Gary Clark Jr. - The Story of Sonny Boy Slim (2015)

Clark himself wrote, produced, and arranged the album, even playing the majority of the instruments himself. His sisters, Shawn and Savannah Clark, also perform on the record as backing vocalists. As Clark says in a promo video for the LP (which you can watch below), “The underlying tone of this album is faith and hope really at the end of the day. ‘Cause that’s all we need.”

Americana to classic rock to straight blues music. “I love hip-hop,” Clark professes in the clip. “I love drums, I love the intensity of those sounds. This thing, I want it to be banging.” You can hear this banging appeal on the album’s lead single, “The Healing”. There’s definitely a hip-hop rhythm beating behind the smokey guitars as Clark sings out, “This music is my healing/ Oh Lord, I need some healing/ ‘Cause when this world upsets me, this music sets me free.”