Luke Winslow-King’s spacious arrangements and his lyrical ingenuity capture the shade and light that gambols in the human heart. Weaving in layers of jazz, blues, classical, and folk, his stunning guitar work cascades fluidly through his music, producing atmospheric songs that free listeners from the tethers of their own time and place. In his music and songwriting, much like Jason Isbell and John Fulbright, Winslow-King looks out over the edges of life, death, failure, hope, and love. His gruff and tender vocals ride the wave of his forceful playing.

Originally hailing from Cadillac, Michigan, and now living in Spain, Winslow-King drank deeply from the wells of blues and rock, listening to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, and Carlos Santana growing up. After a short stint studying jazz and classical guitar, he picked up his instrument and lit out for the territories where he joined a couple of other musicians busking on street corners, performing Woody Guthrie songs. Winslow-King fell in love with New Orleans, and spent over 15 years honing his craft on street, and developing a lifelong friendship with his musical collaborator, guitarist Roberto Luti.

Winslow-King’s new album Coast of Light, his ninth, evokes his musical journey and is the first album to reflect the ways that the music of Spain has influenced his writing or producing. He says that now that he’s gotten to know the landscape and style of living in Spain, as well as the artwork of the Spanish Impressionists, their influence has seeped into his songwriting and music. The album is dedicated to the experience of going to explore the city of Cadiz on the coast of light, the Atlantic side of Andalusia, and discovering the beautiful seaside, and the passion for flamenco music there. creating an esoteric impressionist version of real life that is so deeply reflected in Spanish art.

The 12 songs on Coast of Light, were co-produced by Winslow-King and Roberto Luti at the Jambona Lab Studios in Livorno, Italy. In addition to Winslow-King on guitar, percussion, and vocals, and Luti on guitar, the album features Simone Luti on bass, Piero Perelli on drums and congas, Nicola Venturini on Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, and piano and drums, and Giacomo Riggi on mallet percussion

The title track pays tribute to a coastline in Spain, where Winslow-King makes his home. The song opens sparsely with Winslow-King’s vocals riding over his guitar strums before its tempo picks up. In the undulating rhythms “Coast of Light” mimics the movement from waking at day’s light to the drowsiness of an evening sunset. As Winslow-King recalls the song “is a just kind of a remembrance of a trip that I took down to the Coast of Light—on the Atlantic near Cadiz in Andalusia—with my wife.”

Prowling guitars ride beneath Winslow-King’s growling vocals on “Dangerous Blues.” The sparse arrangement of this stark, striding blues soars straight out of the Mississippi Hill Country and captures the desperation that grows out of the feeling of being trapped at the bottom of society and the desire for vengeance that sometimes grows out of that. Winslow-King notes that he discovered the song through Alan Lomax, who made a recording in the 1970s of Joe Savage performing an a cappella version of the song under a bridge in Mississippi. As he points out, he tried to modernize it with their own arrangement, writing completely original music around this acapella version that he had heard. “Roberto Luti and I came up with a guitar riff and we rewrote the melody to create something completely new. So, there’s something brand new we’re bringing to it.” The song evokes the rawness of life behind bars, and the relentless cycles of gun violence and incarceration woven into the fabric of American society. After living in Louisiana for all those years and now living in Spain and seeing New Orleans through a different lens, Winslow-King observes that he has witnessed just how inescapable the cycle of violence seems for some.

Ricocheting snares explode into swaggering electric guitars riffs on “Shoot from the Hip,” a propulsive atmospheric blues that Winslow-King says was “inspired by the landscapes of Aragón, Spain,” where he lives. Screaming lead guitars on the instrumental bridge mimic gun “duels at high noon, and all the pain and suffering they entail.” “Shoot from the Hip” is a psychedelic rocker with a stomping blues that opens briefly into a shimmering Beatles-esque soundscape. Winslow-King says that the song, like a lot of the songs on the album, came through an exploration of the subconscious and trying to be open in a more esoteric kind of way. He notes that it’s “kind of like our musical spaghetti western.” The main theme of “Shoot from the Hip” is frontier justice. The song provides a comment on the state of the world today in which people taking things into their own hands, which led Winslow-King to write the song.

Hammond organ and searing lead guitars dance around each other on “Don’t Worry Your Mind,” a swaying good times song. Winslow-King recalls that the song was conceived originally as a lullaby but transformed with its driving rhythm into a jaunty shuffling blues. As Winslow-King points out, the song refects the influences of Wilson Pickett and Elmore James, and it’s like an early rock and roll shuffle. “I think the lyrics to that t song end up being unique because it was written as a waltz and then it was electrified and turned into rock and roll later. So some of the lyrics find themselves in a different light that you wouldn’t usually hear in in a more rocking song like that.”

Reverberating vocals haunt the dreamlike “Teacher’s Desk,” which moves from psychedelic ruminations to driving rock rhythms as it sways between shadow and light. The song develops into shimmering psychedelic chamber rock with sonic resemblances to Jethro Tull, the Who, and Fairport Convention. According to Winslow-King, “Teacher’s Desk” is the most esoteric exploration on the album. “I felt like I kind of went into a hypnotic trance to find the song; I have no idea where the song really came from. It ended up as a collage of these images and flashes of dreams colliding with the part that Roberto came up with on his guitar and the rhythm our drummer Piero Pirelli came up with. It collided into this mélange I never would have expected.”

As a songwriter, Luke Winslow-King refuses to try to squeeze songs into certain musical molds, working instead to absorb the lightning strikes of inspiration that arrive and to be attentive to the muse when she calls. Winslow-King carries this approach into the studio as well, trying to be in the moment and “let the song come alive.” In these moments, magic occurs as the band tries to “imagine the audience” and to “bring the song to life, trying to light the song on fire and to elevate it,” he says.

Highly acclaimed for his brilliant songwriting, producing, and playing, The New York Times has praised his music as it “seamlessly melds Delta blues, gospel and jazz themes with personal, simplified lyrics that speak to his personal and artistic evolution.” Are there any other quotes we could add here?

After nine albums, Winslow-King is excited to be exploring new territories on Coast of Light. He says it’s more adventurous than anything he’s offered in the past, and he points out that the band is taking more risks with its themes in the lyrics. “We’re exploring different genres and tones and styles than we ever have before. I think we got more psychedelic and experimental than we ever have on an album before, and I’m very feel very comfortable here. I hope my fans are willing and ready to on this journey because we’re going to a really deep and natural kind of state.”

Winslow-King’s previous albums include Luke Winslow King (2008), Old/New Baby (2009), The Coming Tide (2013), Everlasting Arms (2014), I’m Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always (2016), Blue Mesa (2018), and If These Walls Could Talk (2022). He’s recorded with acclaimed artists such as George Porter Jr., Little Freddy King, and John Boutté. He has shared the stage with Jack White, Taj Mahal, Rosanne Cash, and many others. His original song “Everlasting Arms” was performed by Dr. John in the Playing for Change: Songs Around the World series on YouTube. His music has been featured on Anderson Cooper Live (CNN), NCIS: New Orleans (CBS), and Deadliest Catch (Discovery).

Luke Winslow-King has toured extensively in North America and Europe, appearing on notable stages such as Austin City Limits, New Orleans JazzFest, Azkena Rock Festival (Spain), Tønder Festival Paradiso (Netherlands), Glastonbury (UK), Byron Bay Blues Fest (AUS), and countless more.

Coast of Light, on Bloodshot Records, showcases Luke Winslow-King’s evocative lyrics, his never-miss-a-note guitar work, and his warm vocals that convey the intimacy of his lyrics.