Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae has returned with her new album, Black Rainbows, via Thirty Tigers.
The genre-bending album is a thrilling melange of soul, punk, grunge, jazz, pop and other stylings. Thematically, the album was inspired by artworks collected by Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, Illinois.
“I’ve been working on this project for many years. The record represents so much to me – the culture, the pain, the beauty, and the artistic presence of the stories that inhabit the #StonyIslandArtsBank. Stories I was never aware of; stories that are deeply a part of black history,” Bailey Rae wrote in an Instagram caption.
“I wanted to translate this history sonically and worked to produce this record alongside Steve Brown. A very special thank you to Theaster Gates—who without I would have never seen some of the objects and photographs that make this record—creating a cathartic and experimental landscape that was pertinent in showing how much the Arts Bank has impacted me and helps in preserving so much history.”
Black Rainbows is equally expansive in its subject matter as it is in its sonic palette. On the lead single, “New York Transit Queen,” Bailey Rae pays homage to Audrey Smaltz, who won the New Transit Queen competition in 1954.
On the gritty “Erasure,” she shouts about the historical ostracization of Black Americans. “They tried to erase you / They tried to eviscerate you, hide behind the curtain / Make you forget your name.”
Meanwhile, “Earthlings” is an invitation and idea to build a new utopia. Bailey Rae suggests applying the lessons learned to create a safe place where they happily “eat pineapples in the sun.”
Speaking of fruit, the previously shared ballad “Peach Velvet Sky” is a dedication to Harriet Jacobs, an autobiographer and abolitionist who was born a slave in 1813 and escaped to the North in 1842. Jacobs detailed her experience being a North Carolina slave in her memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published under the pseudonym Linda Brent in 1961.
“‘Peach Velvet Sky’ is about the fragments of sunset Harriet Jacobs saw, through the tiny loophole she made, and its ultimate width and wonder when she finally found freedom,” explained Bailey Rae.
“Reading in The Johnson Publishing Library reignited my interest in The life of Harriet Jacobs. I had read her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, as a teen. An aunt from America had sent me a copy of Six African American Narratives, and I went straight to Incidents, as it was the only one written by a woman. Re-reading the work as an adult and a mother, I was even more profoundly affected by Harriet Jacob’s mental fortitude and courage, as well as being shocked anew by the injustices and cruelties of her situation.”
“He Will Follow You With His Eyes,” another album standout, explores society’s beauty standards while celebrating her gleaming Black skin and her “Black hair kinking.”
Black Rainbows arrives with a book, Refraction/Reflection of the Arts Bank. The 88-page hardcover coffee table book features exclusive photos of Bailey Rae, and select objects and artworks at The Stony Island Arts Bank, photographed by Koto Bolofo.
The book also includes an essay from Dr. Honey Crawford, a foreword by Theaster Gates, and a transcript of Bailey Rae’s conversation with Gates at The Black Chapel, Serpentine Pavilion, in October 2022.
Black Rainbows is the follow-up to Bailey’s third album, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, released in 2016. Bailey Rae is supporting her latest album on tour, which has coming stops in Durham, North Carolina; Sugar Hill, Georgia; and New Orleans, Louisiana. (Her tour dates are listed below.)
Stream Corinne Bailey Rae’s new album, Black Rainbows, below.
Corinne Bailey Rae 2023-2024 Tour Dates
Sep 20, 2023 – Durham, NC @ Carolina Theatre
Sep 22, 2023 – Sugar Hill, GA @ The Eagle Theatre at Sugar Hill
Sep 24, 2023 – Birmingham, AL @ Alys Stephens Center at University of Alabama
Sep 26, 2023 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater
Sep 29, 2023 – Austin, TX @ The Paramount Theatre
Sep 30, 2023 – San Antonio, TX @ Boeing Center at Tech Port (w/ Maxwell)
Oct 1, 2023 – Houston, TX @ Stafford Centre
Oct 3, 2023 – Dallas, TX @ Texas Theatre
Oct 5, 2023 – Santa Fe, NM @ Lensic Performing Arts Center
Oct 7, 2023 – Marfa, TX @ Saint George Hall
Oct 25, 2023 – London, UK @ Ladbroke Hall
Oct 26, 2023 – London, UK @ Ladbroke Hall
Oct 28, 2023 – London, UK @ Ladbroke Hall
Oct 29, 2023 – Cork, Ireland @ Guinness Cork Jazz Festival
Oct 31, 2023 – Madrid, Spain @ Teatro Pavón
Nov 1, 2023 – Barcelona, Spain @ Studio P62
Nov 3, 2023 – Seville, Spain @ Cartuja Centre
Nov 4, 2023 – Lisbon, Portugal @ Capitolio
Nov 5, 2023 – Porto, Portugal @ Casa de Musica
Nov 8, 2023 – Amsterdam, Holland @ Paradiso Noord
Nov 9, 2023 – Rotterdam, Holland @ LantarenVenster
Nov 12, 2023 – Macau, China @ Kooltai Festival
Feb 6, 2024 – Beverly Hills, CA @ Wallis Center
Feb 7, 2024 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park
Feb 10, 2024 – San Francisco, CA @ SF Jazz
Feb 11, 2024 – San Francisco, CA @ SF Jazz
Feb 13, 2024 – Ridgefield, CT @ Ridgefield Playhouse
Feb 15, 2024 – New York, NY @ Blue Note Jazz
Feb 16, 2024 – New York, NY @ Blue Note Jazz
Feb 17, 2024 – New York, NY @ Blue Note Jazz
Feb 18, 2024 – New York, NY @ Blue Note Jazz
Get tickets on Corinne Bailey Rae’s official website.
