Brand New Day

Impressive 11th studio disc by this excellent blues/rock axeslinger from Iowa featuring 11 tracks of awesome, dynamic, soul-powered, blues/rock guitar mojo that is guaranteed to rock your blues away. Bryce Janey digs deep on "Brand New Day" and has produced one of his strongest discs to date that lands old-school, timeless & classic. Right out of the gate from the rockin' opener "Fire It Up" to the last song, a way-kool version of "Key To The Highway" which features his Dad Billylee Janey guesting on 2nd guitar, the "Brand New Day" disc delivers rock solid to the core. Complete with his excellent long-time rhythm section of Dan "DJ" Johnson on Bass & Eric Douglas on drums, Brother Bryce lays down the blues/rock guitar law on his beat-up Strat with his good ole' trusty sidekick dog Buddy keeping everybody in tune!

By the late '90s, Sting had reached a point where he didn't have to prove his worth every time out; he had so ingrained himself in pop culture, he really had the freedom to do whatever he wanted. He had that attitude on Mercury Falling, but it was too somber and serious, everything that its successor, Brand New Day, is not. Light, even effervescent, Brand New Day feels like little else in Sting's catalog…

Esther Phillips - Brand New Day: The Lenox Atlantic & Roulette Recordings 1962-1970 (2020) {5CD Set, Soul Music QSMCR-5194BX}
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© 1962-70, 2020 Soul Music Records | QSMCR-5194BX
Jazz / R&B / Jazz Blues / Soul

The late Esther Phillips (1935-1984) has often been considered one of the ‘unsung’ pioneers in the world of R&B, stretching back to the early ‘50s when as a child star working with famed bandleader Johnny Otis, she enjoyed a run of chart-topping singles at the age of 15, making her the youngest female artist to ever have an No. 1 R&B hit at the time. The Texas-born vocalist returned in 1962 with a soulful version of the country hit, ‘Release Me’ for Lenox Records, subsequently signing with Atlantic Records for whom she recorded a total of four full albums between 1964-1970 with a brief spell at Roulette Records in 1969.

By the time the Brand New Heavies released Shelter in 1997, urban R&B was shifting toward the more organic grooves that they helped pioneer in the early '90s. Although the Heavies were into acid jazz as well, they smoothed over many of the experimental elements of their music in the mid-'90s, leaving behind a seductive, earthy, and jazzy variation of urban soul. That provided the foundation for Shelter, their first album featuring Siedah Garrett as lead singer. Garrett's smooth voice helps push the band toward more conventional territory, yet their songwriting is stronger than most of the contemporaries, and their sound is funkier and more convincing. While there are no standout singles on Shelter, it's a uniformly engaging listen, illustrating that the Brand New Heavies are one of the great underrated urban R&B bands of the '90s.

More than two decades into a career that's always avoided the predictable path, the Mavericks – whose Tex-Mex twang, Cuban-influenced country and retro rock made them unlikely stars in the mid-Nineties and critical darlings during later years – turn another corner with the new album Brand New Day. The record arrives March 31st, marking the group's first time releasing new material on their own label, Mono Mundo Recordings.