Patti Smith to release new studio album in June
American singing legend Patti Smith announced this week the details of her 11th studio album, Banga, her first collection of new material since 2004's acclaimed trampin'.
Produced by Smith herself and band members Tony Shanahan, Jay Dee Daugherty, and Lenny Kaye, the new album arrives on June 5 and features a tribute ballad to the late Amy Winehouse titled "This Is The Girl," plus a birthday song for Smith's pal Johnny Depp ("Nine") and a track honoring the people of Japan following the 2011 tsunami. She also just released a new single for the album called "April Fool" that features Television's Tom Verlaine.
"The little song for Amy [Winehouse] just blossomed in the studio," Smith told Uncut in January. "We were at Electric Lady [Studios] doing a whole other song and I wrote a little poem when she died and my bass player, Tony Shanahan, wrote a piece of music and the two matched perfectly."
Other guests on the LP include Jack Petruzzelli and her children with the late Fred "Sonic" Smith, Jackson Smith and Jesse Paris.
Smith also received widespread recognition for her 2010 book, Just Kids, the story of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Just Kids earned her the 2010 US National Book Award for nonfiction.
