DAVÓNE TINES & THE TRUTH’s “LET IT SHINE,” the first song from their new work ROBESOИ, is available today, May 6, 2024, on Nonesuch Records. You can hear it here. In ROBESOИ, which premieres June 27 (preview June 26) at New York City’s Little Island, Davóne Tines grapples with the legacy of a hero. Exploding the musical repertoire of Paul Robeson, Tines and his band THE TRUTH take us on a trip from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the floor of a Moscow hotel room, in an attempt to understand an icon not through aspiring to his monumentality, but through connecting to his vulnerability. The members of THE TRUTH are pianist John Bitoy and sound artist Khari Lucas. Details of the forthcoming ROBESOИ album, Tines’ solo recording debut, will be announced soon.

Tines says of “LET IT SHINE”: “WHAT PART OF YOURSELF DO YOU NEED TO UNCOVER? The idea for this track was born in my head months into the pandemic while on my morning walk. The newly crisp air and sunlight made me exhale in a way that sparked a peace that past months had eclipsed. I kept imagining the flame of a candle expanding until it overtook the world and pervaded the universe, or a boulder unblocking a great light. Rocking out in my head to the ever-building fractal-like layers probably had me looking pretty crazy and as I head-banged down the street in rural North Carolina. I couldn’t contain the joy and excitement of knowing happiness was still possible and I want others to feel the same.”

Heralded as a “singer of immense power and fervor” and “[one] of the most powerful voices of our time” (Los Angeles Times), the “immensely gifted American bass-baritone Davóne Tines has won acclaim, and advanced the field of classical music.” (New York Times) This “next generation leader (Time) is a path-breaking artist at the intersection of many histories, cultures, and aesthetics, his work blends opera, spirituals, gospel, and anthems, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance and human connection.

Tines is currently performing in John Adams’ oratorio El Niño at the Metropolitan Opera, for which the New York Times praised his “singing with warm, auburn shades and a beguiling elasticity” and the Wall Street Journal noted he “supplied male ferocity [as] God in ‘Shake the Heavens’ ... and a raging, venomous Herod.” Tines also is featured on the new Nonesuch recording of Adams’ opera Girls of the Golden West, released last month. He was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for the 2022 recording of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, in which he sang the title role.