Hollywood actress turned singer Juliette Lewis is set to play an unusual British tour, with venues including a library.
Face the facts, music and films don’t normally mix. Elvis Presley invented rock ‘n’ roll with a shake of his hips but the minute he hit celluloid The King began churning out lightweight fluff, drowning his reputation in cheap flicks.
Poor Michael Jackson suffered as well. The only decent thing that came out of Motown film ‘The Wiz’ was the singer’s chance meeting with Quincy Jones on the set. Ahead of him lay ‘Thriller’, artistic greatness and another film – the inexcusably awful ‘Moonwalker’.
However there are exceptions. An award winning actress, Juliette Lewis shocked fans by turning her back on film to follow her first love. Forming The Licks the singer unveiled her new material and stunned listeners with the depth in her songwriting.
Juliette Lewis release a total of three albums with The Licks, before splitting the band in 2009. Announcing in a MySpace blog that the group had simply reached a very natural end, the singer set about forming a new band – The New Romantiques.
Debuting with a show at a Clash event during SXSW, Juliette Lewis’ new material seems to be harder than previously, with a more pronounced rock edge. The New Romantiques are due to release their new album ‘Terra Incognita’ later this year.
In a message to fans before the release of the record, Lewis said “my next album will be so sonically different than anything I’ve done before and captures many flavors of my emotional life and voice. Do I have fear? Of course but it is exactly what gets me going. Because I LOVE what I’m doing”.
To celebrate the release of ‘Terra Incognita’ the singer is set to go on tour at venues across Britain. Bizarrely, Lewis is set to play a library in Morecombe as part of the Get It Loud in Libraries campaign.
After this, the singer is set to join up with Cat Power and The Pretenders for a potentially stunning tour. All three are remarkable talents, with The Pretenders rejuvenated after last year’s album ‘Break Up The Concrete’.
Juliette Lewis and the New Romantiques are set to play the following dates:
July
13 Morecombe Library
14 London Lexington
