Faith Evans Ruch takes a soulful turn with new singles “Sugar” and “Thank You”

Memphis singer and songwriter Faith Evans Ruch is set to release two brand new singles on the 26th of February.

Ruch is celebrating the new songs, A-side “Sugar” backed up with “Thank You”, via a release show at Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis on the 23rd of the month.

The tracks see Faith continuing her sonic evolution, laying down a new Memphis Soul-soaked sound bathed in emotive brass and red-hot guitar licks, and all wrapped up in her captivating trademark southern vocals. In short, we’ve heard them, and the new tunes really cook.

Ruch had originally anticipated “Thank You” taking the lead when she was planning the releases, but explains the move that saw “Sugar” move front and centre:

“Once we got in the studio at Royal Studios I started to fall super hard in love with ‘Sugar’. While I am so excited about both songs (and I seriously cannot wait to share them with y’all), I started to second-guess the choice to list ‘Sugar’ as the B side, and felt that it deserved to be the title track for the double release.

“That was even more evident to me as I mixed with Kevin Houston at Music+Arts Studio and mastered with L. Nix Mastering,” she adds. “I love both songs so much, but I just can’t get ‘Sugar’ out of my head, and (not to toot my own horn – but beep beep) I’m thinking y’all are gonna feel the same way!”

With her trusted live band beside her (Jesse Dakota on drums, Poyee Yancy on bass, Ori Naftaly on guitar) and Lucero’s Rick Steff back to take you to church on the organ, it’s safe to say that Ruch and her Memphis brethren are going to bust these songs wide open during the up-coming release show and at future live dates. You’d have to be out of your gourd to miss them.

Faith Evans Ruch will be playing live at the Folk Alliance International Festival in Kansas City, MO as part of The Folk Fiesta showcase. You can catch her at 11:30pm this Thursday the 18th of February, at 2am on Friday the 19th of February and then again at 1am on Saturday the 20th of February.

Ruch is then set to play live on the following dates:

Feb 23rd: Lafayette’s Music Room, Memphis – Full band single release show
Feb 28th: Mississippi River Radio – Online full band live video stream
Feb 28th: The Buccaneer, Memphis – Solo show between 5-7pm
Mar 03rd: HiTone, Memphis – Acoustic duo w/Ori Naftaly
Mar 06th: The Buccaneer, Memphis – Solo show between 5-7pm
Mar 23rd: Trolley Stop Market, Memphis – w/Jesse Dakota and Jamie Davis

Faith continues to work on her new album and we’ll bring you more news as and when we have it! In the meantime, check out our review of her previous EP, After It’s Said & Done, here, and the good lady’s most recent video, “Cold Blooded Killer”, here.