Tales from the Land of Milk and Honey (2015)
After a bated breath wait since the release of 2013’s Love in Flying Colors, the sixth full-length album from the Grammy-nominated artist collective known as The Foreign Exchange (+FE) has finally been released to the world to put global fans at ease. Much of the sound palettes used on Tales from the Land of Milk […]
The RCA Victor & T-Neck Album Masters (1959 -1983) (2015)
When music fans think about the bands who were contemporaries of The Isley Brothers, most are likely to recall the names of groups such as Earth, Wind & Fire, the P-Funk Family, Sly & The Family Stone and others bands whose fertile creative periods occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s. In fact, when most […]
The Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL
Terri Lyne Carrington has reached legendary status by working as a side woman for greats including George Duke and Herbie Hancock, as well as leading the band on late night television programs hosted by Arsenio Hall and produced by Quincy Jones. Carrington went on to cement her legend by making a series of highly regarded […]
Back to the Soul (2015)
Grayson Hugh’s story is the story of the record industry at its best and worst. Most music fans learned of Hugh in the late 1980s and early 1990s after hearing his soulful baritone on the hit record “Talk It Over.” That cut found Hugh being a part of pop music’s recurring racialized theme when the […]
Bespeak Love (2015)
Soul music might not be what comes immediately to mind when thinking about Portland, Oregon, despite the fact that two SoulTracks favorites – Esperanza Spalding and Liv Warfield- have ties to the city. Grammy winner Spalding grew up in Portland while Warfield attended college there. Instead, most people who think of the Portland music scene […]
Heartland (2015)
If you’ve ever had to witness a parent or loved one suffer with cancer, you know the profound darkness that can engender. Especially in the late evenings, when you’re left all alone with your thoughts. For solace, some turn to literature, others to prayer, still others to things that numb the senses. And luckily for […]
Cognac & Conversation (2015)
Cognac & Conversation, the latest recording by Teedra Moses, shows that there is a difference between listening to what an artist says and hearing what you think that artist is saying. The latter is the result of a perception that the listener develops from seeing a parental advisory sticker on the dust cover, an explicit […]
My Father In Lites (Book Review), by Brian Record (2015)
The Chi-Lites were among the most critically acclaimed and popular vocal groups of the 70s, and perhaps the key to their success was the songwriting of Eugene Record. The natural heir to the sensitive, passionate 1960s songwriting of Smokey Robinson, Record, with writing partner Barbara Acklin, created musical stories about both love and social ills, all […]
Bassmentality 3 (2015)
Some creatives are like mad scientists, never satisfied or settling into a single story. Sometimes their experimentations with texture, sound, and effect create wonderful masterpieces that defy expectation and delight the soul at the heights human ingenuity can climb. Other times, the artistic trials result in head scratchers that can make one wince and […]
You Change (2015)
If Carole King and Sade had a kid, she would be Lindsey Webster. Sultry with a silken feel, Webster’s instrument on her second outing is given a worthy, gorgeously produced showcase that is set to dazzle newcomers who missed her critically acclaimed, self-titled debut. Hailed by such stars as Sting and Michael Bolton as a […]
