Ethan Askey & the Elevators have released their newest single “Clarksdale,” a road-ready slice of upbeat blues that fuses slide guitar, harmonica, heartfelt storytelling, and deep groove. Written by frontman Ethan Askey and guitarist Keith Larsen, the track pays homage to spiritual birthplaces of blues, soul, and rock and roll.
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/track/5OL3KHUK5FKA53Vae44XNO?si=594488863ce34498&nd=1&dlsi=7bdef20ee4534bd3
“Purveyors of fine Rocky Mountain roots & boogie blues,” Ethan Askey & the Elevators are building a reputation for inventive songwriting and electrifying live shows mostly in Western Canada, where they are based. The band’s sound is driven by Askey’s baritone vocals and blues harp stylings, Larsen’s expressive guitar, and a locomotive rhythm section with drummer Ben Dunn and bassist Mike Honeyman. They make modern blues that moves dance floors and radio dials alike.
The band was formed to follow up the success of Askey’s impressive solo debut album ‘Walk When You Wanna Run,’ an independent release in 2022 that he created with the studio contributions of musical associates in the Calgary and Toronto music scenes, and with co-producer credits going to Canadian heavyweight blues rock artist Steve Marriner. The album got steady international radio play and charted weekly for over 160 weeks, earning a place on the year-end “Best Of” (Top 200) Contemporary Blues charts, worldwide, for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024.
The story behind “Clarksdale” is part postcard and part emotional turmoil: “It ended up being the trip of a lifetime, but I almost didn’t go since I felt so many things piled up on me”, Askey recalls. The timing was tail end of the global pandemic, and it was the renewed annual gathering of the blues music community in Memphis, Tennessee, for the International Blues Challenge event. With a hot new album out on the airwaves he wanted to be there too. The prospect of warmer winter weather there compared to the 30-below temperatures at home was an added pull. “It was the encouragement of Blues Power radio program host Gil Anthony that got me off the fence to travel down south”.
Larsen adds, “The road trip we made down Highway 61 connected so many dots for us, from legendary blues crossroads to Nashville guitars to Elvis’s cars”. The song references Johnny Cash too, paraphrasing his famous line, “get rhythm when you get the blues” as a subtext for “Clarksdale”. Lyrically, the song moves through scenes of winter fatigue and soulful escape, tracing a route from the frozen Canadian prairie to the beating heart of American roots music. The song’s chorus – “Gonna head down to Clarksdale, and Memphis, Tennessee / Gonna make some noise in Nashville and let sweet music wash all over me” – encapsulates its spirit: a yearning to reconnect with the source and let music cleanse the noise of everyday life.
There is most definitely a thread connecting the early country and blues artists along the mighty Mississippi, through time and space, to the contemporary blues and rock music made today by Ethan Askey & the Elevators in the Canadian Rockies. With “Clarksdale,” they stake out solid ground as modern storytellers with an authentic voice and some vintage voltage. The single bridges north and south, tradition and innovation, memory and motion. It’s a song about chasing warmth – in spirit, perhaps even more than in temperature.
The still-new band is already preparing their next single release, “Big Bad Boss Man,” and a full-length album slated for mid-2026, accompanied by further touring within Canada.
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