With Eyes Full, versatile musician Zoh Amba steps away from the avant-garde saxophone world that first made their name and returns home, to Kingsport, Tennessee, and to their first instrument, the guitar. Recorded live with guitarist Kevin Hyland and drummer Jim White, the album blends ragged acoustic blues, Appalachian folk, and bursts of scorched alt-rock into something intriguingly idiosyncratic, deeply personal, and spiritually charged.
The thirteen songs are as pure as can be, delivered with fire and carried by raw and unguarded vocals declaiming stories of working-class lives, redemption, and hard-earned grace. A rough-cut instrumental backdrop lends them an even greater sense of urgency and vulnerability. Eyes Full is a fearless, heart-on-sleeve record that finds beauty, dignity, and mercy in overlooked places.
Eyes Full is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Matador Records.