|
|
"Party Till The Lights Go Out (Nothing But A Party)" David Brinston (New Album Alert!)
September 1, 2022: Reprinted from Daddy B. Nice's Mailbag
Daddy B. Nice Gets Chatty With David Brinston RE: Your Poundtown Album Review (scroll down for Poundtown review)
Daddy B. Nice,
You know me, I'm normally quiet and behind the scenes. Today, I'm finally breaking my silence. First, "Daddy please be nice!" During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time in the studio focusing on my music and not my appearance! So, I thank you for the mustache advice (Lol). My music has been "all over the place" to some degree; however, it is original David Brinston. I've been on a long journey that took me in different musical directions to find my true path. Especially, after all my former Producers earned their wings. Now, I've gone full circle - back to my roots of Blues, Soul, Country with a hint of Gospel. I'm enjoying every minute of it and I'm especially grateful for all of the David Brinston Fans out there who have supported me over the years and through my transformation.
Vr,
David
DAVID BRINSTON, CEO
Delta Down LLC
PS: Please call Terry at ------. I'm interested in buying a promotion package on DaddybNice. Again, thank you for your review of the Poundtown CD. We look forward to hearing from you.
Daddy B. Nice replies:
David,
It’s so good to hear from you after all these years. I’m kinda chuckling and giggling when I think that it was a remark about your mustache that brought you to write. Yes that was a little Daddy B Mean, although it was just me trying to be funny. I’ll go back and take that it out if you like. Ironically, I have what I call an “upside-down mustache”. It’s positioned where a goatee would be, under the lower lip, but it wraps all around the lower lip like an upside-down mustache. God knows what people really think of it. I’m glad there’s no other Daddy B Nice to tell me. I keep it because I want some hair on my head now that I’m bald on top.
I want you to know how much I appreciate you. Twenty, twenty-five years ago, when I was just getting my feet wet and trying to understand if I’d really stumbled upon a genre that no one (outside of the Deep South) knew about ( a process that took years), there were about a dozen songs that sealed the deal. That tipped the balance. That motivated me to go all in and make it my passion. And “Party Til The Lights Go Out/Nothing But a Party” was one of those key records. Phenomenal. I’ve never grown tired of it. Magic captured. “Kick It,” of course, was a close #2. And correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t possess the rights to those songs, I’ve assumed, because you’ve never re-issued them. I always wondered who Marshall Jones (the producer) was and have only seen him mentioned a couple of times in the two decades since then. Of course I’ve liked lots of the music since then as well, but those two songs will always hold a special place in my personal southern soul heaven.
Best wishes…
David Brinston replies:
Thanks so much for your response. I do own the rights to all the songs that you mentioned. Yes, Marshall Jones did the tracks. I’m planning to include those songs in my “ David Brinston’s”s greatest hits.”
Read Daddy B. Nice's POUNDTOWN New Music Alert!.
Listen to David Brinston singing “Party Til The Lights Go Out” on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing “Kick It” on YouTube.
Buy David Brinston's new POUNDTOWN CD at Apple.
*************
Questions?
Comments?
Or Information for Daddy B. Nice?
e-Mail:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
*************
Buy David Brinston's new POUNDTOWN album at Apple.
POUNDTOWN TRACK LIST:1. Poundtown
2. Pop That Thing
3. I'm Back
4. I Hate To See You Leaving
5. Dreams
6. Too Many Problems
7. Honey
8. This Ain't No Heaven To Me
9. Can't Walk Away
10. Second Chance
11. Lucky (feat. Mr. Frayser)
Daddy B. Nice notes: The Urban Dictionary defines "poundtown" as "fucking a girl really hard" and "The place where a man takes a woman when he is looking for sexual pleasure, as quickly as possible, with no thoughts of being tender, caring, gentle, etc..." (In case you didn't know or hadn't guessed.).... So what can we say about Poundtown? Well, the title track charted at #6 in Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles for March 2022 with the comment "David Brinston snags a good, ornery song and delivers it in his inimitable, ornery style." "Lucky," the track that ends the set, is also very good, showcasing new singer Mr. Frayser with an impressive vocal in a duet with Brinston. The body of the set is disarmingly laid back, and while normally this isn't such a good thing, in Brinston's current state (a kind of refined relaxation) it actually works well and recalls William Bell's Grammy Award-winning album "This Is Where I Live." Tunes like "Pop That Thing," which on first impression seem like throw-aways, blossom under Brinston's benign treatment. The country-western-styled "Dreams" somehow succeeds in ingratiating itself, as do the well-worn blues chords of "Too Many Problems" and the familiar structure of "This Ain't No Heaven To Me". How Brinston transforms these derivative exercises into aural flowers is frankly a mystery. And yet the acoustic instrumental sound of the album blends magically with David's seemingly off-the-cuff and ad-libbed singing style to make a surprisingly successful outing. Old school, perhaps, but exquisite.
