Where Does This Door Go? (2013)
In the music biz, it’s always hard to know where to go next. The evolving genres definitely create new opportunities to experiment, but when you’re listening to the fans, the critics, the labels…things tend to get really sloppy. On his first two albums, Mayer Hawthorne appeared content with digging into his smart war chest of […]
Exhale (2013)
Exhale, the latest CD by South-London born singer Chidi (pronounced Chi-dee), is one so aptly-titled, it no doubt encapsulates the feelings of independent artists everywhere who finally see their artistic vision come to fruition despite the absence ofthe all-important financial muscle of a large corporation to promote and distribute their music. Being self-funded is never […]
Easy Magic (2013)
Listening to the groovy retro soul pop band, The Secret B-Sides, one would swear they hailed from a coast far away from their Asheville, North Carolina home. With hippie flower power motifs and Haight-Ashbury socio-political themes, the band would be right at home in that Golden State’s progressive and artsy milieu. The fourth release from […]
Dreamweaver (Advance Review) (2013)
George Duke suffered the kind of loss that stops people in their tracks. Duke’s wife Corine passed away in 2012. Sure enough, the loss caused Duke to stop doing what he does best – write produce and record music. But the hiatus didn’t last long. Duke regained his creative flow while on a cruise. Still, […]
Sound the Alarm (2013)
Whether he knows it or not, Booker T. Jones is the official ambassador of Stax (sorry, Mavis). It’s not just because he’s back on the Concord-revived Stax imprint for his latest solo record, Sound the Alarm, but it’s because everything he’s put out since leaving the historic Southern soul label back in the 1970s has […]
Utopia (Reissue) (2013)
Though their time at the top of the R&B charts was relatively brief, the members of Enchantment have found their legend growing steadily in the years since their commercial peak, with a continuing outsized affection for a discography that consisted of only six albums. But Enchantment’s place in music history was nowhere near as assured […]
Playlist: The Very Best of Diana Ross (2013)
A fabulously-gowned, luxuriously-maned glamour girl with a coy, kittenish (if slightly nasal) singing voice: that’s how many people first encountered the definitive Diva, Diana Ross, and after over a half century in the music business, that’s what she’s remained. When she first burst onto the scene as the acknowledged lead singer of The Supremes, that […]
Blurred Lines EP (2013)
One would be hard pressed to deny the elastic groove of “Blurred Lines,” the Marvin Gaye-inspired uptempo romp which serves as the title track for Robin Thicke’s new EP (and upcoming sixth full-length album). Armed with the insinuating production of Pharrell and a cameo rap by T.I., Thicke easily thumbs through an assortment of vocal […]
Expose Yourself (2013)
Birmingham, Ala. bassist and emerging songwriter Alvin Garrett already has a Grammy nomination to his name and he’s already rubbed elbows with the likes of Joe, Ruben Studdard, PJ Morton, Noel Gourdin, Trin-i-tee 5:7 and New Kids on the Block frontman, Jordan Knight. Actually, his pen is still dripping with wet ink after constructing Joe’s ‘comeback’ […]
A Different Look (2013)
It can be said that Chris Chandler knows his way around when it comes to music. After all, the Chicago native has family ties in the music world, and Chandler himself has always embraced Chi-Town’s rich musical history. From Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls and Curtis Mayfield to Earth, Wind & Fire, the […]
