New Orleans’ adopted daughter, Ghalia Volt, gets what she wants and has settled for nothing less. She has released five recordings between 2017 and 2023:
Ghalia & Voodoo Casino, Have You Seen My Woman? (Self Produced, 2017),
Ghalia & Mama’s Boy, Let the Demons Out (Ruf Records, 2017),
Mississippi Blend (Ruf Records, 2019),
One Woman Band (Ruf Records, 2020), and
Shout Sister Shout (Ruf Records, 2023)
On the heels of her extended residency in Clarksdale, MS for the 16th Annual Juke Joint Festival and appearances in Memphis, TN and beyond, Ghalia drops Burn the House Down, a molten advance in her march to captivate all blues fans with her fiery brand of blues and R&B. Burn the House Down displays a fierce, groove-heavy blast of rock and roll meeting the blues at the crossroads.
Recently featured on 60 Minutes alongside Christone “Kingfish” Ingram as part of a new generation carrying the blues forward, Volt has spent the last decade cementing her status as an innovator. Her trajectory shifted permanently in 2016 when she moved from Belgium to New Orleans, immersing herself in American roots traditions and sharpening her raw, instinct-driven approach.
Volt has produced a body of music on Burn the House Down that defies the trend of blues making love with R&B for a heavy metal love child, immaculately conceived. “No Ice Please” opens the disc and bears a greater than casual resemblance to Samantha Fish’s “Bulletproof” regarding the decadent slide guitar and use of an overdriven bullet mic (typically reserved for the harmonica). “Mine” recalls the careful composition of 1970s progressive rock, while the first single from the record, “Ride,” smacks of the raunch of Grand Funk Railroad mated with the sleek design of Joan Jett grown up because of the whiskey. Mick Taylor takes possession of “Where Do We Go” and John Lee Hooker infuses “Lucifer’s Grip” with the sulfurous bouquet of early Black Sabbath (whose presence in these songs is potent.
With Burn the House Down, produced by JD Simo and recorded in Nashville, Volt pushes that sound even further — capturing the immediacy of her live performances while expanding her sonic reach. Volt returns to a full combo after touring several years as a one-woman band setup — singing, playing guitar, and working percussion simultaneously — a format that became central to both her recordings and her reputation as a live performer.
Not to be missed is the evolution of Volt’s slide guitar playing, which has moved well beyond her early George Thorogood slashings to something more precise, like Ariel Posen. “Let Yo’ Hair Down” lays a north Mississippi hills blues down with the galloping fantods reaching a nuclear simmer. That is where Ghalia Volt is taking the blues.
