It's pretty damn special: Sharleen Spiteri looks ahead to new Texas album Muscle Shoals

Texas are getting set to release their eleventh studio album Muscle Shoals which is in collaboration with Spooner Oldham and will be released tomorrow (March 29).

It will be the bands first studio album release since 'Hi' in May 2021 which included collaborations with Clare Grogan and Wu-Tang Clan. In a recent interview with the BBC, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri spoke about the influence of the album saying: "We all knew the story of when Aretha went to Muscle Shoals and she thought she was going to record with these old blues guys; then she turned up and it was this group of geeky white blokes.

"But when they played, she was like, 'This is what I've been looking for', and she overruled everybody and put them on her record."

It is no surprise that when Sharleen and the band got the opportunity to record at the legendary studio in Alabama that they just couldn't turn it down with them having no fears about living up to the expectations of the studio.

"It's pretty damn special. I don't think anything's changed in the studio over the years. Inspiration is soaked into the wooden panels on the walls.

"I don't really get intimidated by stuff like that.

"I'm like a peacock. My tail feather starts wagging, like, 'Oh my God, we're gonna be part of history'."

Majority of the songs on the album were recorded almost two years ago and fans can expect a twist on some of Texas' best known tunes.

"It was me sitting on the piano stool next to Spooner, tapping out the timing on his leg.

"A lot of the songs were first take, which is quite extraordinary because we didn't rehearse it.

"He'd start playing and find a certain rhythm that's not on the original [track] and suddenly we'd be dancing around each other, making new versions of a song that I thought I knew really well.

"The thing is, even when we were making a record at Muscle Shoals we had to stop every day at one o'clock because they had a guided tour. That's how they make ends meet."