Aaron Neville

When Aaron Neville signed with A&M in the early '90s, optimists were hoping for some five-star soul gems along the lines of his classic '60s recordings. Instead, his first A&M date, Warm Your Heart, found the veteran New Orleans singer taking a much more pop-minded approach, with generally decent results. While Neville didn't abandon soul music, this CD made it clear that A&M was intent on making him a major hit in the pop market (which had been exposed to him in 1989 thanks to his duets with Linda Ronstadt).

The Grand Tour, Aaron Neville's second solo album for A&M Records, it's a collection of songs that in ways, both deliberate but unforced, suggests a kind of musical biography.

(Sunset Blvd Records) 22 Tracks - Digisleeve - Len Fico and Bill Dahl dug up 22 beautiful R&B soul numbers here. Jewels from Aaron Neville's collaboration with Allen Toussaint, 1966-1977, directly from the New Orleans Crucible!

The first family of New Orleans had crossed paths countless times, but banded together in the '70s to play a smooth mix of R&B, jazz, and blues.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the Neville Brothers may well be the greatest living institution of New Orleans R&B, but it took a long time for them to achieve such a lofty status, and the talents of Aaron, Art, Charles, and Cyril Neville had been scattered through a number of different groups (and a number of different record labels) over the space of three decades before they began to finally gain the nationwide recognition they richly deserved in the mid-'80s. Treacherous: A History of the Neville Brothers was the first compilation album to paint a reasonably accurate picture of the full scope of the Nevilles' accomplishment, and it still stands as the best introduction to their body of work. While it predates their acclaimed collaborations with producer Daniel Lanois on Yellow Moon and Brother's Keeper, it's a near-flawless representation of the Neville Brothers' earlier period (both as individuals and collectively), blending classic New Orleans R&B, smooth balladry, traditional second-line rhythms, potent Crescent City funk, and plenty of stops in between into a mighty and potent gumbo of joyous groove. Treacherous also cherrypicks the highlights from several unfortunately uneven albums, and flows more comfortably than many of the group's "real" albums. Anyone with even a passing interest in New Orleans music needs to check out the Neville Brothers, and this collection is as good a starter as anyone could hope for.

This two-disc set does a wonderful job of presenting the nearly 50-year recording history of Art, Charles, Aaron, and Cyril Neville – the Neville Brothers – without sacrificing the pacing that makes for a good and varied listening experience. Opening with "Mardi Gras Mambo" from 1954 by Art's first group, the Hawketts, then picking up on a couple of Aaron's early singles, the Allen Toussaint-produced "Over You" and Aaron's unofficial theme song, "Tell It Like It Is," before moving on to the bayou funk of the Meters for "Cissy Strut" and "Look-Ka Py Py," Gold gets things exactly right. All four brothers actually didn't appear on record together until 1976's marvelous The Wild Tchoupitoulas album, which is represented here by "Brother John" and "Meet de Boys on the Battlefront." They officially became known as the Neville Brothers a year later, and their hybrid mix of funk, soul, gospel, rock, country, and New Orleans street music is both inspired and fun, with tracks like "Fire on the Bayou" and "Hey Pocky Way" quickly becoming Louisiana classics. Other highlights on this fine collection include a scorching live take of "Voodoo" from 1994's Live on Planet Earth release, an impassioned version of the Melodians' Jamaican hymn "Rivers of Babylon," and the 21st century psychedelic funk of "Walkin' in the Shadow of Life" from the 2004 album of the same title. Until a box set comes along, this two-disc compilation stands as the best overall introduction to the long history of the Neville Brothers, who show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The legendary Neville Brothers are joined by an extraordinary group of musical guests for an exciting, once in a lifetime musical event filmed live at the famed Storyville Jazz Hall in New Orleans. Musical guests include Gregg Allmann, Ed Bradley, Jimmy Buffett, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Dixie Cups, Herbie Hancock, John Hiatt, Daniel Lanois, Ivan Neville, Dennis Quaid, Bonnie Raitt, Buckwheat Zydeco.

This CD has Aaron Neville singing Dobie Grey's "Drift Away," and is worth every cent for that song alone. But it also has "Tell It Like It Is," "Only You," and "Amazing Grace," all with the Neville Brothers' incredible voices and harmonies. Needs to be in everyone's collection!