Product Description
KIRK FLETCHER - KEEP ON PUSHING
RELEASE DATE AUGUST 15, 2025. ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!
KEEP ON PUSHING is the latest from internationally hailed blues guitarist/vocalist Kirk Fletcher. Working with co-producer JD Simo and a dream team of Nashville players, Fletcher says “My latest record is called KEEP ON PUSHING, which I feel is a positive message in these uncertain times we live in. And for me a personal message to myself suffering a stroke just a couple years ago. I’m grateful to share this album with you.”
“Armed with astonishing chops, great tone and an encyclopedic knowledge of blues styles (check out his YouTube demos to see him in action), Kirk Fletcher is a veritable force of nature who has played with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, toured with Joe Bonamassa and traveled the world, playing what he calls ‘the music closest to my heart.’ “
- Guitar Player Magazine
KIRK FLETCHER
Keep On Pushing
VizzTone
Kirk Fletcher’s latest release is a testament to resilience and rebirth, arriving two years after he suffered a stroke while playing at a gig in Tennessee. The guitarist and singer was back on stage four months later in Tulsa, OK, in November 2023, demonstrating that he had lost none of his chops.
For Keep On Pushing, Fletcher and producer JD Simo recruited a team of Nashville players to cut seven tracks of vintage blues covers and a few originals. In addition to Fletcher on guitar and vocals and Simo on guitar and slide guitar, the band features Jason Smay on drums and Ron Eoff on bass. The album was cut at Wow and Flutter Studio in East Nashville.
Fittingly enough, the album kicks off with “It’s Love Baby,” a song written by Nashville native Ted Jarrett that became a No. 2 R&B hit for Louis Brooks & His Hi-Toppers in 1955. That Excello Records single was a loping piano and saxophone-based tune. In Fletcher’s hands, it’s a springboard for his stinging electric guitar from the very first note. Fletcher’s soulful voice is also a throwback to classic era blues.
Fletcher mines the classic blues and R&B jukebox for such high-energy material as Big Bill Broonzy’s “Just A Dream,” Arthur Crudup’s “I’m Gonna Dig Myself A Hole,” and Eddie Bo’s “Every Dog Has Its Day.” Fletcher slows things down for a plaintive reading of Percy Mayfield’s “Lost Love.”
Two of the album’s three originals are instrumentals: the up-tempo “Croke” – think vintage 45 in the Freddie King tradition – and the slow-burning album closer, “Blues For Robert Nighthawk,” which Fletcher co-wrote with Simo.
On the title track, Fletcher offers his recipe for survival: “Don’t get lost in the struggle. Gotta to live your life with ease.” In true blues fashion, Fletcher blames his woes on a bad-loving woman, but it’s safe to say he was inspired by kicking his affliction to the curb. And for good measure, he pushes a little bit extra on that guitar.
– Michael Cote