William Shatner’s upcoming blues album is now available for pre-order. The album, creatively titled “The Blues” is from Cleopatra Records, and due to be released on October 2nd.

“The Blues” was first announced last year, and earlier this summer, Shatner himself described it as “autobiographical”. Now that we can see the track listing, it’s full of surprising and notable artists, as well.

Song one is “Sweet Home Chicago”, a blues standard featuring country music star (and Shatner’s friend) Brad Paisley. Other tracks feature Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (of Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers), Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple), and noted guitarist Sonny Landreth. Cleopatra Records have also released one track you can listen to right now: “Let’s Work Together” with Harvey Mandel and Canned Heat.

The album promises to be another installment of Shatner’s uniquely-styled spoken-word performances over solid and sometimes remarkable music performances. “The Blues” is his fourth album with Cleopatra Records, following 2011’s “Seeking Major Tom”, 2013’s “Ponder the Mystery”, and 2018’s “Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album”.

William Shatner’s “The Blues” will be released on both CD and limited-edition colored vinyl, and you can pre-order it now from cleorecs.com. And watch out on October 2nd - release day - as Cleopatra Records will also be releasing a fully-animated video for the track, “I Put A Spell On You” featuring Pat Travers, timed for the same day as the album.