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"Folsom Prison Blues," the video of the new
single from multi-platinum Grammy winner Everlast's upcoming
album, Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford, will be
the first major artist clip to premiere on Crackle, Inc.
The video of the Johnny Cash song will begin airing July
7 through 14. Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford is
scheduled for release on Sept. 23 on Everlast's own Martyr
Inc. label and TRP Records, in a partnership with Hickory
Records, an imprint of Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
"The sound is totally different than anything I've
ever done before," says
Everlast aka Erik Schrody, the Irish-American rapper and
singer/songwriter about his new album, Love, War and the
Ghost of Whitey Ford and that's saying something for the
Grammy-winning artist who has broken ground and sold millions
of albums for mixing hip-hop and acoustic-based folk-rock.
"I didn't approach it differently, I just kind of
used a greater variety of
instruments, and denser arrangements," he explains.
"Of course, hip-hop
remains an important influence on my music, but not everything
I do fits
under that category."
The new album, his first since 2004's Island/Def Jam
release White Trash
Beautiful, was co-produced by Everlast with his longtime
partner Keefus
Ciancia ("He's a real brainiac when it comes to vintage
grooves"). Love, War
and the Ghost of Whitey Ford is the logical sequel to
his 1998 breakthrough,
the multi-platinum Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, an eclectic
mix of rock,
blues, country, pop and hip-hop, which cracked the Billboard
Top 20 and sold more than 3 million copies on the strength
of its crossover hit, "What It's
Like."
The following year, Everlast earned a Best Rock Performance
by a Duo or
Group With Vocal Grammy for his collaboration with Carlos
Santana, "Put Your Lights On." Among the many
artists with whom he's collaborated are Madonna, Nice
& Smooth, Dilated Peoples, Run DMC, Kurupt, Limp Bizkit,
X-Ecutioners, Cypress Hill, Prince Paul, Cee-Lo, Daz Dillinger,
KRS-One, Mack 10, KoRn, Prodigy, Mobb Deep and Swollen
Members.
Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford will come out
via management company Three Ring Projects' innovative
deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, allowing Everlast
unprecedented artistic freedom in the creating and distribution
of his music.
"I get to do what I want, how I want," he says.
"Now I have the chance to
promote the albums the way I see fit. I'm much more adaptable
as an
individual than a label would be. I don't want to follow
the same old
cookie-cutter ways of getting people's attention."
The Valley Stream, LI-born rapper emerged as a member
of Ice-T's Rhyme
Syndicate for his 1990 solo album, Forever Everlasting,
then formed the
pioneering rap group House of Pain with friends DJ Lethal
and Danny Boy.
Signed to legendary dance and hip-hop label Tommy Boy
Records, the group
went multi-platinum with their self-titled 1992 debut
which produced the rap anthem, "Jump Around."
Upon the demise of House of Pain, Everlast pursued a
solo career, creating
the alter ego Whitey Ford for the first album on his own.
"That's my hip-hop alias," he explains. "There's
no connection to [pitcher]
Whitey Ford other than the fact he's Irish and I'm a Yankee
fan. It's a
description, a color of a crayon more than anything, a
persona I use to
speak through. It enables me to say things about myself
I might not
ordinarily. Still, after the success of that album, there
were a lot of
people who actually thought I was Whitey Ford."
Everlast revisits the Ford character for the first time
since his critically
acclaimed 2000 platinum solo album Eat at Whitey's.
"This record is about love and war, which is why
I called it that," he says.
"I've really changed the sound on what I do. It's
not so acoustic-based
anymore. There are different textures and it rocks a lot
harder.
"People are hungry for good music and I believe
this is a really good album.
I've been making albums long enough to know nothing is
guaranteed, but I've got a feeling in my bones that I
don't get very often and I like it. I know
I made a better album than I imagined I could have made...and
I'm a hard
person to please."
More recently, Everlast was recruited by Nancy Miller,
creator and executive producer for the TNT series Saving
Grace, starring Holly Hunter, to create the theme song
for the show.
"The second I heard his voice, I went crazy over
it," she says. "He has such
a sexy, interesting vocal. I feel in love with his music.
His lyrics speak
so much to the struggle of Grace-her pain, her heroic
nature-that I
immediately connected to them."
Everlast is similarly enthusiastic about expanding his
creative palette, and
now will begin to score the show.
"I'd love to be Danny Elfman and sit in the studio
all day," he says.
"There's a lot less pressure than having to write
lyrics and songs. And I'm
such a movie fan, to see what the music really does, before
and after, is
pretty cool."
Now fully recovered from the torn heart valve, which
necessitated a
replacement in 1998, Everlast is raring to hit the road
and play for old
fans and make new ones while promoting the new album.
He has already
undertaken some "mash-up" performances with
his producer Ciancia and
longtime collaborator, Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs, which
have audiences
enthusiastic for more.
"I just want to go out and play to as many people
as I can," he says.
"That's what this album's for. I don't care if it
sells a million records,
but if I can get a million people to come out and see
me live, that's even
better."
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