4.17.2010

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - "I Learned The Hard Way"

If you don't know, now you know. Brooklynite Sharon Jones is what every pantyless, light-voiced white British soulster wants to be. They are dry old hamburger to her juicy porterhouse. They are two-day old Icehouse forties to her frosted Blue Moon, slice of orange delicately perched atop. They are Madonna to her Gaga, Tony Bennett to her Frank Sinatra, Ford Pinto to her butterfly-doored Chevy. Ms. Jones and her backup band, the Dap Kings, had been playing for some time when the Dap Kings got their big break as the accompaniment to English muffin Amy Winehouse. The DK's soulful, limber R&B send-ups sound like they could have been recorded in Muscle Shoals itself, and indeed there almost feels like there is a coating of dust on the instruments. But don't be mistaken, they are not "ironic". They're some bad dudes that can play, and everyone sounds freer under the crisp vocals of Ms. Jones. She whispers, swoops, soars and flat-out belts behind luxurious horns and stabbing guitars in the languid vamp "I Learned the Hard Way".The eponymous album has dropped, and you would be stupid to not give these funketeers a listen.

For: Required listening for students taking Mean Grooves, Dirty Horns, Biting Strings, and Bad Mothers 101.

1 comment:

  1. very well written and i am very interested.

    ReplyDelete