Track List
1. “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” – Morgan Freeman ft. Keith Johnson
2. “Crossroads” – Super Chikan
3. “Death Letter Blues” – Taj Mahal
4. “Dust My Broom” – Lady Adrena
5. “The Thrill Is Gone” – Alvin Youngblood Hart
6. “Cadillac Assembly Line” – Keb’ Mo’
7. “Somebody’s Knockin’” – Anthony Big A Sherrod
8. “Traveling Riverside Blues” – Shemekia Copeland
9. “I’ll Take You There” – Tierinii Jackson ft. Stax Music Academy Choir
10. “Love Me or Leave Me” – Anthony Big A Sherrod
11. “Someday” – Anthony Big A Sherrod
12. I Lied To You – Keith Johnson
