The Immediate Family, a band made up of acclaimed session and touring musicians who’ve worked with some of the biggest artists of the 1970s and ’80s, has released a new single called “Cruel Twist” that’s available as a digital download and via streaming services.

The group’s lineup features guitarist/vocalists Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel and Steve Postell, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel.

Kortchmar, Sklar and Kunkel were part of the session band known as “The Section,” which backed and recorded with such artists as James Taylor, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and Crosby & Nash. Wachtel’s resume includes recording and touring with Ronstadt, Browne, Keith Richards and Stevie Nicks, among many others. Postell’s credits include working with David Crosby, John Oates, Little Feat‘s Paul Barrere and more.

Kortchmar co-wrote “Cruel Twist” a number of years ago with renowned session bassist Harvey Brooks and late singer/guitarist/producer Charlie Karp while the three musicians were playing in a band called Slo Leak.

“Basically, it’s a cautionary tale, like a lot of my songs,” Kortchmar says. “It kind of applies to today, because it’s about a reversal of fortune like what’s happening now with the virus and the economic downturn. Ultimately, it’s a blues song about what can happen if one gets too confident and too full of oneself.”

A video for the song premiered recently at RollingStone.com, and you also can check out the clip at The Immediate Family’s official YouTube channel. The video features footage of each band member shot separately at their respective homes, as well as onstage performance footage shot in concert prior to the COVID-19 lockdown.

“Cruel Twist” will appear on a EP due out in October, and the band also plans to release a full album in 2021.

By Matt Friedlander
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.