Eddie 9V is pleased to announce the release of his latest single, “Chamber of Reflection,” via Ruf Records. About the track, Eddie declared, “I was listening to “Chamber of Reflection” by Mac Demarco one day & I thought to myself, “what would a soul version of this sound like?” So, I just took the psychedelic synth & replaced it with horns.
We had our horn player layer the melody & then we added Rhodes & Wurlitzer through a Leslie cabinet speaker. We ran some vocals through it, trying to capture that Allen Toussaint meets Mac DeMarco vibe. The result is quite astonishing. It was the first song my girlfriend ever said, “That’s a hit.”
The current stand-alone single is the first new music that Eddie 9V has dropped since the January 2023 release of Capricorn, which rocketed to #1 on the Billboard Blues Charts. Capricorn was named after the famed Macon, GA. Capricorn Studios had been calling out to Eddie for many years. In December 2021, the 26-year-old finally put his thumbprint on the studio’s mythology, corralling an eleven-strong group of the American South’s best roots musicians to track his third album.
And there has been no shortage of praise for Eddie & Capricorn. Rolling Stone declared that the album was “A joyous Southern soul scorcher,” Paste concurred. “Not only can Eddie 9V play the blues, he’s got plenty of soul, too.” Guitar Player effused, “A thrilling evocation of blues and Memphis soul that manages to sound both lovingly vintage and positively modern.” American Songwriter stated, “The songs are tough, the performances are rugged and real, and Eddie 9V is clearly on his way to greater acclaim by following the music that initially, and still, inspires him”, and No Depression weighed in, “Eddie 9V is a soulful minister, delivering the goods like a man who’s seen his musical calling writ large and is broadcasting it loud and clear. But even though he’s looking skyward, don’t be sidetracked by the title of his latest record. Capricorn ain’t about signs but sounds.”
Born Brooks Mason in June 1996, Eddie acquired his first guitar aged six. He ignored the prevailing pop scene at Oak Grove High School in Atlanta, GA, in favor of local heroes like Sean Costello and studied “older cats” like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King, and Rory Gallagher “to see what made them groove and tick.” His shoot-from-the-lip lyrics add Eddie came from family fish fries, where his Uncle Brian “taught me to make people laugh, how to hold an audience’s attention.”
There’s been massive acclaim for Eddie 9V’s early output, with Left My Soul in Memphis (2019) dubbed “fresh and life-affirming” by Rock & Blues Muse and Little Black Flies 2021) praised by Classic Rock as “the most instinctive blues you’ll hear all year.”
