Ghalia Volt
“Let Yo’ Hair Down”
A Music Video Premiere
Ruf Records
Belgian-born, New Orleans-based, blues-rock singer, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter Ghalia Volt unveils her new single/music video, “Let Yo’ Hair Down,” a track lifted from her upcoming album, Burn the House Down, slated for release on May 15, 2026.
Talking about “Let Yo’ Hair Down,” Volt says, “This song feels like catching a spark mid-air — it wasn’t planned, it just happened. I came in thinking I’d cut a cover, but JD Simo stopped me cold. He heard something in my own material worth chasing. We stripped it all back, rebuilt it from instinct, and what came out is loose, alive, and a little unpredictable. ‘Let Yo Hair Down’ doesn’t try to behave — it moves how it wants, and that’s the whole point.”
She goes on, “The video follows that same spirit. We shot it between New York and New Orleans with no real script — just energy, people, and whatever unfolded in the moment. I’m tired of everything looking so polished and controlled. This is the opposite: real faces, real movement, nothing staged. Just letting go and being in it.”
The forthcoming album, Burn the House Down, was recorded with drummer Chris Powell, bassist Brian Allen, and fellow guitarist JD Simo, in a single room, amplifiers vibrating each other.
Volt started her career busking in Europe. Since then, she has released five albums, including Shout Sister Shout!, which climbed to No.2 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart. Volt has toured extensively and has performed at major festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Mammoth Bluesapalooza, Telluride Blues and Bilbao Blues Festival, and Blues Peer.
Opening on a deliciously chaotic intro, “Let Yo’ Hair Down” rolls into a down-and-dirty juke joint blues melody riding a funk-flavored rhythm reminiscent of a cross between Joe Walsh’s “Funk 49” and ZZ Top, with hints of Robert Johnson tossed in for fun. Volt’s vocals, lusciously grinding, imbue the lyrics with wickedly nasty textures that take on a hypnotic magnetism. Whereas the video, a wonderful visual spree, depicts people taking the lyrics to heart and letting their hair down.
Ghalia Volt has it going on. “Let Yo’ Hair Down” is soaked in grimy, grungy, stripped-down roots guitars that are so raw, they ooze blood.
