Four-time Grammy-winning, genre-defying musical collective Snarky Puppy’s highly anticipated new album Empire Central is out now via the band’s own GroundUP Music imprint. The album is available to purchase/stream HERE.

In celebration of the recent release the band is debuting a live-in-studio performance video of their latest single “RL’s” from the album’s recording sessions. Dedicated to the famous Dallas blues shack, RL’s Blues Palace II, the track alternates between typical blues/shuffle elements and variations of them. In true Texas fashion, it features guitar solos by Bob Lanzetti and Mark Lettieri, as well as a closing solo from Bobby Sparks on distorted clavinet.

Recorded over the course of eight nights in front of a live-in-studio audience at Dallas’ Deep Ellum Art Company, Empire Central consists of 16 all-new tracks heavily influenced by and paying homage to the city that gave birth to the group after they formed while studying in the fabled jazz program at the University of North Texas. The record also features the last recorded performance of ’80s funk pioneer and Snarky Puppy’s musical Godfather Bernard Wright, who passed away tragically at age 58 shortly after the Empire Central recording sessions.

Photo Courtesy: Brian Friedman