Zephaniah OHora Shares “Black & Blue”

Second Single Off New Album ‘LISTENING TO THE MUSIC’
Out AUGUST 28 On LAST ROUNDUP RECORDS

Zephaniah OHora has shared “Black & Blue” (listen/share), the second single off his anticipated forthcoming studio album, ‘Listening To The Music,’ out August 28 on Last Roundup Records. A timeles country ode to love gone wrong, the song finds OHora pleading:Good looking lady I don’t think that you really se”Good looking lady I don’t think that you really see the choices you’re making and how you’re tormenting me, I up and left then you walked right back in again, is there a difference between me and you or black and blue?”

“‘Black & Blue’ is the age old story of being in a relationship with someone who has many of the same tendencies as yourself. Someone that always seems to walk back into your life after you’ve finally walked out on the deal. Someone you find it easy to blame your relationship problems on until you eventually realize that really they’re not that different from you,” OHora tells Wide Open Country who premiered the song.

‘Listening To The Music’ was written and recorded in Zephaniah OHora’s adopted hometown of Brooklyn, NY where prior to the pandemic he curated the bands and frequently performed at beloved Williamsburg honk tonk bar, Skinny Dennis. The 12-track collection is proof positive that great country music can come from anywhere. Produced by Neal Casal, who would tragically pass away not long after mixing was completed, the recording fuses timeless twang with modern sensibilities, tipping its cap to the likes of Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings as it explores a distinctly urban, 21st century landscape through a classic country lens.

OHora is a master craftsman backed by a virtuosic band here, including guitarist John Lee Shannon. His songs absolutely crackle with electricity, moving beyond throwback revivalism to break fresh artistic ground with dazzling fretwork and dizzying pedal steel. The result is a record all about the power of music to bind us to our past and reinvent our future, a lush, intoxicating celebration of melody and memory that connects the considerable miles between Bakersfield and Brooklyn.

Born in New Hampshire to a deeply religious family, OHora first became enamored with music as a youngster in church. By his early 20s, he was living in New York, and though he wasn’t pursuing music professionally, his burgeoning love for classic country led to his role at Skinny Dennis, which quickly became the epicenter of the revitalized country scene in New York. OHora found himself living and breathing the music 24/7 as he booked and performed with some of the finest instrumentalists the city had to offer. Two of them, guitar wizards Luca Benedetti (Martha Redbone, The National Reserve) and Jim Campilongo (Norah Jones, Teddy Thompson), teamed up to produce OHora’s debut, ‘This Highway,’ which prompted Rolling Stone to praise his “razor-sharp band” and “killer new songs” and No Depression to hail his “ability to conjure honest, humble and tearful pathos.” Songs from the record racked up more than a million streams on Spotify, and the album helped OHora land dates with the likes of Lee Ann Womack, Marty Stuart, Jim Lauderdale, Shooter Jennings and Kelsey Waldon in addition to festival slots everywhere from Hopscotch to Pickathon.”People think you have to be from Texas or Nashville to play this music,” says OHora. “But that’s not the way I see it. Country’s all about being true to yourself and telling honest, authentic stories. You can do that anywhere.”