Misty Blues Return With 18th Studio Album 'Still Ticking'

Celebrated blues and roots band Misty Blues, fronted by singer, guitarist and founder Gina Coleman, will release their 18th studio album, ‘Still Ticking‘, on July 31^st, 2026 via Guitar One Records — available digitally and on CD and vinyl. Arriving in the band’s 27th year together, the 11-track collection is what the band calls “blues fusion”: every song rooted in blues, then wrapped in a second or third genre of choice, from funk and folk to jazz and soul.

Reviewing the record for Global Blues Radio, one critic likened its range to a gumbo — blues, jam-band stretch, jazz and Americana all simmered into one pot — and argued that Misty Blues keep finding new ground without ever losing sight of the twelve-bar tradition they started from. That balancing act plays out across the record’s eleven tracks: Coleman and co-writer Seth Fleischmann open the set with the topical, guitar-driven ‘State Of The Union‘ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Be‘, before the band leans into looser, groove-first territory on ‘Gimme Some More‘, ‘On The Town‘ and ‘Mess With Me‘.

Aaron Dean’s saxophone and Diego Mongue’s bass, organ and percussion give the record its low end and its jazz colour, while David Vittone’s keys and Rob Tatten’s drums keep the arrangements loose enough to breathe. ‘This Love‘, co-written with Ed Moran, and the closing pair ‘Passion‘ and ‘Battle Cry‘ pull the album back toward the ensemble, gospel-rooted sound the band has built its reputation on over 27 years.

Most of ‘Still Ticking‘’s songs were written throughout 2025 by Gina Coleman, then arranged by the full band during a long weekend getaway session on Nantucket that November. The album was recorded in February and March of 2026 at Playing Field Studio in Williamstown, Massachusetts — the band’s own home studio, with Diego Mongue as primary recording engineer alongside Roan Gibson and Seth Fleischmann. Coleman’s songwriting for the record was shaped in large part by the recent social and political climate, giving the collection its charge and, ultimately, its title: a statement that after 27 years and 18 albums, Misty Blues is still ticking.

“This album continues to do what we do best… push the boundaries of the genre in unique and wildly exciting ways,” says Coleman.

Every Misty Blues album has featured the artwork of Michael Mongue — Gina Coleman’s husband and the father of bassist Diego Mongue — but until now, each cover had been drawn from his existing body of work. ‘Still Ticking‘ marks the first time Mongue has created a piece specifically for a Misty Blues album: a whimsical, mixed-media acrylic-on-paperboard relief built around the band’s six core members.

‘Still Ticking‘ follows a run of releases that has kept Misty Blues in the conversation well beyond the New England blues circuit. Their 17th album, ‘Other Side Of Blue‘, was submitted for Recording Academy consideration in four categories for the 2025 GRAMMY® Awards, including Best Contemporary Blues Album.

The band’s Odetta tribute, ‘Tell Me Who You Are: A Live Tribute To Odetta‘, spent 24 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Roots Music Report’s Traditional Folk Album chart in 2023, and its follow-up, ‘I’m Too Old For Games: A Live Tribute To Odetta‘, along with the original album ‘Silver Lining‘, helped earn the band seven GRAMMY® nomination considerations across categories spanning blues, folk, and American roots music in 2024.

Track List:

State Of The Union – Gina Coleman, Seth Fleischmann
I Don’t Wanna Be – Gina Coleman, Seth Fleischmann
Gimme Some More – Gina Coleman
This Love – Gina Coleman, Ed Moran
On The Town – Gina Coleman
Endless Tears – Gina Coleman
Roll Right In – Gina Coleman, Seth Fleischmann
Trifling Man (feat. Lady Bianca) – Gina Coleman, Diego Mongue
Mess With Me – Gina Coleman
Passion – Gina Coleman
Battle Cry (feat. Gina Coleman, Chantell McCulloch, Candice Ivory, Carly Harvey, Alexis P. Suter, Kat Riggins) – Gina Coleman, Chantell McCulloch

Line-up:

Gina Coleman – Vocals, Guitar
Seth Fleischmann – Guitar
Rob Tatten – Drums, Vocals, Percussion
Aaron Dean – Saxophone
Diego Mongue – Bass, Percussion, Guitar, Organ
David Vittone – Keys

With guest vocals from Lady Bianca (Track 8), Chantell McCulloch (Tracks 2, 3, 10, 11), Wendy Lipp, Kathy Ryan and Rebecca Mattson (Track 8), and Candice Ivory, Carly Harvey, Alexis P. Suter and Kat Riggins (Track 11).

About Misty Blues:

A 2019 International Blues Challenge finalist, Misty Blues is fronted by lead singer, guitarist and founder Gina Coleman. A South Bronx native, Coleman started her professional music career in western Massachusetts in 1992 with the indie pop duo The Siblings, then fronted the acoustic folk/funk band Cole-Connection by 1994. Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Misty Blues has been playing original and traditional blues with hints of jazz, soul, funk and tent revival gospel since 1999.

The band has recorded with Eric Gales, Charles Neville and Joe Louis Walker, and has opened for contemporary blues artists including Mike Zito, Albert Castiglia, Tab Benoit, James Montgomery, John Primer, Roomful Of Blues, Albert Cummings, Shemekia Copeland, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Sue Foley.

The band performs extensively throughout New England and has toured the continental U.S., Canada and the UK, earning multiple Independent Blues Music Award nominations and broad international airplay.

In 2024, one of the band’s songs was selected for use in a U.S. Presidential campaign ad. After 27 years and 18 albums, Coleman remains the band’s primary songwriter.

In the summer of 1999, Coleman was cast as a gospel singer in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of A Raisin In The Sun, a cast that also featured Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Viola Davis, Kimberly Elise and Gloria Foster.

Nearing the end of the show’s run, Santiago-Hudson gave Coleman a CD collection titled Men Are Like Streetcars and told her that her voice was best-suited for the blues, urging her to take that next musical direction. Coleman heeded his advice and immediately formed Misty Blues — and a quarter-century later, the band has stood the test of time.