Grace Askew – “Scaredy Cat” (album stream) (Premiere)

Above photo credit: Steve Roberts (taken at Sun Studios, Memphis, TN)

Though she didn’t ultimately take the championship, Grace Askew nonetheless captured audiences all across the globe with her run on the massively popular competition show The Voice. Working with country star Blake Shelton, she turned out some fierce performances, including a fierce take on the classic “These Boots are Made for Walkin'”. In a recent interview, Rolling Stone dubbed her the “number one most robbed” contestant of that season of The Voice, but Askew isn’t letting her experience on that program cloud her music.

Instead, she’s progressing forward, and in some particularly gutsy ways. Her latest LP, Scaredy Cat, which you can stream below, was recorded in one four-hour session at Memphis’ reputed Sun Studios. Music clearly comes naturally to this talented singer and songwriter.

Askew tells PopMatters what Scaredy Cat means for her: “With Scaredy Cat I want to share with others what Memphis has always given to me… that grit, that unapologetic imperfection and a genuine sense of depth. We like to call it ‘janky’, meaning rough around the edges, but in a good way. I can only hope these 11 songs allow others to see their own life in a more accepting light, for exactly the way things are in their simplest, purest form. Because that’s where the magic lies: in the truth.”

Scaredy Cat is out on August 12th.