FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY TO RELEASE NEW ORLEANS-INSPIRED Save My Soul (Big Bad/Vanguard Records) ON JULY 8 BAND CONTINUES 100-CITY TOUR, INCLUDING SPECIAL PERFORMANCES WITH SYMPHONIES IN WASHINGTON, DC, HOUSTON, HARTFORD, COLUMBUS AND DAYTON SANTA MONICA, CA -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy announce the release of Save My Soul, a love letter to the music of New Orleans, in stores July 8 and exclusively distributed by Big Bad/Vanguard Records. “I've always loved the music that came from there,” bandleader Scotty Morris says, “from Louis Armstrong’s early brass band stuff with King Oliver all the way through Fats Domino and up to the Dirty Dozen Marching Band. On our earlier albums I've hinted at how important this music is to me, but this is the first one where I've gone completely full-blast with it.” It was a trip to New Orleans that gave the band the inspiration for Save My Soul. “We were booked to play a private event there in 2002,” Morris remembers. “Coincidentally, it happened at the same time as Jazz Fest. I went out, saw all these artists play, and suddenly the idea for Save My Soul came to me in a rush. I started writing like crazy. First thing, I went to the piano and came up with this Professor Longhair/Fats Domino groove. When I played it for the band, they loved it. Then I started writing this Louis Armstrong kind of thing, and they dug that too. Suddenly I caught fire, and within a couple of weeks I had pretty much finished everything.” “When I was a kid, I was really into that crazy, anything-can-happen vibe of New Orleans,” Morris continues. “And when I discovered punk at twelve or thirteen, it felt like exactly the same thing to me. I never really thought that early jazz and punk were that different. This made me really impatient with the ‘blueprint’ in any kind of music; rather than get hung up on seeing how many substitutions I can make for this or that chord, I'm always about creating the vibe that every single song needs.” Big Bad Voodoo Daddy now carries on the tradition of the legendary big bands and orchestras by touring non-stop, performing over 100 concerts each year around the world. Like the Glen Miller Orchestra, Benny Goodman, and the Count Basie Big Band, BBVD sell out shows to audiences of all ages in cities as far flung as Honolulu, HI, St. Petersburg, FL, even making an appearance at this summer’s Pori Festival in Finland. And as a twist, the band will collaborate with symphonies in select cities this year, including the Air Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, the Hartford Symphony in Hartford, CT, Columbus Symphony in Ohio, and the Dayton Philharmonic in Dayton, OH. # # # For further information, please contact Lellie Capwell at Vanguard Records Lellie@vanguardrecords.com/(310) 829-9355 or Jolyn Matsumuro at The Brookes Company jolyn@brookescompany.com/(323) 913-7000