“I think you have to be true to the roots, and for that to happen you have to truly know it. You can’t break a rule you don’t know. You are merely ignorant of the rule if you are breaking it without knowledge of the rule.“

Candice Ivory: New Southern Vintage

Grammy-nominated rising star blues/soul singer Candice Ivory, who’s been wowing audiences around the world with her dynamic approach to the blues music genre, brings that force to bear on her latest album, New Southern Vintage (2025) by Nola Blue Records. “Today, blues is a global music, known and cherished by people all over the world,” writes Candice Ivory in the album’s liner notes. “But its roots are in the American South - in places like Memphis and Mississippi, where I first met the blues, and in nearby outposts like St. Louis, where I now live. New Southern Vintage pays homage to this iconic Southern folk form as well as the heroines and heroes who created it, including my greatest inspirations: blueswoman Memphis Minnie ("World of Trouble," "Shout the Boogie") and my own great-uncle Will Roy Sanders ("I'm in Trouble"), who fronted the Fieldstones, the best Memphis blues band of the 1970s and 1980s. The album also features several living legends, from Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (caretaker of the Bentonia, Mississippi school of blues guitar) to folk-blues éminences grises David Evans and Andrew Cohen. And because blues is an ancient-to-the-future music - vintage and new - I invited a number of brilliant younger artists to join me on New Southern Vintage.”                                       (Candice Ivory / Photo by Angie Lipscomp)

Musically, visually and intellectually, Candice Ivory wields a trifecta of creativity that is powerfully unique and broad. While her 'new southern vintage' concept and its fresh perspective on Black Culture in the American South has been in development thematically for more than a year, its near concurrence with the box office hit, Sinners, echoes in familiarity. Performed by a world class, multi-generational group of musicians, the music of New Southern Vintage stands solidly unique and powerfully poised to become a comparable major hit in the music world. Dubbed “The Queen of Avant Soul” Candice Ivory says: “My longtime collaborator Robert Allen Parker, Public Enemy's Khari Wynn, and the other members of my Memphis-based band the Blue Bloods appear on several tracks, as do Ben Levin, Damian "Yella P" Pearson, and Chris Stephenson. There are also some special guests - Jan Hartmann, Antonio Vergara, Takuto Asano, and Yubu Kazungu - who hail from around the globe and nonetheless fit right into the Southern sounds of New Southern Vintage, showing that no matter how far we travel down the blues highway, we can always go back home to the land where the blues began.”

Interview by Michael Limnios                      Archive: Candice Ivory, 2023 interview

Special Thanks: Mark Pucci Media

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

I have always had to perform at a really high level, because I started playing music with very innovative artists and showmen. It makes you grow very rapidly and be very creative. I will say that I feel a new sense of freedom in my music at this time, and that is quite fun, because this growth is about abandon and lack of restraint.

My preferred music-making process remains the same. I am very old school and love to really explore a concept. Music is very visual for me, and I have routines that I like to do in order to write or record. I have a very strict regimen I follow when conditions and circumstances allow.

Currently you’ve one release with Nola Blue Records. How did that relationship come about? 

I have been collaborating quite a bit with pianist Ben Levin—in fact, I did a European tour with him in the summer of 2025. He had just finished making an album with Lil’ Jimmy Reed on Nola Blue Records, and when he found out that Jimmy “Duck” Holmes wanted to cut some tracks with me, he suggested that the label would be a great fit. Being partnered with a female-led label was really exciting for me.  Additionally, Nola Blue has acommitment to legacy artists and tradition-bearing, so I thought it would be a great place for my project. Sallie Bengtson has a fantastic team, and I felt like her label was a great home for New Southern Vintage. I made her a painting for her office because I love the mission of Nola Blue so much!

“In the south you could see intergenerational families working together in ways that I have rarely seen outside of the south. This cultural blending has created one of the most unique spaces for arts and culture in the world.” (Candice Ivory / Photo by Marilyn Stringer)

Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album New Southern Vintage?

(Laughs) I have quite a few stories about this album and they are ALL interesting! The album makes more sense if you know a little backstory. It’s a highly detailed album in that every single aspect of it has meaning—from the pictures (some which have not been released yet) and the artwork to the personnel and the song choices.

