Keith Richards to Release Second Wingless Angels Album

Posted on Jun 7th 2010 8:30AM by Barnaby Smith
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Keith Richards is to release new music as the Wingless Angels, a project the Rolling Stones guitarist started in the mid 70s with Jamaican singer Justin Hinds, exploring Rastafarian spiritual music.

The Guardian reports that 'Wingless Angels II' is out on Sept. 23 and is the group's first release in 13 years. Richards first met Hinds, former singer with ska troupe the Dominoes, in Kingston in the early 70s. As he did with Gram Parsons and others, Richards bonded with Hinds over traditional musical forms, and the two started playing together.

"I was just one of the crowd," Richards says. "They had no idea who the Rolling Stones were, they didn't even give a s--t."

The first Wingless Angels LP didn't appear until 1997, and in 2005 Hinds passed away just as the pair had begun recording for a second album. Those sessions, Richards recalls, had spontaneity at their core.

""It was very organic," he said. "Justin would just say, 'OK, let's take up a beat,' and he would start chanting, with the drums going. We'd start in the afternoon and go 'til 11 or 12 o'clock at night. You can't get artsy with the tracks or anything. It is what it is. I realised early on that this was the way I wanted to record this band. They've got to feel free just to do it, and that's it."

The first Wingless Angels album is to be reissued as a double-CD, while the new album is currently streaming at the official website.