You may remember a cover of Sade's "Kiss Of Life" posted in April which was from a forthcoming album "Red Tiger" by Blair Bryant which featured
Beth Griffith-Manley.
She has a new album coming in 30 Sep 2022 "Get To Know Me" which will be her first for five years since "Free" in Aug 2017. The lead single will be "Let Me Be".
Whilst we await the release of her new single/album let's reacquaint ourselves
with "Free" which includes a great cover of Chapter 8's "I Just Wanna To Be Your Girl" which, of course, featured Anita Baker on lead vocals who Beth sang
backing vocals for, for five years.
Beth has been busy touring with Kem on his "The Full Circle" tour for the last few months.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
The next release from
Izipho Soul
due on 21 Apr 2022 is now available to
pre-order. It follows The Leonard Lothlen Project and precedes the vinyl release of Kim Tibbs which is currently #3 on UK Soul Chart and will hopefully be available in May. In the words of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes "Satisfaction Guaranteed" from Izipho Soul!
The A side is "Speak Love" is from "Song, Soul & Spirit" (2017) featuring Glenn Jones, Tony Terry, Tim Owens, U-Nam, Ian Martin,
Lin Rountree & Kevin Flint Jackson.
The B side, "Young Hearts", is a new mix of the track from the 2013 "Seasons & Reasons" album and features Kevin Flint Jackson and Tim 'Tio' Owens on
vocals.
It's still very slow this week for good quality new releases so today may well be
an Aretha or at least an Aretha related day!
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have just released an album of
orchestral re-workings of the Motown songbook but this one of
Aretha Franklin
songs somehow passed me by when released in 2017. It spans her 'golden
period' on Atlantic from 1966-79 with the latest recording being "Ain't
Nothing Like The Real Thing" from 1974 all given the orchestral
treatment.
I think my favourites on here are "Until You Come Back To Me", "Oh Me Oh My", "Angel" and "You're All I Need To Get By", but as far as I'm concerned Aretha could sing the phone book (remember
those?) and it would sound good. She is undoubtedly the undisputed Queen
Of Soul and always will be.
It may surprise you to learn that she only ever had one solo #1 Billboard
Hot 100 hit with "Respect" in 1967. Her only other, believe it or not, was
the duet with George Michael in 1987 with "If I Knew You Were Waiting (For
Me)"! However, fifteen others were top 10 and twenty reached the top spot
on the R&B chart. She is second only to James Brown of the highest
rated soul artists in terms of chart positions of all time and is equal to
Stevie Wonder in terms of R&B #1 hits.
P.S. I'm building a Spotify playlist of some of the better covers of Aretha tunes that I can find and will post when it's complete, but have posted a few that are only available on YouTube for now.
Ambassa is Italian born bass player and producer Matia
Gobbo, who’s combined Nichola Richard’s vocals with early-80s style dub production.
This is a cover of Aretha's 1965 Columbia recording
"One Step Ahead" which contained a cover of Justine 'Baby' Washington's "I Can't Wait
Until I See My Baby's Face" on the flip which also had several other great
covers which were
featured here.
If you like the reggae/lovers rock vibe there are a couple of other 60s
rare soul covers on the album including Wendy Rene "After The Love Comes
The Tears", The Charmels "As Long as I've Got You", The Delfonics "Ready
or Not Here I Come" later covered by The Fugees along with Donny
Hathaway's Little Ghetto Boy".
Another unreleased reggae version tipped to me by Gary
Van Den Bussche from Ava Leigh
(aka Hayley Carline) who was a UK-based reggae, ska and jazz
singer-songwriter who was signed to Virgin between 2006 and 2010 and
released an album and four singles but retired to bring up children.
I found some grainy vintage footage, presumably from 1964, of Aretha
performing the song and also a couple of mashups that have bene done, one about ten years ago, the other was uploaded to YouTube by Talib Kweli in 2017 which includes him, Mos Def and Prodigy.
