Real New Old School R & B

I love so many different types of music. I really don't have any favorite genre's. 

That being said, I long for real solid sounding, not overproduced (raw if you will) new, Old school R&B. I love the old Stax sound. That Booker T and the MG's  rhythm section that played on so many of the hits from the 60's. I even love the Blues Brothers, not because they made a great movie, but because the music was real. It had a gritty sound to it that made you actually feel it.

I wore out the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary records. I wore out my Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Aretha, etc...

In the past few years I've been teased by up and coming artists that might be able to make that genre come alive again.

Joss Stone had it for a while. (Actually she probably still does, but I haven't followed her as much as I should. The Soul Sessions were amazing though- and to think, she was like 14 or 15 at the time.)

I thought that maybe Tony Rich or D'Angelo were promising. (Okay- they had more of a Marvin Gaye vibe- but still, I thought it could hold up.) At any rate, they both failed to make the cut.

They both made me think of Maxwell, another Marvin Gaye type who really has put out some amazing stuff, but it is on a super slow drip. His last album was in 2001.

Anyway, back to my topic at hand. A few years back I thought that Ricky Fante would be able to cut the mustard, and while I loved his voice, I have to say after a few listens, the record sounded way overproduced. It's probably impossible for a new artist to get the record company exec's and producers to lay off and just let the performance come out. I know the sound will never work out 100% right, but I don't think you can ever beat having all the musicians play at the same time and recording it. There is a certain magic that happens "live".

Anyway this all leads me to the fact that I may have found a new R&B guy. I'm going to wait for a live show or two, and hopefully another record, but at first listen, this guy is good and has potential. Unfortunatley some of the songs are pretty short- in fact, a few are under 2 minutes, but iTunes is offering an "Next Big Thing" deal, so you can download his album for $6.99. Ryan Shaw.

Gin Hahn,

T

PS- Of the Next Big Thing special, I also bought the Brandie Carlile  and Great Northern albums, I'll stick them all on my iPod for this trip and let you know what I think.