You might want to put on your hat and slicker, because Houston blues singer Diunna Greenleaf’s I Ain’t Playin’ is about to rain down on you like a gushing Texas oil well. Her new Little Village album (Release date: May 20, 2022) captures a mature and self-assured blues voice that is a rarity in today’s world.

Greenleaf is not a newcomer to the blues. She’s already won three Blues Music Awards as well as a fist-full of nominations. While she’s never really hit her stride in the blues market, Producer Christoffer “Kid” Andersen sensed the time was right when she entered the studio. No stranger to soulful singers, Andersen’s ears perked up as he realized the character behind the voice and saw a great opportunity to bring a gospel-born, blues voice into a world that so often found women relegated to the “Big Mama” school of blues or the Joplin-wannabes who never would be.

“Her voice tells you she is free to be herself,” Andersen says. “You just don’t find many voices like that. I think that’s something people will discover just listening to her album for the first time.”

I Ain’t Playin’ includes songs by Johnny Copeland, Dietra Farr and Big James Montgomery among others as well as versions of The Staple Singers’s I Know I’ve Been Changed and Nina Simone’s I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, songs that radiate in America’s struggle today to achieve racial harmony. This portfolio represents a steady and mature voice ready to step out of the shadows.