Soul Stirrers for the '10s

Music of Soul and R 'n B's golden age is big business these days.  Echoes of Motown, Stax/Atlantic and other labels can be heard everywhere, through the influence of their artists - people like Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Otis Redding and Al Green to name a few.  With the arrival and tragic early passing of Amy Winehouse, the retro-soul sound is in full swing as a dominant pop music trend.  Veteran artists like Sharon Jones (whose band The Dap-Kings were pivotal in Winehouse's smash Back to Black) and newcomers like Duffy are enjoying great popularity.

Heartfelt homage or cynically derivative?  Only your ears can decide.  If you dig that classic soul sound and want to hear something new, check out these artists in the library's free music database Freegal: 

Ryan Shaw.  Sounds a bit like Otis Redding and his "Do The 45" sounds just like Junior Wells' "Shotgun" - in other words, an old-school dance floor hit.
Raphael Saadiq.  Stevie Wonder guests on a track with this smooth crooner.
Aloe Blacc.  Blacc's music features his sweet voice front-and-center, with  influences from hip-hop, rap and 70s funk.
Cee Lo Green.  Much of his work has a serious, urban hip-hop influence, but his monster hit "Forget You" is a great example of freshening up a great old sound.
Adele.  Ah, Adele.  How could we ignore you?  A phenomenon in her own right, Adele's voice has reached out across the globe to touch the heartbroken.  If you've been living with tribesmen in Borneo for a year, it's time to discover what 750 gazillion people have been talking about.
John Legend.  RnB sound that is less retro, more modern, with hip-hop and reggae influences.
Bonus recommendation: check out a legend you may have missed 50 years ago, the original Soul Stirrer Sam Cooke!

Links are to library catalog.  To download songs for free, go to http://www.library.pima.gov/ and click "Music from Freegal." Artists currently not part of Freegal include:

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.  A rock 'n soul party!
Eli "Paperboy' Reed.  Love this guy.  His bluesy "Roll With You" is a great sounding party record.
Jamie Lidell.  Looove this guy's voice.  The white-and-nerdy Terence Trent D'arby!
Nikka Costa.  The much-overlooked queen of hard-core funk changes her musical style with every album. Her updated 70s funk sound can be heard on her classics Everybody Got Their Something and Can't Never Did Nothing.
Joss Stone.  Where has Joss disappeared to?
Mayer Hawthorne.  *(I don't really get this guy, but he is one of the more popular retro soul artists!)

Bonus classic: Donny Hathaway.  Winehouse referenced him in her infamous  "Rehab" along with Ray Charles. And like Winehouse, "Mr. Hathaway" also tragically passed too soon.  He grew up singing gospel and went on to be considered one of the very best singers from the golden age of soul music.  Remembered best for "A Song For You," "Someday We'll All Be Free" and his biggest hit "Where is the Love?" with Roberta Flack.  Next time you hear his "Theme from Maude" on TVLand, listen up!

-- John

Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk at Hotel Congress 3/14/2012

Dumpstaphunk brought their New Orleans brand of Funk music to the Hotel Congress on Wednesday March 14, 2012.  The band did not disappoint the many fans who came out for the show.  The Hotel Congress stage is adorned with the Latin words "musica delenit bestiam feram," which means, "music soothes the savage beast."  As for this night, the way the crowd danced up a frenzy with Dumpstaphunk, this proved not to be the case!

You can find some great New Orleans music, including songs by both The Neville Brothers and The Meters on Pima County Public Library's CD Mardi Gras Essentials.  Both bands also have works in Freegal, available under the Downloadable Media heading on our home page.  To find out more about Dumpstaphunk, their show at Hotel Congress, and their connection to these classic New Orleans bands, please read on.

Hey, hey we're the Monkees

While growing up in the 80s I started listening to my sister's albums of the "old" Monkees, those mop-haired fellows from twenty years before, I figured they were a joke band and a sad parody of the Beatles. I mean they even had a British guy leading them! But the tunes were pretty catchy. I was aware there was some dispute about them writing the songs. But I did enjoy the music, a lot.

Long before Backstreet Boys and N'Sync, The Monkees were essentially

Bearded Ballads: Iron & Wine, Bon Iver, and William Fitzsimmons

One of the most striking similarities shared by these three musicians is a simple, well-cultivated beard. Indeed, for some music fans, that may be reason enough to attend their concerts, buy their albums, and lump them into a single blog post. Arguably, it may very well be that patch of chin hair that causes these artists to create such delicate, even bare, music. Some of William Fitzsimmons' lyrics can be so bleak he probably needs the extra hair to keep him warm throughout his performances. Even more, Justin Vernon wrote the majority of his first album, For Emma, Forever Ago, in a backwoods cabin in beard territory, Wisconsin. Robust facial hair growth aside, Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, and William Fitzsimmons' William Fitzsimmons share a musical style brimming with a poetic depth and instrumental subtlety that leave listeners feeling supremely relaxed or ready to bust out some flamenco (to make sense of that last comment, watch Iron & Wine's music video for the song Boy with a Coin). These gentlemen are perfect whether you are seeking mellowness after a hectic day, watching the rain from your window (as rare as that may be), or slowly emerging from bed on a Sunday morning.

The BlessTheFall Beat

  One of my favorite bands, BlessTheFall, which is a Christian post-hardcore band that originated in Phoenix, Arizona, came back with a new album, Awakening!  The sounds on this track are softer than the last album and still better than ever!  You can find all of the songs on this album on Freegal.  For people who like the softer side of hardcore music, I would recommend the songs 40 Days, Meet Me At The Gates, Bones Crew.  'Till The Death Of Me, Undefeated, Bottomfeeder, The Reign, and others are some of the heavier side that album. I believe there's a BTF song out there for almost everyone, you just have to take a listen and find that out for yourself!
-Alyssa

A Los Angeles Kind of Mood

Hole, Celebrity Skin: I played this constantly in 1998, and I recently rediscovered it after a prolonged absence. The recent arson fires in L.A. made me think of the title track and the album as a whole. Why? The album has a sunshiny, shimmering vibe, along the lines of the Beach Boys and the Go-Go's; fun (and at times almost pretty) melodies and harmonies that make you wish you were in a convertible singing along. But at the same time, with the razor-edged guitars and the lyrics you're reminded that so much of what we see is artifice and that sometimes the most beautiful things in life have a very ugly side to them and a very short shelf life, and are easily destroyed...maybe much like L.A. itself.

Play with The Polyphonic Spree

If you've never heard the upbeat, choral, layered sounds of The Polyphonic Spree, you're in for a treat if you check out their show, coming up soon on March 30th at the Rialto! Read on to learn more about this fun band...