Premiere: Eddie 9-volt salutes Elmore James: “She Got Some Money”

Eddie 9-volt amps it up with Little Black Flies album

At 15, Eddie 9-volt stepped out of the path toward college and jobs and into the blues club circuit of his native Atlanta, Georgia. For his debut album, Left My Soul In Memphis, the multi-instrumentalist laid down one of the year’s breakout releases. “Memphis was a total side project that ended up taking off,” shrugged Eddie.

Born to a non-musical family and growing up when manufactured pop dominated the airwaves, Eddie forked hard left, studying the older cats to see what made them groove and tick. His first heroes were local legends like Sean Costello, but he was too young to go see them. Blues giants like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King and Rory Gallagher became his idols, and he dug deep into their catalogues.

When he finally made it inside the clubs, it was as a performer. He hadn’t even graduated high school when his then band, The Georgia Flood, represented the Atlanta Blues Society in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

Little Black Flies is the 24-year-old’s most impulsive move to date, tracked live in Atlanta in a session that felt like a party. Taking inspiration from Albert Collins, Otis Rush and Mike Bloomfield, whose great records were done live with buddies and no overdubs, Eddie 9-volt had a mission: “I wanted the playing to be spot-on, but even if we made a mistake, we kept going.” The result is an album that feels like it’s unfolding right in front of you, down to the clink of bottles and loose studio banter. “I’ve seen a trend in modern recording,” he said. “There’s no soul. ”

That will never be said of Little Black Flies—and there’s another reason we picked this track to Premiere. As Eddie 9-volt told Elmore Magazine, “‘She Got Some Money’ is my ode to Elmore James. There’s no denying it. I specially built a guitar to do this track. I took an old acoustic and screwed a pickup right on the front like he would’ve done. I put a few mics around the room and wanted it to be completely bare bones like a recording from the 50s. It ended becoming my favorite track on the album.”

With nine new songs plus three classic covers, this is our favorite track, too…only by a hair.

Eddie 9V · She Got Some Money

The Little Black Flies sessions were epic. “Every player is the best of their craft,” said Eddie of his studio band. We had the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s bass player Brandon Boone and the icon himself, Cody Matlock, on guitar. Everybody’s mood was so exciting. The energy was there. My job is to make the listener smile and let the music make them forget—or remember.”