Having cemented himself as one of today's most soulful players with a series of popular YouTube videos, Instagram clips and a full-length album with his existing band Buck & Evans, electric guitar star Chris Buck has announced his all-new musical project, Cardinal Black.
Enlisting the musical services of longtime collaborators Tom Hollister, Adam Roberts and Sam Williams on vocals, drums and bass, respectively, Buck’s newly formed Welsh four-piece have ushered in the news with a fierce debut single, Tell Me How It Feels, taken from their upcoming debut four-track EP.
The muffled opening exchanges of Tell Me How It Feels explode into a kaleidoscope of whirly organ soundscapes, bite-y six-string stabs and lush low-end flourishes, with a bounty of Buck’s decorative lines weaving throughout the track.
We only have to wait a minute-and-a-half to hear Buck let loose on the track’s first guitar solo, utilizing his trademark finger-and-thumb slides and trills to maximum effect, before an extended effort sees the Yamaha Revstar-wielding phenom make his way up the fretboard, finishing with a smattering of awe-inspiring licks and bends.
Of the band, which originally started as a trio around 10 years ago, Buck told MusicRadar, “Cardinal Black started off as a trio. Tom and I met through mutual friends and it was his university dissertation project to put a band together, write a couple of songs, release a three-track EP at the very least and arrange a launch gig.
“That was it, that was the plan and that was going to be the extent of it,” recalled Buck, before revealing that a chance encounter with Steve Winwood transformed the one-off project into a full-time project.
“Tom and I wrote a couple of tracks, literally enough to get through one gig, and Steve Winwood showed up at our gig. Just totally randomly. We got chatting to Steve and he invited us to his studio. It all sort of snowballed off the back of that.”
Having split up after only “two or three years”, the trio decided to take another stab at things as a four-piece over lockdown under the new moniker Cardinal Black.
“The good thing about lockdown is there was no expectation. We made a conscious decision not to talk about it because it sets a level of expectation of when it was going to go live or when it was going to be released,” he continued. “We were quietly beavering away in the background with the idea that we announce at the point things are starting to open up again.”
Tell Me How It Feels, which Buck revealed was "one of the most recent" songs the band wrote together, made its way to the top of iTunes' Rock chart upon its release, and currently sits at number one ahead of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' latest offering.
Head over to Cardinal Black’s website to find out more.
