Ripple News - Yusuf (Cat Stevens) Back in the Studio with New Album

Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) is in the midst of recording his next album for release in late spring and is being joined by a few high profile entertainers, including Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton and Michelle Branch.

The singer tells Billboard that this will be a much simpler album than his comeback, 2006's An Other Cup. "This one was really a result of me writing a lot of songs and being kind of inspired again. After I recorded ['Cup'] people just wanted to hear me do a lot of simple stuff, just with the guitar.

"Perhaps I went to town a little bit with the production on the last album. I was just having fun with the new technologies ... we have endless tracks on Pro Tools. You can just flow them out and add and add, and I did."

The first single from the album will be Boots & Sand, a collaboration with McCartney and Parton. The song is based on Islam's 2004 incident where he was barred from the U.S. on a faulty no-fly terrorist list.

Another track, To Be What You Must, features Michelle Branch and Gunnar Nelson, so of Rick Nelson.

No title or firm release date have been announced.

Comments

Unknown said…
Cat Stevens lives on my street! Go Yusuf!