The Ones Ahead Album Releases on July 28
For the first time in almost 20 years, American singer and songwriter Beverly Glenn-Copeland has announced his new The Ones Ahead album set to drop on July 28 via Transgressive Records. The 79-year-old musician is best known for his album Keyboard Fantasies from 1986.
The Beverly Glenn-Copeland The Ones Ahead album is the follow-up to 2004’s Primal Prayer, an 8-track collection of dance-inspired spiritual songs. Glenn-Copeland released Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland in 2020 and reissued Keyboard Fantasies in 2021 in addition to a remix album.
Glenn-Copeland recently revealed the title track of the upcoming album along with the release of its first single, “Africa Calling”.
“In the ’80s, I had the honor of performing with an incredible artist named Dido, a master of the drums indigenous to West Africa,” said Glenn-Copeland. “The beauty of this drumming tradition is explored in ‘Africa Calling’. Over the years, in many conversations, I have come to understand that I share an undefinable, unnamed feeling. A calling. With many other members of the African diaspora, a bone-deep need to explore and express our heritage.”
“Alongside the grief, there is a longing to know our roots, hidden from us as family lines were torn apart in the terrible days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” Glenn-Copeland continued. “In a world still caught in the ties of colonialism, I know I am not alone in needing to heed the call of this generations-old longing.”
Feel free to stream the “Africa Calling” single below. Stay tuned for the Beverly Glenn-Copeland The Ones Ahead album release on July 28.