Steven Van Zandt talked about wanting to musically capture the essence of those summers of naivete and wonder we all had in our youth.
With his new album Summer of Sorcery, Little Steven and his Disciples of Soul hit it out of the park.
And by ‘park’, I mean that same small baseball park you and your friends rendezvoused on a warm, sultry evening, after school let out for the year. There was no ball game. It was just you and your comrades, hangin’ out. Laughing, plotting, communing, over sex and music.
And by ‘hit’, I mean, this is a great f*cking album.
I hadn’t had a chance to hear the entire album before we spoke so I didn’t get to tell him how his songs actually evoked those feelings of yearning every teenager has for someone or something that’s always just out of reach.
There’s a certain scent and sense hanging in the mid July air and when you’re young, you just ride that wave. When you get older, you spend a lot of time remembering and searching for that awareness again.
I wonder how many of us had a first kiss or intimate experience in the summer. Maybe that’s part of it’s allure.
Whatever it is, it’s on this record. And how he tapped into that, I don’t know.
My four favorite songs from Summer of Sorcery are “Love Again”, “Vortex”, “Superfly Terraplane” and the title track, “Summer of Sorcery”.
I hope you’ll pick it up and feel it for yourself.
See Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul at the Chevalier Theater in Medford Nov 2. Ticket info HERE.
Here’s our conversation:
And here’s “Love Again” from the new album: