(March 26, 2025) Mamas Gun frontman Andy Platts and DJ/multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee have forged together as the dynamic duo of sepia L.A. soul and neo-yacht rock, Young Gun Silver Fox. Inside their triumphant run of albums beginning with 2015’s West End Coast, this unique pair has dropped echoes of love on our SoulTracked ears.
It’s apparently clear that their admiration of the summer breeze coming from Ventura Highway is catching on like fire. Feelgood songs like “You Can Feel It,” “Kingston Boogie,” “West Side Jet,” “Winners,” “Rolling Back” even the smooth disco vibes of “Tip of the Flame,” have all helped invigorate new interest in the genre, even before HBO aired the Garret Price-directed Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary. Like a 21st century Hall & Oates, the pair are once again holding up the blue eyed soul banner for the arrival of their latest single, “Stevie & Sly.” And in the words of the late Don Cornelius, it’s a real gas!
Before the plunge into the first set of musical notes, there’s the encounter with the mysterious song title. It becomes crystal clear after one spin of the chorus that Young Gun Silver Fox are offering up a sweet joyous tribute to two R&B groundbreaking pioneers and living legends; Stevie Wonder and Sly Stone.
Musically the track floats on the waters of dreamy Quincy Jones’ luscious productions, blessed with lush jazz-pop vibes and heavenly backing vocals. Smooth lyrics of reminiscing overtakes the chorus: “Take me back to Stevie and Sly/Take me back to 1975…it’s where I wanna go/When everything was gold.” Like “Rolling Back,” Platts focuses on effervescent Rhodes action akin to Donald Fagen electric piano drop-ins. But the driving rhythms, leaning heavily on Quincy-era disco, are on another level here. With Lee’s slick guitar work and knockout percussion even tracing the Coke bottle plucks from MJ’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” you’re left screaming for a well-deserved 12-inch stretch.
Inside the quirky music video, we witness Lee plummeting through the vinyl crates inside a neighborhood record shop. The “pot of gold” search culminates with heavenly finds of Stevie’s Songs in the Key of Life and Sly’s Fresh. Meanwhile, Lee suits up as the manager of an antiques shop who sells the young gun a pair of magic glasses full of flashbacks, transporting him briefly from 2025 to 1975.
The timing of Stone’s name drop is impeccably important with the arrival of Sly Lives!, a new film directed by Roots’ drummer and Oscar-winning filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson.
There’s no telling what’s next from Young Gun Silver Fox. With every passing LP, they continue to raise the bar on their work. And with a highly anticipated new LP on the horizon and a new set of tour dates just announced, Platts and Lee are intent in keeping the groovy waves of this sunny soul landing on our shorelines.
Check out “Stevie & Sly” and let us know if you’re livin’ just enough for this bundle of hot fun.
By J Matthew Cobb
