Sherman Holmes – One Step Ahead of the Blues
Sherman Holmes returns with ‘One Step Ahead of the Blues’, a new collection rooted in blues, gospel and R&B
Sherman Holmes – One Step Ahead of the Blues
Format: CD, limited-edition vinyl and digital
Label: Nola Blue Records
Release date: October 9, 2026
Sherman Holmes will release his new album ‘One Step Ahead of the Blues’ on October 9, 2026, through Nola Blue Records. The eleven-track album arrives almost seven decades after Holmes began his musical career and continues the musical path he established with The Holmes Brothers.
Born in New Jersey in 1939 and raised in Virginia, Holmes started his career in 1959. As a founding member of The Holmes Brothers, he helped shape the group’s combination of blues, gospel, soul and R&B.
After building a following in New York and the surrounding area, the band signed with Rounder Records in 1989 and later released five albums through Alligator Records.
In 2014, The Holmes Brothers received a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the United States’ highest honour in the folk and traditional arts.
Following the deaths of Wendell Holmes and drummer Willie “Popsy” Dixon in 2015, Sherman formed The Sherman Holmes Project and released ‘The Richmond Sessions’ in 2017.
Sherman recording Vocals – Photo by AW
‘One Step Ahead of the Blues’ was produced by Andreas Werner, who first met The Holmes Brothers at a concert in Zurich in 2004. The two reconnected during the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2019, eventually leading to the new album.
Werner set out to make a record that would connect with longtime Holmes Brothers listeners while bringing together the blues, gospel and R&B traditions central to Sherman Holmes’ music.
Recording took place at Creative Workshop in Nashville. The studio musicians include Lynn Williams on drums, Paul Ossola on bass, Harvey Thompson Jr. on keyboards and Werner on guitar.
The Blind Boys of Alabama contribute vocals, while the Muscle Shoals Horns are also featured. Catherine Russell, Joan Osborne, Amy Helm and Ada Dyer appear as the singers known within the Holmes Brothers circle as the “Honorary Holmes Sisters.”
Among the eleven songs are two previously unrecorded compositions by Wendell Holmes. Sherman also revisits The Holmes Brothers’ I’m So Lonely in a new version that, according to the release information, was recorded on the first take.
The title track, One Step Ahead of the Blues, was released as the album’s first single on September 18, 2026.
Website: https://shermanholmes.com/
Tracks:
01. One Step Ahead of the Blues
02. Your Livin’ Does Your Preachin’
03. Voices in the Hall
04. Strike While the Iron Is Hot
05. The Blues Done Got My Soul
06. Oh America (Still Standing)
07. One More Go ’Round
08. Prophet in Another Land
09. Fair to Midland
10. I’m So Lonely
11. Change My Heart
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