Keep The Faith

The Reverend Shawn Amos & The BrotherHood is a deep roots collaboration between the acclaimed blues singer-songwriter and harmonica player and some old friends: drummer Brady Blade (Indigo Girls, Buddy and Julie Miller), bassist Christopher Thomas (Norah Jones, Macy Gray) and longtime Rev guitarist Chris "Doctor" Roberts. Their debut album, Blue Sky (available April 17, 2020) comes on he heels of The Rev’s 2018 acclaimed, politically charged Breaks it Down. 2019 saw him alighting in Texas, where the South begins, the West ends, and something else is taking shape – a world away, geographically and culturally, from his native LA. Here, he gathered together the Brotherhood, creating a sense of home in his rootlessness. Blade, Thomas, and Roberts provide not only musical, but also spiritual and emotional support for embracing new territory, artistically and otherwise.

While Bon Jovi managed to stick a couple of killer album tracks onto all of their records, their main strength had always been writing singles. Released in 1994, Cross Road collects all of their biggest hits, adding a couple of new songs (including the international smash "Always," which helped the album go platinum in multiple countries) and Jon Bon Jovi's solo hit, "Blaze of Glory," for good measure…

Tony Bennett's latter-day albums tend to have themes, and this one has two, as indicated by its double-barreled title: It is both a duets album and a blues album. The duet partners include ten singers who range from his recent touring partners Diana Krall and k.d. lang to fellow veterans Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Kay Starr, and younger, but still mature pop stars Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, and Billy Joel. All sound happy to be sharing a mic with Bennett. Not surprisingly, the singer's conception of the blues does not extend to the Mississippi Delta or the South Side of Chicago; rather, he is interested in the blues as filtered through the sound of the Swing Era, particularly from around Kansas City, and as interpreted by Tin Pan Alley and show tunes…

Various Artists - Shreveport Southern Soul: The Murco Story (2000) {Kent Records CDKEND178 rec 1967-1973}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 401 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 176 Mb
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© 1967-73, 2000 Murco / Kent Records / Ace Records | CDKEND 178
Rhythm & Blues / Soul / Funk / Southern Soul

Based in Shreveport, LA, the Murco label didn't record soul music exclusively, but it did concentrate heavily on Southern soul in the late '60s and early '70s. There were no national hits, with the marginal exception of Eddy Giles' "Losin' Boy" (the first track on this CD), which registered briefly in the Cashbox Hot 100. In fact, none of the singers on this 26-track compilation of Murco sides (some of which came out on various subsidiaries, and a couple of which were previously unreleased) will be familiar even to most soul collectors.