Regina Bonelli has the kind of voice that makes you sit up and pay attention. Truth Hurts, her new album (on True Groove Records), is a tour de force where modern blues and vintage soul meld together into a whole new musical animal. Early buzz surrounding the record helped it enter Roots Music Report’s Soul-Blues Top 50 Album Chart at #3 several weeks before it’s release and it has never been lower than #2 since then, with eight of the nine songs making the Top 50 Blues Song Chart thus far.
Sirius/XM’s blues outpost, BB King’s Bluesville (arguably the most widely heard blues station on the planet) also began spinning tracks from the record the night it was released, and over 30 radio stations in the US, UK, Canada, Netherlands and Italy have added the album in the past two weeks. Radio’s love for Bonelli is no new thing, as her critically-acclaimed album from 2018, Love Letter, spent an astounding 60 weeks on the Soul-Blues Album Chart. “Even though I’d been performing for years before Love Letter came out,” she notes, “the whole experience of recording an album of my own material was a learning process. It was great, and I was very happy with the way it came out, but as time went on and we started working together more and more, I knew we could do better. I think this is really the first time we’ve been able to capture the intensity of what it’s like when we play live.”
Backed by the True Groove All-Stars (and under the longtime production guidance of Tomás Doncker and James Dellatacoma), Bonelli commands the room with unparalleled assurance. Power? Like a locomotive. Presence? Even the blind have all eyes on her. Intensity? Like an indoor solar flare. She’s cultivated an innate ability to tap into the core of a song and extract every drop of emotion from a lyric, be it original or cover, to exacting results.
It’s not so much that she’s wearing her heart on her sleeve as she is drawing every drop of emotion out of each track and and leaving a pool of tears – both the joy and sorrow varieties – in her wake. “Sometimes life deals you a hand you aren’t expecting and you’ve just got to play it. When I’m singing, everything that comes out is true; its coming right from the body, from the inside to the outside. Sometimes the way it comes out seems like a kind of desperation, other times its very cathartic. I write from experience. Certain truths are not the most pleasant or romantic things. Truth hurts, but the truth can set you free. I really believe that; it’s like ‘OK, now I can breathe.'” It might seem a bit masochistic, but in this case Truth Hurts yields nothing but musical pleasure.
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4uaSZG2towaofnFy8czqxC
Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1608512270
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/truegrooveallstars/sets/truth-hurts-regina-bonelli/s-HHBgcQ1HOYZ?
Read more on American Blues Scene:
https://www.americanbluesscene.com/regina-bonelli-sings-for-her-life-on-truth-hurts-released-today/
Media ContactCompany Name: True GrooveContact Person: Larry KayEmail: Send EmailPhone: (212) 203-5981Country: United StatesWebsite: truegroove.nyc
