Dion Releases New Single ‘I Am To Please’ With Danielle Nicole
Anticipation continues to build for the March 8 release of Girl Friends, the new album from rock and blues legend Dion that finds him collaborating with a stellar array of female musicians. This week sees the release of “I Aim To Please,” a duet with Danielle Nicole and an accompanying video.
The song, like 11 of the album’s 12 tracks, was written by Dion with Mike Aquilina; one other song in the set was written by Dion and the late Scott Kepner (The Dictators, The Del-Lords). “I Aim To Please” is a mirthful look at relationships and the chorus includes reference to an issue making news these days: “no strings attached, no hidden fees, I aim to please.” The video features Dion and Danielle in performance as well as vintage silent film footage that underscores the good nature of the piece. Dion commented, “On this song, she lets the good times roll.” Listen to the single
Danielle Nicole first emerged from the Kansas City music scene as part of the group Trampled Under Foot that she formed with her brothers Nick and Kris Schnebelen, going solo to great acclaim thereafter. Apart from having been nominated for a Grammy, she’s won four of the Blue Foundation’s Blues Music Awards to date. Dion unabashedly calls her “one of the greatest singers on the planet.”
Watch “I Am To Please” With Danielle Nicole
Stream the new single HERE
Girl Fiends is Dion’s third album in recent years to be released through Keeping The Blues Alive, the imprint founded by Joe Bonamassa and Roy Weisman to do just what the label’s name implies. Two tracks with accompanying videos have been released earlier and are now streaming; they are “Soul Force” with Susan Tedeschi and “An American Hero” with Carlene Carter. Dion’s other collaborators on the album are Rory Block, Shemekia Copeland, Debbie Davies, Randi Fishenfeld, Sue Foley, Christine Ohlman, Maggie Rose, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Valerie Tyson.
The album includes liner notes by Darlene Love who writes, “I’ve been a huge fan since I was a young girl. In fact, when I sang ‘He’s a Rebel’ I was singing about outsiders like Dion. I’m a bigger fan today. I’m still trying to emulate his unique bluesy overtones. Now I’m thrilled again with these new collaborations — not just friends, but all girl friends — great women vocalist and musicians. This is just what the world needs now. These duets are riveting.”
The new album is emblematic of Dion’s renewed creative output over the past few years continuing a storied career that now touches eight decades. He kicked off this decade with 2020’s Blues With Friends and followed with 2021’s Stomping Ground. Those two albums, with liner notes by Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend, respectively, include musical contributions from, among others, Joe Bonamassa, Brian Setzer, the late Jeff Beck, John Hammond, Van Morrison, Joe Louis Walker, Jimmy Vivino, Billy Gibbons, Sonny Landreth, Paul Simon, Samantha Fish, Rory Block, Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton, G. E. Smith, Keb’ Mo’, Marcia Ball, Mark Knopfler, Peter Frampton and Rickie Lee Jones. All three of Dion’s album releases for KTBA were produced by the artist, and Wayne Hood.
Girl Friends includes a commentary by Dion titled “The Feminine Genius” in which he notes, “I write about my preoccupations, and I know no better preoccupation than the female of the species. A friend of mine is a philosopher, and he talks often about ‘the feminine genius’ — the undeniable difference that’s in women and the difference that they make in the world. I’m grateful to my friend for giving it a name, because the fact has always been plain to me, but I could never put it into words.”
He goes on to explain his mother was his family’s breadwinner, and that he had two sisters. He’s been married for 60 years to the former Susan Butterfield, who is name checked in the album’s “Hey Suzy,” and they are the parents of three daughters, who in turn produced four more girls. He writes, “I’ve always been surrounded by the feminine genius — always living off it. Even my music has kept a tight focus on the ladies: ‘Runaround Sue,’ ‘Donna the Prima Donna,’ ‘Little Diane,’ ‘Ruby Baby.’ All those women, real and imagined, have made all the difference in my life.” He chronicles his female musical collaborators including those who joined him on his previous two albums, as well as Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Cher and Patty Smyth.
Dion observes, “I’ve noticed that men play a different tune when there are women in the room — and it’s a different kind of jam when women are in the mix. I don’t know why this is so, but it is. Maybe we men, at some primitive level, are competing for their attention. As I said, I don’t know why or how. I do know it makes better music and we’re all better for it.” He concludes with an encapsulation of vision for Girl Friends, “I wanted the best music possible. So, I wrote up a batch of duets for me and my ‘girl friends,’ the women who inhabit my headphones — the women who make me turn up the volume when they drop into my radio. I invited them to join me, one by one, and here they are, wailing on the guitar and into the microphone. You’ll hear the feminine genius in every groove of this record, and you won’t forget any of it”.
There’s more from Dion on the horizon. Last year, The Wanderer, a musical based on his life debuted at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ and is expected to arrive on Broadway next year. Directed by Kenneth Ferrone and based on Charles Messina’s book, the initial run was the subject of critical acclaim with Broadway World calling it “a moving, no-holds-barred new musical about the glow of the spotlight, the shadow of addiction, and the triumph of the human spirit against all odds, set to the iconic sound of an incomparable era in American music.” The New York Times review noted the show “succeeds on sheer sonic strength,” with reviewer Juan A. Ramírez adding, “I was continuously charmed by this throwback-y musical and its angel-voiced ensemble.”
Pre-order Girl Friends HERE
Girl Friends – Track Listing
1. Soul Force with Susan Tedeschi
2. I Aim To Please with Danielle Nicole
3. Stop Drop And Roll with Valerie Tyson
4. Do Ladies Get The Blues with Christine Ohlman and Debbie Davies
5. An American Hero with Carlene Carter
6. Don’t You Want A Man Like Me with Rory Block
7. Sugar Daddy with Christine Ohlman
8. Endless Highway with Randi Fishenfeld
9. I Got Wise with Maggie Rose
10. Hey Suzy with Sue Foley
11. Mama Said with Shemekia Copeland
12. Just Like That with Joanne Shaw Taylor
All songs written by Dion DiMucci and Mike Aquilina except #10 written by Dion DiMucci and Scott Kempner.
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