Steve Louw’s 2026 album, Traces of the Flood, is a ten-track sonic adventure where each track etches into your aural subconscious, delivering some of the South African singer songwriter and guitarist’s most confident work to date. Released Friday 15 May 2026, the album and is available to pre-order HERE.
The first single from the album is entitled “Time To Move” and is released Friday 27 February 2026 and is available to stream HERE.
After a 13-year hiatus from fronting the band, Big Sky, Steve Louw returned to recording with Headlight Dreams, the first of what followed – 2022’s Thunder & Rain, 2024’s Between Time, and now his fourth solo album release within five years, Traces of the Flood.
Having retained his collaboration with career-long friend and critically acclaimed producer Kevin Shirley (Joe Bonamassa, Black Country Communion, Beth Hart, Joanne Show Taylor), Traces of the Flood celebrates his rich contribution and commitment to Steve’s talent. The musicians that appear on the past four records, from Headlight Dreams to Traces of the Flood, are a band in every sense.
Regarding the players for this album, Steve spotted a kindred spirit he wanted to be a part of in realising Traces of the Flood’s true potential. “I’d seen Bob Britt play with Doug Lancio at a Dylan show in Memphis, and I wanted to have those two guitar players in the band for this record,” he says.
“Kevin liked the old RCA studio in Nashville, having worked there before with Joanne Shaw Taylor,” Steve adds. “It’s quite a funky space. It’s got a lovely vibe. It’s a big room, and all this gear, amps, you name it, are there, so the place has music in its walls.”
Arriving at the studio with “18 songs that were in shape,” Steve recalls, and as is true of the past three album recordings, everyone set to work. Armed with a mix of songs written more recently and a balance of older work, only ten made the cut during the Traces of the Flood sessions.
With absolutely no agenda as to which way this record was going to realise itself, Steve explains his approach, “Train Don’t Run” (From 2021’s Headlight Dreams) and “Traces of the Flood” are like brothers. Still, you would not know that unless I told you, and they were written simultaneously in 2019, so “Traces of the Flood’s’” time only revealed itself in the making of this album.
On “Echo Dream”, “we cut that track with three acoustic guitars,” Steve recalls. “Me, Bob and Doug, and while we were doing that, Greg Morrow did a few drum parts, and that was it. Then, Bob added an electric guitar part, and it was complete.”
Another standout track on Traces of the Flood is “Time to Move”. “The band felt it; I didn’t think I’d do that song if only because I thought it wasn’t ready, but when we started playing it, we fell right into the song’s groove. It was the second last song we played, and after three days of jamming in the studio the song became effortless.”
A track like “CBGB Xmas” came to life in a single, recorded take. “We only had 10 minutes of studio time left to play, so we just knocked it out. You hear how we caught it in one loose jam.”
Each album Steve has committed to tape and launched into popular culture has landed through raw talent, chance meetings and serendipity, coupled with sheer bloody-mindedness to have it realised and appreciated by the world. Traces of the Flood stands as further proof of that commitment.
Energy, urgency and a room filled with players committed to the process; Traces of the Flood is yet another defining chapter for Steve Louw on a road well-travelled.
STEVE LOUW
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