Beth Ditto (Photo courtesy Virgin Records)
After 17 years with soulful punk band The Gossip, Beth Ditto went solo last year, releasing her debut album, Fake Sugar, via Virgin Records. Beth toured after the album but she’s coming back to DC for a second round with a show at 9:30 Club on Saturday, March 10.
On her new album, Beth approaches “countrified soul,” tapping into her hometown roots in Arkansas. She and the rest of The Gossip left the small town of Judsonia when Beth was 18 years old, bound for the music mecca of Olympia, Washington. “I was running away from the bad parts of Southern culture,” Beth said. “I’m old enough now and so grateful for my family that I can finally embrace the good in where I grew up.”
Watch the official music video for “We Could Run” by Beth Ditto on YouTube:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6zNcaXdFKE]
In a review for Paste magazine, Ilana Kaplan said Beth Ditto honors both her past and her future with the new album: “Vacillating between soulful country (‘Oh My God’) and vintage pop (‘In and Out’) and anthemic ‘80s-tinged love songs (‘We Could Run’), Ditto finds no limits to hold her power and voice in. She uses this album to show where’s come from and how she’s changed along the way, balancing the grit and the glitter, combining her glammed up exterior with the fierce combo Riot Grrrl and country girl in her heart.”
Beth Ditto
w/ Ssion
9:30 Club
Saturday, March 10
Doors @ 8pm
$25
All ages