WEB FLAC (Tracks) 330 MB | Cover | 59:35 minutes | 139 MBJazz | Label: Smoke Sessions RecordsWhenever problems arise, it’s always helpful to remember that we’re not alone.

On his new album,Everybody Gets the Blues, pianist Eric Reed draws strength from his mentors and heroes, the celebrated and the unsung, in order to face down struggles both personal and global.

The album finds Reed reaching back into his roots in the church to find a singular way forward.

Due out April 12 via Smoke Sessions Records, Everybody Gets the Blues digs deep into personal emotions to expose universal truths, discovering a few unexpected connections along the way.

Whether bridging the generations between Cedar Walton and Stevie Wonder or inventing a fresh take on such a familiar favorite as Freddie Hubbard’s “Up Jumped Spring,” Reed finds the inspiration to move forward by following the paths forged by those who’ve come before.

“I always look for answers in the past,” Reed says. “What is there in history that I can draw from? Who else has gone through what I’m going through? Who has felt what I’m feeling? That helps me to answer the questions that I have in life right now.”For Reed, “the past” inevitably leads back to the church, and to gospel music. It was the sound that he first heard and first played, and was at the core of his earliest love of jazz. “When I first started playing jazz as a child, my fascination with the music of Horace Silver, Ramsey Lewis, or Dave Brubeck resonated with what I heard growing up in church, listening to piano players like James Cleveland and Herbert Pickard and Curtis Dublin. I said, ‘Wait a minute, this doesn’t sound like the stuff I play in church, but it’s very closely connected. What’s going on here?’”TRACKLIST1 Everybody Gets the Blues2 Cedar Waltzin’ ~ Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing3 Naima4 Martha’s Prize5 Yesterday ~ Yesterdays6 Up Jumped Spring7 Dear Bud8 New Morning9 Road Life