Marley’s Ghost – “Prodigal Son” (audio) (premiere)

Seminal Americana band Marley’s Ghost is celebrating their 30th anniversary this year with the new release The Woodstock Sessions coming July 15th via Sage Arts. Marley’s Ghost are true Americana musicians in the sense that Americana is made up of multiple roots genres and this band can play all of them with virtuosic skill. Rock, country, bluegrass, soul, blues, these guys combine all of these into a delicious stew of American roots music.

The new record is produced by Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award winner Larry Campbell, who brought the band to his studio in Woodstock, New York to cut the tracks. Band member Dan Wheetman says, “We were fortunate to work with Larry, whose love of traditional music drove the direction of the project but whose broad musical palette shaped it into something more than just a collection of old songs. Woodstock itself is a timeless old place and I think it influenced the vibe of the album as much as the choice of tunes.”

Wheetman says of the tune we’re premiering today that “‘Prodigal Son’ comes from my early blues recordings. First done by Rev. Robert Wilkins it came back into my musical life with the recording by the Stones. Larry took our arrangement to a deeper level. A song that speaks not only to great Love but new beginnings.”