Spirityouall

Bobby McFerrin brings it all back home with his new album, spirityouall, re-imagining Americana with beloved spirituals and original songs. Bobby invites us along on his everyday search for grace, wisdom, and freedom, embracing bluegrass and the baroque, heartfelt lyrics and wordless melodies, joy and sorrow. He throws some unexpected new ingredients into the melting pot and invites us to sing together through life's trials and triumphs. Across genres, across boundaries, across generations, spirityouall raises the roof with joyful grooves.



About the Artist:

For decades Bobby McFerrin has broken all the rules. The 10-time Grammy winner has blurred the distinction between pop music and fine art, goofing around barefoot in the world's finest concert halls, exploring uncharted vocal territory, inspiring a whole new generation of a cappella singers and the beatbox movement. His new album, spirityouall re-imagines Americana with beloved spirituals and original songs, raising the roof with joyful grooves. This bluesy, feel-good recording (featuring an incredible lineup of great musicians including Larry Campbell, Charley Drayton, Gil Goldstein, Larry Grenadier, Ali Jackson, and Esperanza Spalding) is an unexpected move from the music-industry rebel who singlehandedly redefined the role of the human voice with his a cappella hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy," his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea and the Vienna Philharmonic, his improvising choir Voicestra, and his legendary solo vocal performances. All that pioneer spirit and virtuosity has opened up a great big sky, including game-changing experiments in multi-tracking (Don't Worry, Be Happy has seven separate, over-dubbed vocal tracks; Bobby"s choral album VOCAbuLarieS has thousands). But virtuosity isn't the point. "I try not to "perform" onstage," says Bobby. "I try to sing the way I sing in my kitchen, because I just can't help myself. I want to get people to just sing the way they do when they're just hanging out waiting for the bus, in their regular "blue-jeans" voice. I want to bring audiences into the incredible feeling of joy and freedom I get when I sing. "Ask him where he went to school, and he just might tell you that he is a graduate of MSU: Making Stuff Up. "Music for me is like a spiritual journey down into the depths of my soul," says McFerrin. "And I like to think we're all on a journey into our souls. What's down there? That's why I do what I do."