Benjamin Booker previews new album with Mavis Staples collaboration "Witness"

As well as the track and album details, Booker has shared a new statement, which you can read an excerpt of below.

"Growing up in the south, I experience my fair share of racism but I managed to move past these things without letting them affect me too much. I knew I was a smart kid and that would get me out of a lot of problems.

"In college, if I got pulled over for no reason driving I’d casually mention that I was a writer at the newspaper and be let go soon after by officers who probably didn’t want to see their name in print.

"'Excuse me, just writing your name down for my records.'

"I felt safe, like I could outsmart racism and come out on top.

"It wasn’t until Trayvon Martin, a murder that took place about a hundred miles from where I went to college, and the subsequent increase in attention to black hate crimes over the next few years that I began to feel something else.

"Fear. Real fear."

Read the full statement.

Booker's new album is produced with Sam cohen (Kevin Morby) and recorded at The Isokon and Red Delicious in New York. It follows his 2014 self-titled debut.

Tracklist:

1. Right On You
2. Motivation
3. Witness (ft. Mavis Staples)
4. The Slow Drag Under
5. Truth Is Heavy
6. Believe
7. Overtime
8. Off The Ground
9. Carry
10. All Was Well