I’m Tryin
You can smell the red clay and cypress. The air of DeRobert & The Half Truths is heavy with Southern perspiration and swamp funk. The foot-stomp of the church, the rebel yells of call and response, the sway of cardboard Jesus fans in a sweat pregnant breeze, the sticky cool of sweet tea in the […]
Consciousness
If you’re of a certain age (35+) and grew up during in the 80s, then you know that the era had some hallmark trends many of us want to forget (Jheri Curls, parachute pants, neon make-up and hair sprayed-up and teased out of the hemisphere, for starters) — except for the music. Ghastly fashion choices […]
The Rebirth of Gene
Unsigned L.A. based, Long Island bred newcomer, Gene Noble, represents both what R&B/soul fans are hungry for and some of the reductive annoyances of modern radio soul. Unvarnished in its truth telling and vulnerabilities, Noble’s debut is steeped in honest emotionalism and candid storytelling. Noble also boasts one of the best sung releases of the […]
Landing On A Hundred: B-Sides and Remixes
He’s been called the soul troubadour for his generation and rightly compared to such greats as Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield. Singer/songwriter Cody ChestnuTT is definitely the people’s musician, a social justice pugilist who wants it made clear that conscious music is alive and well, at times even radiant. His 2012 opus, Landing On A […]
The Essential Earth Wind & Fire (2014)
As a certified Earth, Wind & Fire fanatic, my definition of essential is broader than someone who simply likes all of the hits. I bought Heritage and Millennium back in the days when fan loyalty meant putting some financial skin in the game – often only on the basis of the couple of songs that […]
Rejoice with Me!
When one is on a mission to win over hearts and souls for The Lord, you have to meet people where they are and, if possible, have multiple tools in one’s arsenal to accomplish the goal. Some receive the message more easily if it’s delivered in the traditional style (a choir, pipe organs, tambourines, foot-stomping […]
Tenacity
A certain amount of discomfort always accompanies any attempt to compare an artist’s new work with a previous project. It’s an artist’s desire that each album be judged separately and on its own merits, and for the most part the focus should stay on the latest project. However, the previous work can’t be ignored, and […]
Listen to This
Cheryl Barnes titled her new CD of jazz standards Listen to This, and that title carries with it more than a little hint of self-awareness. There is a temptation to tune out these reinterpretations of the Great American Songbook, mainly because some artists treat us to the same tunes over and over and over again. […]
Phoenix
What would Lynn Marie Smith tell Lynn Marie? Lynn Smith was the young vocalist and songwriter for the funk band Nature’s Divine. That outfit struck gold with the 1979 ballad “I Just Can’t Control Myself,” a tune that Lynn Smith co-wrote. Nature’s Divine, like many of the funk bands of that era, was big. The […]
GIRL
After trying to decipher Pharrell Williams’ complex musical mind through his extremely busy two decade journey, I am honestly baffled, at least to a certain degree. Maybe I should just conclude that Pharrell is simply a happy man who has an uncanny knack for shaping sonic grooves and sprinkling whatever else is needed to bring […]
