James Levy and The Blood Red Rose — New video and London date

James Levy and The Blood Red Rose — featuring Allison Pierce

- Pray To Be Free — released on Heavenly Recordings on February 6th 2012
– Live at The 12 Bar, London on Dec 7th and Hotel Michelberger, Berlin on Dec 8th
– Video for ‘Sneak Into My Room’ launched today

‘James Levy and The Blood Red Rose’ featuring Allison Pierce.

James Levy will be back over from New York for one night only on December 7th. James will be performing alongside Alison Pierce at the 12 Bar club on Denmark Street. It will be your chance to hear the songs from the forthcoming album by James which features Alison — ‘Pray To Be Free’ which is out early next year on Heavenly. It’s only £5 on the door but arrive early for a 7.30pm start.

Then the following night, Heavenly, James Levy & Alison Pierce and Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou fly to Berlin to perform at a Heavenly night in Berlin at our favourite Berlin hotel — the Michelberger.

www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=108277809287271

- Pray To Be Free — released on Heavenly Recordings on February 6th 2012

Released on Heavenly Recordings under the name James Levy and The Blood Red Rose, Pray To Be Free is a romantic yet playful collection of jaunty pop and bruised ballads, imbued with stunning vocals and wrapped in a variety of velvet strings, suave horns and lush arrangements.

Akin to the kind of classic Serge Gainsbourg recorded in the ‘60s with Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, or Lee Hazlewood’s similarly charged duets with Nancy Sinatra and Ann Margret — long time friends James Levy and Allison Pierce deliver the vocal sparing in these sumptuous duels of love and war.

Allison played an instrumental part in the making of this album, not only by choosing to cover Levy’s song Glorious with her sister, but by introducing him to their producer, Coldplay’s Guy Berryman. Guy loved what he heard and offered to produce Levy’s album.

Says Guy — “I met James Levy in New York city in the summer of 2009. James had written a song called ‘Glorious’ which the Pierces were recording and visited us in session. I was curious to learn that James lived in a window-less basement in Brooklyn, sleeping during the day and writing songs through the night. Alison Pierce had given me 5 recordings she and James had recorded in the basement and I immediately fell in love with the sound of their voices together — it felt classy.”

“The songs collected on ‘James Levy and The Blood Red Rose’ document romance in all it’s guises; dark, twisted, hopeful and joyful. The sounds, drawing upon classic arrangements from the 50’s and 60’s, are melodic and lush and are hopefully a breath of fresh air in a world dominated by urban electronica.”