"Bee To The Flower" was originally released in 2017 (vinyl only I think) by Newcastle seven-piece jazz/funk band King Bee, founded by Dave Wilde and Chris Jelly in 2011. Telsa Groove have
commissioned the band to do a more uptempo rearrangement of the song. It's
been quite a long time in the pipeline with Covid being the culprit.
The band has performed up and down the country, at venues such as Band
on the Wall, Hoochie Coochie and have supported Craig Charles, Roy
Ayers and Lonnie Liston Smith.
They released a self-titled album in 2014 and two singles, this one in 2017, preceded by "Money Gone" in 2016, both released on limited edition 7" vinyl and neither featured on the album.
The reworking of the "Bee To The Flower" is due imminently on 7" Vinyl only via Alberto Folpower's Cannonball
subsidiary Telsa Groove. Here's a sampler of what to expect along with the original version.
I really live th new EP 'Cold Wind' and it seems that currently it is also getting the most views. So I've started listening to some of her earlier material.
This is the second single taken from her 2017 EP 'After All'. This has a haunting
quality.
The second release by Preservation Project in 2017, also sold out, but at time of posting there are 25 available on Discogs ranging from $12-$65!
I can reveal after some digging that the previously unknown artist appears to be a group called The Karamatics, unless this is a made up name used to market it, as it is now available for download on Amazon.
The other side is a deep funk instrumental called 'One Word For It' by Rose Hicks which I have chosen not to embed but click title link if you want to hear it.
Here's a classy female singer who I wasn't aware of until came across the YT clip embedded below, so thanks to The Shropshire Soul Provider for posting it. He also provided a link to her website which I visited after checking out if she had anything on Amazon (only 2 tracks 'Faith' & 'Whatever').
Her website has full versions of 5 tracks, the 2 above, the one on YT (below) and 2 others 'Set Me Free' and 'Love Don't Cost'. All are available to download from here. Note 'Whatever' is a free download.
If you like your soul on the mellow and jazzy side then you should appreciate these tracks.
A nice mellow sound released by The Notations in Jan 2017. The trio at this time consisted of original member Clifford Curry (centre) along with Eric Rapier (left) and Eric Bryant (right). Wonderful harmonies of this track.
Here's a 'teaser' for my next big post. I'm working on collecting as many live performances of 'as yet' unreleased songs from one the the best new artists to emerge in the last 10 years, Jarrod Lawson along with his singing partner Tahirah Memory. 'All The Time' released on Tahira Memory's debut album Pride in 2015 is still one of my favourite songs of the last 5 years. To give you a flavour here's Jarrod Lawson live at the City Winery in Atlanta 30 Aug 2017 performing The Isley Brothers - Footsteps In The Dark.
After listening to Leela James' latest album 'Did It For Love' released in 2017 it prompted me to visit her recording history. She has to date since 2005, released 6 albums, the biggest seller was 'My Soul' reaching #37 in US charts. All her others were outside the top 50 with one not even charting (Loving You More... In The Spirit Of Etta James) All made top 50 R&B with My Soul reaching #7. The 6 albums have spawned 20 single releases which have all failed to make a dent on even the US RB charts, except 'Tell Me You Love Me' which reached the heady heights of #72! However, 9 have entered the US Adult R&B charts, with 'Don't Want You Back' from her latest album reaching #1.
This surprised me as I thought that she was a 'more established' artist. Her latest album, I feel, is her best to date.
I have posted all her material chronologically embedding links to all her single releases from each album and added any other tracks that are 'worthy'. I've provided YouTube links to the remaining tracks at the bottom of each album.
2005 - A Change Is Gonna Come [Warner Bros. 48027-2]
Debut album from 2005 with 19 tracks, 5 of which were released as singles.
2005 - Music
Her first single taken from her first album
2005 - Don't Speak
The second single from her debut album.
2005 - Good Time
The third single from her debut album - a driving neo/modern soul dancer.
2005 - My Joy
The fourth single from her debut album - a deep and bluesy number.
2005 - When You Love Somebody
SoulStrutter's Rating: 8.85
The fifth and final single from her debut album - another deep soul cut - to me she sounds like Joss Stone on this track.
