Dion has released a new studio album, Girl Friends, featuring collaborations with female artists. The album arrived March 8, 2024, via Keeping The Blues Alive Records. (It’s available for order here and the U.K. here.) The legendary singer-songwriter says, “Women, real and imagined, have made all the difference in my life.” Listen to several tracks in which he’s paired with Susan Tedeschi and Carlene Carter.
From the Dec. 2023 announcement: The past few years have been some of the most productive over the course of Dion DiMucci’s storied career that spans multiple eras in music, culture and consciousness. Girl Friends follows 2021’s Stomping Ground and 2020’s Blues With Friends. Those two albums, with liner notes by Peter Townshend and Bob Dylan respectively, include musical contributions from, among others, Joe Bonamassa, Brian Setzer, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Billy Gibbons, Paul Simon, Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton, G. E. Smith, Keb’ Mo’, Mark Knopfler, Peter Frampton and Rickie Lee Jones.
Girl Friends finds Dion, who’ll turn 85 on July 18, keeping musical company with a line-up of stellar female artists who are heard on the album’s 12 original tracks, 11 of which were composed by Dion and Mike Aquilina with one written by Dion and the late Scott Kempner. (See the track listing below.) The album was produced by Wayne Hood and Dion, and includes liner notes by Darlene Love who commented, “I’ve been a huge fan since I was a young girl. In fact, when I sang ‘He’s a Rebel’ I was singing about outsiders like Dion. I’m a bigger fan today. I’m still trying to emulate his unique bluesy overtones. Now I’m thrilled again with these new collaborations — not just friends, but all girl friends — great women vocalist and musicians. This is just what the world needs now. These duets are riveting.”
Dion explains the album’s raison d’être in a commentary titled “The Feminine Genius” that is included with Girl Friends. He explains his mother was his family’s breadwinner, and that he had two sisters. He’s been married for 60 years to the former Susan Butterfield, who is name checked in the album’s “Hey Suzy,” and they are the parents of three daughters who, in turn, produced four more girls. He writes, “I’ve always been surrounded by the feminine genius — always living off it. Even my music has kept a tight focus on the ladies: ‘Runaround Sue,’ ‘Donna the Prima Donna,’ ‘Little Diane,’ ‘Ruby Baby.’ All those women, real and imagined, have made all the difference in my life.”
He observes, “I’ve noticed that men play a different tune when there are women in the room — and it’s a different kind of jam when women are in the mix. I don’t know why this is so, but it is. Maybe we men, at some primitive level, are competing for their attention. As I said, I don’t know why or how. I do know it makes better music and we’re all better for it.”
Watch the clip for “I Aim To Please,” a duet with Danielle Nicole, whom Dion calls “one of the greatest singers on the planet”
There’s more from Dion on the horizon. In 2022, The Wanderer, a musical based on his life debuted at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ and is expected to arrive on Broadway in 2024. Directed by Kenneth Ferrone and based on Charles Messina’s book, the initial run was the subject of critical acclaim.
Dion Girl Friends Album Track Listing
Carlene Carter in the “An American Hero” video
1. Soul Force with Susan Tedeschi
2. I Aim To Please with Danielle Nicole
3. Stop Drop And Roll with Valerie Tyson
4. Do Ladies Get The Blues with Christine Ohlman and Debbie Davis
5. An American Hero with Carlene Carter
6. Don’t You Want A Man Like Me with Rory Block
7. Sugar Daddy with Christine Ohlman
8. Endless Highway with Randi Fishenfeld
9. I Got Wise with Maggie Rose
10. Hey Suzy with Sue Foley
11. Mama Said with Shemekia Copeland
12. Just Like That with Joanne Shaw Taylor
Related: Our review of 2020’s Blues With Friends
1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationDarlene wrote the liner notes but she’s not on the album, what a lost opportunity.