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Artiest/Band: Denise La Grassa
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Blues and Roots Music Dynamo Denise La Grassa Delivers A Crossroads Communion On New Album Coming June 5th From deelagee Records
Chicago, Il – Powerhouse blues and roots music singer/songwriter Denise La Grassa announces a June 5th release date for her new album, A Crossroads Communion, on the deelagee Records label. The label will release the album’s first single, “Big Bad Dream,” on Friday, May 1st. And Denise will celebrate the album with a pre-release show on Saturday, May 30, at Firewater Saloon in Chicago.
Throughout the new disc, La Grassa and her band channel the emotional contradictions of the world we’re living in – pain and hope, anger and joy, despair and resilience - into a powerful nine-song blues statement. What ties the album together is honesty. Denise La Grassa’s voice carries the emotional truth that has always drawn listeners to the blues in the first place. The connecting theme throughout A Crossroads Communion is the honesty that comes from La Grassa’s deep faith.
“My faith is always with me,” La Grassa says. “The internal blues cry you hear on this album is a prayer of trust that God hears me and others who long for a more just and empathetic world.”
On A Crossroads Communion, La Grassa stands at the crossroads where reverence meets rebellion. Steeped in the spirit of her blues elders - Howlin’ Wolf, R.L. Burnside, Albert King, and Memphis Minnie – she treats those influences with deep respect, even devotion. But she refuses to let tradition become a cage. Instead, she and her band honor the blues by taking music they love and inject it with a new life and a new style.
“Classic blues has always resonated with me, it’s where my musical journey began when I moved to Chicago at age 20,” she adds. “And you’ll still hear classic blues at our shows. But I have my own voice and journey, and the songs coming out of me lately have been true to the blues that howls within me. I’m fortunate to work with talented musicians who feel the same as I do. “
Over the course of the nine songs on A Crossroads Communion, Denise La Grassa admonishes those giving in to their worst impulses, and challenges them to choose light over darkness, community over chaos, and the teachings of Jesus over the seductive pull of social media. These parables meet modern turmoil head-on yet refuse to surrender to it, leaving the listener with music that feels uplifting, sad, defiant, and joyful all at once.
About Denise La Grassa
The La Grassa sound fits comfortably alongside current bands who blend the blues with their own style, including The Tedeschi-Trucks Band, Eric Johanson, Shemekia Copeland, Adia Victoria, and Beth Hart. Music grounded in blues, but never beholden to it. La Grassa describes it as a "blend of swamp heat, Chicago muscle, and spiritual mystique.” It’s music that is soulful, riveting, and unafraid to take exciting turns.
La Grassa herself has never been one to play it safe. Born in Chicago and raised in Wisconsin, she’s always possessed a daredevil streak: as a teen, she set a world record on the trapeze on a dare and toured the country post-college with the Second City Improv troupe. She’s made a career out of risk-taking by reinventing herself, pushing her voice, and writing with an honesty and ferocity that match her stage presence. Her fascination with the Hill Country groove and Memphis soul sprinkled with hints of jazz give her songs a deep-blue backbone with instincts as a songwriter stretching beyond genre lines.
A Crossroads Communion is her boldest move yet: a rockin’ blues statement that honors the past while offering fresh sounds. The album, made possible through an award from the Illinois Arts Council Agency Creative Accelerator Fund, includes a raw, heartfelt take on Albert King’s “I’ll Play the Blues for You,” hints of Led Zeppelin’s ferocity and stories featuring La Grassa's powerful, soulful voice that wrestle with the moral crossroads of the last decade. La Grassa writes about people giving in to their worst impulses—and challenges listeners to choose light over darkness, community over chaos, and the teachings of Jesus over the seductive pull of social media.
Live, La Grassa and her band are a true roots music force: swampy, soulful, roaring when needed, tender when it matters. They don't replicate the past—they resurrect its spirit and send it forward with a spark that is unmistakably their own.
Denise La Grassa stands ready to remind audiences what modern blues can be: reverent but restless, rooted but roaming, fierce, faithful, and fearlessly alive.
A CROSSROADS COMMUNION TRACK LISTING AND CREDITS
All songs are FCC Clean
- Big Bad Dream (3:04)
- These Vain Games (4:07)
- Who Will Mourn You (4:03)
- Boy the Blues Have Been Blue to Me (3:43)
- The Jesus Reel (2:28)
- I’ll Play the Blues for You (4:50)
- Go Down Laughing Good (3:55)
- Joyride (4:19)
- Go Bad Mouth Yourself (4:27)
© 2026 by deelagee Publishing
- Lyrics by: Denise La Grassa
- Music by: Denise La Grassa & John Kregor, except Jerry Beach (6)
- Recorded at: Narwhal Studios, Chicago IL
- Produced by: Jim Gifford
- Engineered by: Maxwell Mendeloff
- Mixed by: Maxwell Mendeloff
- Mastered by: Wesley Reno
Musicians:
- Denise La Grassa: vocals, organ
- Alvin Santner: guitar, except (3,5)
- John Kregor: guitar (3,5)
- Stephen Ryan: slide guitar (1,2,3,7)
- Steven C Manns: bass, vocals (6)
- Timothy Walker: drums
- Pierre Lacocque: harmonica (4,6)
- Radio promotion: Peter Hay/Twin Vision - peter.hay@twinvision.net
- Booking: Doug Tackett - doug@road-dawg.com
- Website: www.deniselagrassa.com
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