2005 - Mistreating You
SoulStrutter's Rating: 8.7
Album only - deep soul
2005 - It's Alright
Album track only - deep soul stepper
2005 - A Change Is Gonna Come
'Surprisingly' an album track only - cover of Sam Cooke's classic.
Her second album released 4 years after her debut on Shanachie, which is an album of 11 cover versions. Only 2 tracks were released as singles.
2008 - It's A Man's Man's World
The first single from Let's Do It Again was a cover of James Brown's 1966 classic. She again sounds very like Joss Stone to me on this track.
2008 - Baby I'm Scared Of You
Second single from Let's Do It Again was a cover of Womack & Womack.
2009 - You Know How To Love Me
Album track only - A reasonable cover of Phyllis Hyman's 1979 classic, but hard act to follow to beat the original. Sounds a bit fast and sparse i.e. lacking the lush Philly orchestral backing that Hyman's original had. For a better cover version try Regina Belle's from her latest album The Day Life Begins from 2016 on Shanachie (which prompts me to put some of her material up in future) or even Lisa Stansfield's from the eponymous album from 1997
2009 - Clean Up Woman
Album track only - A competent and faithful reproduction of Betty Wright's classic. Album track only.
2009 - Miss You
Album track only - A cover of the Rolling Stones. Album track only.
2012 - Loving You More... In The Spirit Of Etta James [Shanachie SH 5802]
Her fourth album and back to Shanachie for this one containing several covers of Etta James songs. Of the 11 tracks only 2 were released as singles.
2012 - Something's Got A Hold On Me Cover of Etta James 1962 45 on Argo was 1st single from album.
2012 - I'm Loving You More Everyday
I think this is a song from the Etta James vault that was unreleased until put on a Chess/Charly compilation Tell Mama in the 80s. If anyone knows more please leave a comment. It was the 2nd track release as a single from album.
2012 - Damn Your Eyes
Album track only. Another Etta James cover from her Seven Year Itch album from 1988.
2012 - I'd Rather Go Blind
Deep soul album track only cover of Etta James classic.
2012 - At Last
Deep soul album track only cover of Etta James classic.
The fifth album on yet another label, J&T, which I think 'may' be her own label as only this album and her last are on the label. The album contains 10 tracks of which 3 were released as singles.
2013 - Say That Feat. Anthony Hamilton
SoulStrutter's Rating: 8.7
Neo/modern soul dancer with a hint of Philly. 1st single from album)
2014 - Fall For You MORish ballad. (2nd single from album)
2015 - Set Me Free Neo soul stepper (3rd single from album)
Her latest album which I highly recommend. Five tracks 9of 11) already released as singles and several (better tracks in my view) which should have been, that I've embedded and the remaining tracks are linked to.
2016 - Don't Want You Back
SoulStrutter's Rating: 8.75
Neo soul ballad/stepper (1st single from album)
2017 - Hard For Me
Neo deep soul ballad. (2nd single from alum)
2017 - All Over Again
MORish Ballad(3rd single from album)
2017 - I Remember
Deep neo soul ballad/stepper (4th single from album)
2017 - Don't Mean A Thang
Neo soul stepper (5th single from album)
2017 - Good To Love You Feat. Dave Hollister
SoulStrutter's Rating: 8.8
Neo soul dancer - album track only
2017 - There 4 U
SoulStrutter's Rating: 8.75
Neo/modern soul dancer - album track only.
Great driving, dance track not released as a single. This is perfect for UK dance floors.
Ray Charles & Leela James [2005] - Compared To What [Rhino /ATlantic]
A bonus track for the Northern Soulers - here's Ray Charles & Leela James - Compared To What a monster on the scene by Mr. Flood's Party. This is a slower more jazzy/bluesy version. It's from Ray Charles Genius & Friends album from 2005 on Rhino/Atlantic.
Robert Randolph Feat. Leela James [2006] - Stronger [Warner Bros. 44393-2]
I've included this track for 'completeness'. I find it rather nondescript.
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