Boz is Back: Scaggs Announces ‘Detour,’ 1st New Album in 7 Years
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Boz Scaggs has shared a second track from his new album, Detour, his first new studio effort in seven years. The album, a captivating and deeply personal exploration of the Great American Songbook, will be released on October 17, 2025, via Concord Records. It’s available for pre-order in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here. Listen below to the album’s first two releases: a newly arranged version of “I’ll Be Long Gone,” a fan-favorite track from his 1969 self-titled debut, and the sentimental standard “Angel Eyes.”
From the September 4 album announcement: Sometimes, an unexpected detour leads you right where you belong. Detour finds the Grammy-winner—who turned 81 on June 8—interpreting timeless standards with tender insight and profound emotional sophistication.
The new album began not with a grand plan, but with the simple joy of making music. “I had no intention of making a record when I started singing these songs,” Scaggs confesses. “It was all very casual at first, just an opportunity to explore a style of music I’ve always liked, to get together with a friend and play for the sheer joy of it.”
That friend is pianist Seth Asarnow, and their informal sessions together became the heart of Detour. What started as a series of personal demos for Scaggs to expand his vocal stylings soon revealed something magical. The performances and arrangements were undeniable, demanding to be shared with the world. The result is a masterclass in interpretation, an eclectic mix of the familiar and the obscure that tips its hat to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald as gracefully as it does to Irma Thomas and Lonnie Johnson. It is an elegant reimagining of old favorites and new discoveries, delivered with both reverence and a fresh perspective.
On Detour, Scaggs puts his essential instrument on full display. “If I look at myself as a musician over the years, I’d have to consider my primary instrument to be my voice,” he says. That voice has only gained nuance and depth, evident from the gentle tone of the album opener, Allen Toussaint’s “It’s Raining,” to a serene version of “The Very Thought Of You” that feels both timeless and contemporary. The project even led him to revisit “I’ll Be Long Gone” at the suggestion of pianist Seth Asarnow.
“I get a lot of requests for it,” Scaggs explains, “he put together this beautiful arrangement… it ended up falling in perfectly with everything else we did for this album.”
The second advance release is a hushed and heartfelt rendition of the sentimental standard, “Angel Eyes.” First made famous by artists like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, the song has long stood as one of the most haunting ballads in the Great American Songbook. Scaggs approaches it with reverence and restraint, inhabiting the lyrics rather than performing them, and revealing new hues in his voice shaped by a lifetime of soul, blues, and balladry. The arrangement is spare, smoky, and intimate, allowing the emotion to linger in the silence between notes.
“I’d never sung this one before Seth brought it to me,” says Scaggs. “It has that bittersweet quality that I love — that quiet ache. We didn’t try to reinvent it, just to live in it a little while.”
Detour was produced by J. Michael Rodriguez (who co-produced Scaggs’ 2018 release, Out of the Blues) and Seth Asarnow (who contributed to 2015’s A Fool to Care) with executive producer Chris Tabarez. The album features Asarnow (piano, arrangements), Hans Trowsea (bass), Jason Lewis (drums), Jim Cox (piano, synth bass, strings), Jeremy Cohen (violin, viola), Michael Miller (acoustic guitar), and Ashra Weston (guitar).
“If I look at myself as a musician over the years, I’d have to consider my primary instrument to be my voice,” says Scaggs. “Early on I was really influenced by rock and roll guys like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley and R&B and soul singers like Marvin Gaye and Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, but there was something about jazz and standards that always fascinated me.”
After a tenure with the Steve Miller Band, Scaggs debuted on Atlantic Records with a solo album recorded in Muscle Shoals and featuring a young Duane Allman. His star continued to ascend with a series of acclaimed albums for Columbia, culminating in 1976’s 5x-Platinum Silk Degrees which made him a household name and included the Grammy-winning “Lowdown.”
Related: Our Album Rewind of his game-changing Silk Degrees
Boz Scaggs Detour Track Listing
1. It’s Raining
2. Angel Eyes
3. Once I Loved
4. The Very Thought of You
5. I’ll Be Long Gone
6. Detour Ahead
7. I Could Have Told You
8. The Meaning of the Blues
9. Tomorrow Night
10. Too Late Now
11. We’ll Be Together Again
Scaggs is on tour. Tickets are available here and here.
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3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationThe R+R Hall should be Ashamed!
Among the best first 2 lines of a song in the rock era—Somebody loan me a dime,
I need to call my old used to be.
Sets up the song and hooks you. What more could you ask?
Great couple of lines, although Boz didn’t write them. Fenton Robinson did and his original version (Somebody Loan Me a Dime) is mighty fine too, although not as good as Boz and Duane. Speaking of originals, I think the original I’ll Be Long Gone is far better, an uplifting song of determination, not a melancholy noodling. But, great to have Boz back!