This week's round-up: New music from Hollow Souls feat. Elles Bailey, Tyler Bryant and Walter Trout

Kris Barras’ British blues-rock collective Hollow Souls release their fourth single “Burn It To The Ground,” this time featuring the unmistakable vocals of chart topping, multi-award winning, Bristolian-Americana heroine Elles Bailey. The single is available on all streaming platforms from Thursday 4th September.

Kris and Elles have maintained a close working relationship over the years, with Kris directing several of Elles’ music videos and the pair often comparing notes during their ascent through the gauntlet that is the music industry.

On new single “Burn It The Ground,” the chemistry between the two is evident, as they finally release something they have written together away from any industry pressures, during Elles’ several trips to Devon.

“This genuinely feels like such a treat to be collaborating with the one and only Kris Barras,” says Elles. “I’m so excited that we are finally on a track together and I was invited to be a part of this really special project!”

Once Kris, Elles and producer & multi-instrumentalist Josiah J Manning nailed the demo for the new song, the Hollow Souls band tracked the instrumental live in the studio, with everything bar Elles’ vocal. Hollow Souls resident vocalist Phoebe Jane’s backing vocals and guitar solo overdubs were tracked in one take.

Kris commented, “I’ve been friends with Elles for a good few years now and it’s been great to see her career go from strength to strength. Fans have often asked when we are going to record a song together. Now seemed like the perfect time. It’s a perfect project for Elles to be involved in. She absolutely nailed the vocal on this track, and we had great fun writing the lyrics together.”

Hollow Souls anthology of singles already demonstrates real alchemy, with their guest stars ranging from American guitar hero Jared James Nichols, Jon ‘Marv’ Harvey of Monster Truck and Chris Tapp of The Cold Stares.

Hollow Souls secret set on the main stage at this summer’s Maid of Stone Festival set the incendiary tone for this Autumn’s first ever Hollow Souls headline tour, boasting 20 dates across the UK with special guest, Troy Redfern. Tickets for Hollow Souls' Autumn UK tour are available from The Gig Cartel.

“Burn It The Ground” promises to be the fourth and final single to drop prior to Hollow Souls’ hotly anticipated eponymous debut EP Hollow Souls which is released on 10th October on limited edition 10” vinyl, CD and digital.

Pre-order the Hollow Souls EP now at https://shop.hollowsouls.co.uk.

Two-time GRAMMY Award-winning producer, engineer, and songwriter Tyler Bryant has released his second solo single, “Planted”, now available on all major streaming platforms along with an accompanying video. Best known as the fiery frontman of Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, Bryant continues to expand his creative horizons, carving out an independent path as a solo artist.

“Planted” draws deeply from Bryant’s Texas upbringing:

“Growing up, my family always had a garden in the backyard. Some years were great, some were tough, but the garden was always there. Music has been the same for me. Ideas are planted, dreams are planted, not everything makes it to the table, but the process of making art and chasing those wild and crazy ideas is what it’s all about” says Tyler.

Written during a period of self-reflection, “Planted” arrived at a time when Bryant says he needed hope the most:

“I’ve always used music to help me make sense of things I couldn’t otherwise. Sharing this side of my writing feels like standing at the edge of a cliff, knowing I have to jump. My hope is that this song can be there for someone else the way it was for me.”

Bryant reflects “I used to have a sticker on the side of one of my studio speakers that read, “The only constant is change,” and I’ll be damned if that ain’t true. Feeling “Planted” in life is something that at times doesn’t seem all that easy. “The world is constantly changing, and so are we. Expectations don’t always meet reality, but that doesn’t make the struggle worthless. I wrote this song to help myself out of an emotional rut. Hopefully it serves as a reminder that showing up for yourself, no matter the season, is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.”

Recorded late one night at his Nashville studio, the track came together organically with the help of family and friends. Tarka Layman who plays bass in Larkin Poe contributed upright bass, Bryant’s brother-in-law Mike Seal added grand piano, and his wife Rebecca Lovell (Larkin Poe) delivered the harmony vocals.

Tyler adds “I love when songs happen like this, when the right people show up at the right time, and the track comes alive in a way you never quite expect.”

Planted follows Tyler’s recent single ‘Falling Up, which was crowned winner of Classic Rock’s Louder Tracks of the Week. Classic Rock praised the song, writing: “It’s like hearing Freddie King’s Going Down with Tyler’s youthful but heavy, dirty swagger driving it forward.”

With Planted, Tyler Bryant continues to redefine himself, not just as a frontman or producer, but as a solo artist unafraid to dig deep.

Planted is OUT NOW on all digital platforms https://linktr.ee/TylerBryantMusic

Official Website www.tylerbryantmusic.com

Walter Trout holds onto the feeling of wonder on his new single, I Remember, which is taken from his new studio album, ‘Sign Of The Times,’ which is out today via Provogue. Watch the lyric video HERE.

Great artists such as Walter Trout take the pulse of their times. In his half-century as a street-level social observer and scaldingly honest songwriter, blues-rock's resilient icon, Walter Trout, has never told his fans what to think, how to feel, where to stand politically, or what to write on their protest placards. But on the iconic US bluesman's hard-rocking new album, Sign Of The Times, it is becoming the primal scream and pressure valve we all desperately need.

For all the album's dissonance and peeling away of layers of social issues, Walter has always been an incredibly vivid storyteller, and with that, the honesty that seeps into it.

With its dancing guitar lick and undeniable chorus, his latest single I Remember is also a moment of respite from the album's stormier subject matter. "That song is a longing for when life was simpler," he explains. "Like, when I was 20 and starting out. Or when Marie and I had just got together, and we had no money and were pawning guitars, but we were madly in love, and the future was ahead of us. We didn't have anything, but we felt like we had much more, because the world was alive with the promise of what would be revealed."

The lyric video that accompanies the song follows our storyteller's journey throughout life. Watch it until the end for a heartwarming tale of enduring and lasting love.

Talking further about the song, he adds. "I see so many people of my generation who seem to lose their passion and their joy of life. I wanted to write a song without nostalgia about holding on to the feelings of wonder you had when you were young. So the song is about holding on to the excitement of each day, even as an older person. If you can remember that feeling, do everything you can to hang on to it. Don't let it go. Live it - don't let age stop you."

I Remember is the latest single from the new album, following the title track, Sign of the Times, which is one of the most experimental cuts in Trout's half-century studio output. It finds a monstrous guitar tone paired with massed chants and an out-there solo that few blues gods would dare put down on tape. "I've played it for blues fans who were outraged," he admits. "But I wanted to outrage people. I wanted it to be dissonant. Dissonance is a sign of the times. This followed the first single, Artificial, which dropped on the day he announced the new album and is a scornful, satirical, harmonica-spiced rebuke of the fake world we risk creating.

Even by Trout's standards, Sign Of The Times is a record that puts you through the emotional wringer. But as long as there's poignant and relevant music, we have a fighting chance.

As a lifelong road warrior, Trout will be taking the Sign Of The Times material to global audiences throughout 2025. And for those glorious two hours of playing to audiences, political divides and culture wars will crumble as a crowd with little else common melts into a communion of souls.