New Release
Ghalia Volt
1. No Ice Please
FEATURED VIDEO
No barriers. No boundaries. That’s always been Ghalia Volt’s approach to American roots music.
It’s a sound that reaches far beyond America itself. Ghalia grew up listening to the flamenco songs and traditional Spanish music that her grandparents loved. Her tastes expanded from there, making room for the fierce, guitar-driven sounds of punk, garage rock, and psychobilly. Digging into the roots of rock & roll, she discovered blues artists like Skip James and J.B Lenoir, setting the stage for an acclaimed songwriting career that would soon take her around the world — and up the Billboard Blues Chart.
Burn the House Down, Ghalia’s sixth album, makes room for it all. Recorded in Nashville with producer JD Simo, these 11 songs showcase the full range of her influences. There’s the swaggering John Lee Hooker’s style shuffle of “Lucifer’s Grip.” The juke joint grooves of “Let Yo’ Hair Down.” The Hill Country blues of “Where Do We Go.” The late-night rock & roll of “Mine.” Even the flamenco textures of her childhood make an appearance. Tracked during a two-day session of live-in-the-studio performances, Burn the House Down charts its own geography, using the blues as a launchpad for an album that crosses borders and obliterates the very idea of genre.
“Being true is always what resonates with me,” says Ghalia. “Often, bands make music for the fans or to fit into a certain genre. I believe that if you make art for yourself — if it feels right, if you feel good doing it — then it will translate. People will appreciate it more because it’s real. It’s you.”
Burn the House Down was recorded with a small band — drummer Chris Powell, bassist Brian Allen, and fellow guitar slinger JD Simo — in a single room, amplifiers bleeding into each other. Working with Simo was an opportunity to get back to her roots, embracing the rough edges that have always been part of her favorite music. “I love to compare JD to a photographer,” she explains. “He captures a moment, an energy, and all those action shots translate into a record. We only did a few takes of each song. It’s raw, it’s real, it’s simple. It’s all about spontaneity and feel.”
Volt has released several albums since 2016, including Have You Seen My Woman (2016), Let the Demons Out (2017), Mississippi Blend (2019)—which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart – One Woman Band (2021), and Shout Sister Shout! (2023)—which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. Her music has seen her collaborate with notable artists and producers and perform at major blues festivals, solidifying her reputation in modern blues and roots music.
Capturing a raw moment has been Ghalia’s focus for years. A guitar player since the age of 11, she cut her teeth as a street busker in her hometown, holding an audience’s attention with nothing to hide behind. Later, she started touring with her band in support of 2017’s Let The Demons Out — then with Mississippi Blend — an album that reached Number 3 on Billboard’s Top Blues Albums chart — until Covid hit, when she began performing as her road-tested one-woman band, simultaneously playing drums and guitar while delivering each song in her velvety voice. Burn the House Down marks a new milestone in that evolution, matching her multi-instrumentalist skills with the stomp and swagger of a taut studio band. Here, she trades licks with Simo, highlighting her skills as “a slide-ripping guitarist” (Guitar World) while delivering songs about the joy, pain, and challenges of the human condition.
The result is an album that captures Ghalia Volt in all her gritty glory, and she is unwilling to answer to anyone other than her own muse. Flawlessness isn’t the goal. Neither is “fitting in.” “We’re not looking at a polished jewel,” she says of the record, “but more a raw diamond.”
From collaborations with Cedric Burnside and jamming on stage with Buddy Guy to sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic, Ghalia has already spent 10 years cementing her role as a leader of modern-day roots music. Burn the House Down looks ahead to the next decade. It’s a reminder that true artists don’t just honor the traditions of the past; they create their own traditions, too.
SHORT BIO
Located in New Orleans, Louisiana, Ghalia Volt is a Belgian-born blues-rock singer, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter whose dynamic, gritty music blends roots, hill country blues, garage, and rock ‘n’ roll influences. After cutting her teeth as a street performer in Europe and immersing herself in American roots music, Volt has released five acclaimed albums — including Shout Sister Shout!, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart.
Her highly anticipated new record, Burn the House Down, is set for release on May 15, 2026, showcasing her raw energy and expansive musical vision as she continues to define her place in modern blues and roots rock.
Volt has toured extensively across the U.S. and Europe and has performed at major festivals including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Mammoth Bluesapalooza, Telluride Blues and Bilbao Blues Festival, Blues Peer, etc. Whether performing solo or with a full band, she delivers high-energy, trance-driven sets that connect across generations and genres — blues & roots-based music that’s physical, loud, and built for the live stage.
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