Live (2014)
30 years can safely be considered an eternity in a fickle industry such as music. Changing tastes, corporate culture, and demographics each play a part in dictating what the public at large is exposed to over the course of an artist’s career. But then, there are remarkable exceptions. When thinking about the sheer vocal power […]
J. E. Heartbreak II (2014)
If they’ve lasted long enough to acquire airplay and a following, every band or group has ‘That One’, as in ‘That One Album/CD’ that best capitalized the artist’s signature sound and/or revealed enough potential to merit listeners sticking around as they established it. Does it mean that everything before and after it was a craptastic […]
#PlantingSeeds (2014)
Karen Bernod received the kind of encouragement that only a mother can give and the type of career validation that best comes as a result of winning. Bernod’s first public singing gig came when she entered an elementary school talent contest as a seven year old. Bernod recalls seeing her mother sitting in the auditorium’s […]
Giving Love a Try (2014)
Adesha Adefela makes songs about the reality of relationships on her new CD, Giving Love a Try. That quality stands as a virtue that places Giving Love a Try at a higher level than projects limit the discussion of relationships to the romantic side of things. The duet “Make It” is a tune that serves […]
A Very Maysa Christmas (2014)
On this most traditional of Holidays, it should be of no surprise that people want maintain a good measure of the tried and true. So while the gifts will be shiny and new, much of what makes Christmas such a special time are the sentimental feelings that the holiday evokes. Christmas is the holiday that […]
Caustic Love (2014)
Just about anyone who wishes to enter the fickle music business focuses on testing the waters by establishing an audience they are comfortable with. While Paolo Nutini was discovering his musical voice, he primarily wanted to impress the girls, despite being quite self-conscious about his looks. He also recognized how his family instilled a major […]
Collide (2014)
Shawn Stockman, Nathan and Wanya Morris, and sometimes Michael McCary: these were the four voices of moody, dark, sometimes smoldering torch song R&B, with #1 tearjerker hits like “End of the Road” and come hither promises such as “I’ll Make Love To You” that made them one of the best selling and charting boy bands […]
Strong As Glass (2014)
Goapele Mohlabane possesses a distinctive name, background story and voice. Her first name means “to move forward” in Setswana, a language spoken in South Africa, which is the homeland of her father, Douglas Mohlabane The elder Mohlabane was a political dissident and exile during that country’s Apartheid era, and he went to college in Kenya. […]
Got To Let Go (2014)
For all of its brashness, bravado, flash and over-the-top excesses, to look back is to realize that 1980s music was surprisingly straightforward. Living through that artistic era wasn’t always easy on the ears, but there was no mistaking the nimble, narrative feel of the lyrics, the emphasis on melody and the clarity heard in each […]
Chicago Winds…The Saga Continues (2014)
A gossamer, gospel-grown tenor with velvety edges and an abundance of Chi-Town swag: whether one remembers encountering that voice from 1990s hip-hop classics or anchoring jams with the group Blackstreet, it’s impossible to deny the soulful savoir-faire of Dave Hollister. His ‘play on, playa’ appeal to ladies and authentic, around-the-way ease with men have kept […]
