The death of his mother 16 months ago has inspired Stevie Wonder to get cracking on a new album, "The Gospel Inspired by Lula," that he hopes to have out as soon as January.

"I've been working on it in my mind and in my hotel room," the Motown icon told Billboard.com during a press conference following his homecoming concert last night (Sept. 12) in suburban Detroit. "I have my little set-up; with technology being what it is today, I'm able to work on putting it together ... and then I'll get real musicians to play certain parts, or I'll play them live.

"We'll just do it like that, very similarly to what I did with (2005's Grammy-winning) 'A Time 2 Love,' where I put it all down and I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I played a lot of the stuff live."

Wonder said he'd like to release the album by Jan. 11, which would mark Lula Mae Hardaway's 77th birthday. "I'm inspired, yes, by it," he said of the deadline, which would make the release of a second album in just over two years something of a land speed record for the notoriously perfectionist Wonder in recent years. But he cautioned, "if it's not good enough I might not put it out. You know how we roll."

Wonder said he does "have a lot of material already" for the set, including covers of some of his mother's favorite songs as well as songs that she taught him, along with originals. "It's not the traditional gospel -- at least not all of it is like that," Wonder said. "It's gonna have a wide spectrum, I can tell you that much. I might do a song in Arabic. I might do one in Hebrew. I might do one in Zulu. I might do one that sort of has an East Indian feel to it. It will be songs of celebration, really."

During the press conference, Wonder also said he's considering a fall version of his A Wonder's Summer Night tour -- his first road trek in more than a decade -- which has three shows left plus an appearance at the Dream Concert for the Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial fund in New York.

He's also thinking about taking the show to Australia and has ideas for some even larger stage productions that would incorporate orchestras and dance companies.



http://www.billboard.com/...1003640359



oh i hope its good im excited i liked wonders last album

Great news! Looks like we'll be hearing and seeing Stevie alot in the coming months.

Very excited to hear this.

A new Stevie album that will take less than 10 years to appear?!!

Cloudbuster said:

it's surreal,isn't it?

Still,I won't get excited until I have the CD in my hands.

SoulAlive said:

Yeah, you know something is bound to delay it by at least 5 years.

This is something that he really wants to do.


A mother's love is one of the most inspiring things in your life and can't be forgotten

Not wishing to pour cold water over things here, but personally I'll believe it when I see it (at least until I see it in a store or definitely available online).

So far, in recent years, to my knowledge, he's been talking about making/releasing a jazz album, then a gospel album ...

Then he finally releases an imo very mediocre 'pop' album with about 4 decent tracks on it and production that makes most of them all sound the same.

On the other hand, maybe the loss of his mother might just have tipped him off, as such events so often do, re. his own mortality. So maybe, he's realised that, if he actually wants to have a bigger legacy known in his lifetime, even true artistic respect for his later work, he needs to release product slightly more frequently than every decade or so.

Time will tell ...

Cloudbuster said:

I was thinking the same.

He's been talking about this album for a while on his radio show. On the air, he has invited many people to play on the album. Boney James included.