I began crafting the idea for New Southern Vintage fairly soonafter the passing of my uncle, Will Roy Sanders of the Fieldstones, but it took a while for the concept to evolve. It’s more than an album, in a sense, because it’s also a documentary and an art piece. The cover photo is very symbolic and special for me, especially since I am wearing my great-grandmother’s cape and I am dressed to channel the great Ma Rainey. This photo was taken by Marilyn Stringer at the 2024 Blues Music Awards show, where I was accompanied by pianist Ben Levin and guitarist William Lee Ellis, who has been a dear friend and supporter over the years. To be the opening act for the Blues Music Awards and performing the songs of Leadbelly for his family was such an honor. That was a full-circle moment that I will never forget, and to have that moment preserved on an album feels super special. That is also the night that I met my labelmate Maria Muldaur! She was definitely an inspiration on my Memphis Minnie album, so we chose to honor her by having New Southern Vintage released on her birthday. Maria has been a big supporter, as have all the ladies of Nola Blue.

What were the reasons that make the American South to be the center of Black American music researches and experiments?

Well, I think the transatlantic slave trade is probably the biggest reason. When we start moving into the Civil War and post-Reconstruction, you see a diverse economic and international community learning how to reimagine itself. The land is so vast that they were forced to work together because there simply wasno other way to survive. In the south you could see intergenerational families working together in ways that I have rarely seen outside of the south. This cultural blending has created one of the most unique spaces for arts and culture in the world.

Your work is known for creatively reimagining blues/soul tradition. How do you balance respect for the roots with experimentation?

I think you have to be true to the roots, and for that to happen you have to truly know it. You can’t break a rule you don’t know. You are merely ignorant of the rule if you are breaking it without knowledge of the rule. I grew up with several musical masters as my first teachers. If Calvin Newborn is playing behind you and decides he does not want to play in your key, you have to get creative! D’Angelo was my choir director and mentor, and he was very precise about certain aspects of vocal delivery. It forces you to stay in a line and then ask yourself why you are confined there. As you approach your own mastery, you’ll find that you have to be creative, and that experimentation makes you better. I think it all comes down to taste when it is said and done.

“My preferred music-making process remains the same. I am very old school and love to really explore a concept. Music is very visual for me, and I have routines that I like to do in order to write or record. I have a very strict regimen I follow when conditions and circumstances allow.”  (Candice Ivory / Photo by Angie Lipscomp)

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

I’d love to reimagine the way that the voice and vocalists are viewed. I’d reimagine the way we view things, period…but you said one thing, and let me mind my business! I’ll start here: we are only beginning to tap into the diversity and range of vocal ideas. Who does it serve for us to be inaudible, mumblewordcreatures? It serves people who don’t want you to hear the actual words and sometimes nothingness they are saying.  As a vocalist, I am a total musician. You will not understand me if you don’t get that part. I write. I play. I perform. I live life. Eat well. Exercise. I’d like to change the way women are seen. The way men are seen. The way guitar is seen. The way piano is seen. Etc. I digress because the reality is that I change it by making music and art that I value and believe in, and I am actively working to make these ideas a reality.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

I have learned many important lessons on this path, but the one I am currently learning is balance. You will wear many hats in music. The question becomes: how do I balance and maintain my disciplines and then be able to sustain this in a manageable way for my life and responsibilities? For example, I’m also the producer of New Southern Vintage. That is a lot of administrative work and requires a different skillset than performing. A very valuable lesson is that you have to adjust to the mindset of whatever role you are playing. In this case, if I had a problem, I still had to take it up with the producer—but it was me!

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

As far as tradition goes, I believe in the daily task and maintenance of it. The preservation of it. When it comes to my own music, I maintain tradition so that I don’t have to consider the idea of relevance. I get to tell my story that’s going to immediately make it relevant. The album New Southern Vintageis considered to be both old and new. That’s me. I am like a window into an epoch of music and life that doesn’t really exist anymore. But we have all been given the keys and tools to access the bridge to the future.

Candice Ivory - Home

(Candice Ivory / Photo by Angie Lipscomp)