Alex Kilroy Dives Into His Blues Roots With Guitar-Driven ‘New Shade Of Blue’ EP

A few months after turning a lifelong pursuit of American Blues into his debut album Break My Chains, Alex Kilroy is heading deeper into his foundation of Blues music.

Official response and confirmed impact

The Transylvania-born guitarist and singer-songwriter has announced his new EP New Shade of Blue, arriving Friday, October 23rd, 2026, and has shares its lead single, “Crossroads On My Mind.”

Whereas Break My Chains opened outward across Blues-Rock, Southern grooves, Gospel, Pop, and more, the new project embraces a rawer, more traditional Blues vocabulary while continuing to push that language through his own experience.

“Crossroads On My Mind” as a song is also one of Kilroy’s most autobiographical recordings to date, tracing the unlikely path that carried him from a childhood in Transylvania through years of small clubs, visa struggles, persistence, family sacrifice, and eventually a life making music in the United States.

So, for Kilroy, the crossroads in the song are “both musical and literal.”

The album was preceded by its title track and the original “Let The Good Times Roll,” featuring Vince Gill.

Rather than attempting to recreate a particular Blues era, the EP leans “into the feel, phrasing, grooves, and immediacy” of the Blues while filtering them through the life Kilroy has actually lived.

The result is a project that is “guitar-forward, deeply rooted”, and shaped by a player who is finding his own place in a tradition he’s long studied.