Seems my listening as of late has been influenced by my siblings.
Young Vinnie, in his continuing inability to master his computer, asked me to download and burn for him one of the newer male soul singers -- a guy with a retro attitude and sound: Musiq Soulchild (aka Taalib Johnson). His new CD, Luvanmusiq, has some very pleasant vocal performances (mostly sans rap), and you never know if the analog sounds you're hearing are from a sample or an antique instrument. According to the reviews, many are made from sampling older songs from the 70s and 80s. Though still a little modern (e.g. Justin Timberlake) sounding for my taste (give me Marvin Gaye), it was nice to hear someone actually entering the charts with nicely performed R&B vocals rather than strictly rap or American Idol-type, Glee Club voices. (Speaking of American Idol, my buddies at work and I plan to do a parody rewrite next week of Kaw-liga using, instead, the name Sanjaya). In conclusion, I have to admit that Musiq is well-sung (rim-shot).
As for my brother Jay, in a return to his occasional penchant for 70s contemporary Christian music artists (hardly contemporary any longer), burned me a new acoustic, live-in-the-studio CD by Randy Stonehill (w/ Phil Keaggy). The revisited songs from years/careers past are a bit preachy, but such is the context, ... duh. Keaggy's fluid acoustic leads are nice over Stonehill's "James Tayloresque" chording style. Both still sing well. 'Nuff said.
Finally, in my MySpace meanderings I happened upon a link to a very nice video overview of the quirky guitar genius of Adrian Belew (another Zappa-connection player, like Johnny "Guitar" Watson). Enjoy, and read you next time.
2 comments:
"Sanjaya, that poor old mohawk head..."?
Yeah, that'll work.
Are you going to try to record it?
We'll see. We thought it would be a fun lunch project this week. Love the line you wrote, though he called it a faux-hawk. Syntax still works, we'll use it ...
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