“It’s the last season of America, And we’ll never watch again, The show that we loved ”
Veteran Bluesman Seasick Steve returns with The Last Season of America, his new album due September 19th on LP, CD & digital formats on his new label Eastcote Recordings. The title track is available now as a single – see the video below. So what’s the story of the album?
In 2024, Steve and his wife Elisabeth took a road trip across America, where he witnessed the poverty and divisiveness in the context of the upcoming election. “We drove across the country from Miami to LA,” he recalls. “We thought we was gonna have an amazing time, but we were mostly sad, so much homelessness and division.”
They were in a New Orleans club where a house band leader welcomed two Belgian musicians on stage by saying, “Welcome to the last season of America.” This became the theme for the rest of their road trip and led to him writing the album’s title track. A deeply personal, heartfelt reflection on the state of his home nation, the album is a protest record in the truest sense.
The previous single Bad Things aimed at a certain venal and divisive politician: “We got a criminal running this place. He got lies written all over his face,” sings Steve.
“I guess it ain’t too hard to guess, right?” he says of the subject of his ire. Yet there is optimism among Steve’s righteous anger “There are bad things, but we still can change. If you believe in hope, we can rearrange. I still believe in the power of love.”
The album was produced by Grammy Award-winner Martin Terefe at Eastcote Studios in London. For the recording, Steve and his longtime drummer, Dan Magnusson, were joined by guitarist Dave Okumu (The Invisible), while Terefe added bass guitar. Steve is playing the headline slot at Country On The Common Festival in Tooting on July 4th and performing at Folk By The Oak Festival in Hatfield on July 19th.
2026 marks 20 years since an unknown American singer/songwriter, already a grandfather, with a beat-up Japanese guitar with only three strings and an old wooden box to stomp on, made his TV debut on Jools Holland’s BBC Hootenanny on New Year’s Eve. His musical journey began as a boy in the 1950s, hearing his father’s 78s of artists like The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, The Nat King Cole Trio, Jelly Roll Morton, and the great Louis Armstrong. From the early days of Country, there was Hank Williams, Left Frezzell, and Patsy Cline, and later on came the sounds of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and early 60’sDoo Wop and Motown. However, Steve’s real revelation and deep connection to the Blues came in the mid ’60’s when he saw live performances from legends including Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, the Reverend Gary Davis, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf andLightnin’ Hopkins, forever changing his life. Later the same decade, Steve saw Otis Redding, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Sly and The Family Stone, and so many of the great 60’s bands. All of these deep influences have led him musically to where he is today.
The Last Season Of America Tracklist:
1. The Last Season of America
2. Bad Things
3. Above Ground Boogie
4. Bootstraps
5. El Camino
6. Surf’s Flat
7. Free Man
8. Somebody
9. Matilda From Ottawa
10. Feel The Sun
