Chichester: Ruby launches new EP in Worthing

Chichester-based blues and soul singer Ruby Tiger – the stage name of Olivia Stevens – launches a brand-new live album as part of the new Worthing Live month-long festival of music.
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Ruby

Olivia will be marking the release of her classic-blues-ballads recording It Cuts Both Ways on Tuesday, October 20 with an intimate, small-scale gig upstairs at Worthing Southern Pavilion. The tracks were recorded live at the Tuesday Night Music Club in Coulsdon in Surrey last July.

“Live recording is something that I have always wanted to do, to capture those moments that occur in a live situation that you just cannot get in a studio… or are harder to get in a studio,” Olivia said.

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“In a studio, it is stop-start. In a concert, you go with the flow. I have always wanted to perform well enough at a gig one day that when I listen back to it I want to release it as a live recording. You just want to record something that really pulls it off on the night.

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Ruby

“To be honest, I didn’t think about releasing it at the time. I knew it was being recorded obviously, but you tend to forget about that to just concentrate on the music and on the vocals and on the emotion.

“Three of the songs (Stormy Monday, Need Your Love So Bad and I’d Rather Go Blind) are really, really classic songs that people might think have been overdone over the years, but on the night I wanted to show that a singer really can breathe new life into them again in a visceral way. I like the idea that you can take a song that has been done time and time again and you can make it live again in a new and different way. I hope people listening to this will feel that’s what I have done. But obviously every gig is different. Another night I might not think I had sung them so well, that I hadn’t really captured it. The five songs on the EP are from different parts of the concert. At the gig I sang 23 songs. For the recording, I just chose the five that really grabbed me, that I felt happiest with.”

The EP is available at www.rubytiger.bandcamp.com with more details available on www.rubytigersings.com. For Olivia, it’s all an important step towards a debut full-length album some time next year:“It will be all originals bar one cover. I am really pleased to be able to bring out these very old classic blues songs, but the album itself will be a new departure. There are a fair number of tracks now for the album I am sure of, a lot I definitely know will be on there, but I can’t say when. I think it is more likely to be next autumn.”

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The EP launch comes as Olivia cuts back a little on the live dates: “I am taking a step back from the gigging for the rest of the year really just to consolidate the band line-up, with new musicians on board.”

She is particularly pleased to be performing with Emsworth-based drummer Paco Munoz. The Worthing gig will be in acoustic format.

“With amazing Spanish percussionist Paco on board and Louise Maggs’ scintillating and spine-tingling guitar stylings, I know this will be a truly-special evening in stunning surroundings.”

Olivia added she was delighted to be part of the Worthing Live series, a month-long festival of music nights in the town: “There are some great people on the programme.”

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