Soul Time!
Sharon Jones is used to toying with James Brown grooves, but Soul Time! – the fifth LP from the Daptone superstar – does the full monty on Brown’s legacy (“Are you ready for Star Time?”). Since Jones and her mighty army of brass construction stormed into the spotlight with their classic soul revivalism, every album […]
Location, Location, Location
Most of the work on Location Location Location, the new album by Anthony David, will ring familiar to long time fans. Seven of the ten tracks were featured on David’s prior studio projects. Those projects – Three Chords and the Truth, The Red Clay Chronicles and As Above So Below – are notable both for […]
As One
Race music is a term from this country’s sordid past. Before the industry came up with the more acceptable terms for describing music made primarily (though not exclusively) by black artists, genres such as blues, gospel, jazz and rhythm and blues were known as race music. The term was used to tell the larger society […]
Who’s Hurting Now? (2012)
Although the Southern soul recordings at Rick Hall’s Muscle Shoals-based Fame Studios paved the way for Candi Staton, the world over knows her best as the disco diva that almost single-handedly snagged the royal title of Disco Queen from Gloria Gaynor with her 1976 million-selling hit “Young Hearts Run Free” and its immediate follow-up hit […]
New Directions (Reissue)
It was 1982 and Tavares was lost. But how could this have happened? The five brothers from New Bedford, Massachusetts had constituted one of the most consistent hitmaking groups of the 70s, with more than a dozen top 10 R&B hits. And though some critics complained that Tavares was merely a “producer’s group” — a faceless […]
Electric Chicken Club (2012)
One of the more difficult tasks in music is for a performer to evolve musically while managing to remain recognizable to long time fans. This is often a catch 22 proposition. Critics often dismiss groups that stick to tried and true formulas as not serious or creative. On the other hand, fans can punish musicians […]
Thank You
Sunday Best can be deemed in several ways; such as what elite wardrobe one puts on for church service or more recently a national TV spotlight in searching for the next gospel idol and recording artist. If one were to ask Amber Bullock what the popular BET show Sunday Best means to her, it would […]
Soul 2 (2012)
Seal – Soul 2 I have a number of friends who are reaching the age where gray hair is beginning to invade their scalps. While some simply accept it, others have chosen to color their hair to cover the gray. But they soon learn that hair dye is like a cosmetic heroin: once they begin it […]
Key To My Heart
I tried to figure out why I found it so difficult to get into Key To My Heart, the latest CD by Marc Staggers. The problem wasn’t his voice. The brotha can blow. However, he front-loaded the record with some middle of the road material that was guaranteed not to offend. However, it also didn’t […]
Break of Dawn
Time takes on new meaning in the furious and frenetic world of entertainment, and a performer electing to take years away from the spotlight can risk losing her edge and her audience. The trend-driven nature of the beast causes many artists to adopt a ‘can’t stop, won’t stop’ mentality, so it’s hard not to take […]