Listen to all the tracks from David Brinston's new POUNDTOWN album on YouTube.
Listen to all the tracks from David Brinston's new POUNDTOWN album on Spotify.
Buy David Brinston's new POUNDTOWN album at Apple.
August 8, 2020: Originally posted in Daddy B. Nice's CD Reviews
March 8, 2020: DAVID BRINSTON: I'm An O.G. (Ecko Records)
Three Stars *** Solid. The artist's fans will enjoy. "David Brinston is undergoing a full-blown, career revitalization," your Daddy B. Nice wrote, announcing Brinston's new album KITTY WHIPPED a year and a half ago. Brinston had just released SIDEPIECE MOTEL the year before, garnering a 4-star "Distinguished Effort" CD review, and KITTY WHIPPED was even better, collecting a rare 5-star "Southern Soul Heaven" designation. (See "Tidbits" section of the 21st Century David Brinston Artist Guide for both reviews.)
David's new album I'M AN O.G. marks a return to earth of sorts. Not as dazzling as selected tracks from SIDEPIECE MOTEL, nor as brilliant across-the-board, top-to-bottom, as KITTY WHIPPED, I'M AN O.G. nevertheless captures one of southern soul's "old guys" recording relevant music in the twilight of his career.
To gauge how special that achievement is, consider for a moment other older luminaries of the chitlin' circuit. Bobby Rush hasn't recorded a southern soul album since NIGHT FISHING. Latimore hasn't released any new music since BACK 'ATCHA. Theodis Ealey occasionally releases a single (usually a collaboration with a younger artist or group), but--like Lat' and Rush--no new albums in over a decade. Wilson Meadows and Carl Sims record a song now and then just to keep the fires flickering, while Peggy Scott-Adams and Shirley Brown have stopped recording entirely.
One can only assume that David Brinston's association with his label, Ecko Records out of Memphis, has benefited him greatly in that regard, although ultimately the credit for the perseverance is deservedly his. The best tracks on I'm An O.G., however, owe much to Ecko: the guitar work by John Ward that elevates the ultra-slow title ballad "I'm An O.G." to a higher artistic level; or the typically-charming, chitlin' circuit-inspired lyrics by John Cummings (co-written by John Ward), a longtime Ecko house writer, that transport "I'm Hot In Mississippi" to another level.
In "I'm Hot In Mississippi" Cummings summarizes Brinston's alleged liaisons by rhyming female names (the girlfriends) with their Mississippi locales. In "I'm An O.G.," Ward adds layers of deep-soul texture by using two guitars, one a lead guitar (a Fender Stratocaster) in an out-of-phase position (between lead and middle pickups) to achieve a "clean" amp sound while supplementing it with another guitar with a tremelo effect often used for rhythm guitar and playing chords. The effect is magical, at times like the feeling you used to get listening to a Rock & Roll or R&B classic.
John Ward also contributes greatly to the success of "I Didn't Know You Was a Freak Like That"--especially the "Club Mix"--with an arrangement (with layered guitar-chording and brass) that pirouettes magically around the dominant bass line. "I'm Getting You Ready" boasts a seductive rhythm track and a fine, anthem-like chorus. "Diamond In The Middle," one of the niftiest slang-terms invented for the vagina, reprises one of Brinston's rare, non-Ecko releases (Back On Track, Delta Down) from 2014. "This Is The Real Blues" isn't as singularly effective as "I Drinks My Whiskey" from SIDEPIECE MOTEL, but with his inimitable style Brinston spins a straight-blues vehicle better than just about anyone besides Bobby Rush.
Granted, there are just as many disposable songs as there are keepers on I'M AN O.G., and fans may want to pick and choose mp3's in order to get the biggest bang for their buck. For a full-album experience of Brinston at his best, I still recommend 2018's Kitty Whipped, which is looking in retrospect like the finest album of David's later career. Still and all, at a time when the genre is exploding with fan interest, new artists and stylistic experimentation, I'M AN O.G. is an astute and much-needed reminder of what southern soul music (and southern-soul singing) is really all about.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy David Brinston's I'M AN O.G. album at Apple.
Buy David Brinston's I'M AN O.G. album at Amazon.
See Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to David Brinston.
************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
Or e-Mail:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
*************
March 8, 2020:
Read Daddy B. Nice's New CD Review!
February 23, 2020:
New Album Alert!
Sample/Buy David Brinston's new I'M AN O.G. album at Amazon.
I'M AN O.G. TRACK LIST:
1
I'm Hot in Mississippi
2
Can You Do It Again
3
You're Making Me Want Some
4
This is the Real Blues
5
I'm Getting You Ready
6
I Didn't Know You Was a Freak Like That
7
I Got Love
8
I'm An O.G.
9
Diamond In The Middle
10
Come Back To Me
11. I Didn't Know You Was A Freak Like That (Club Mix)
Daddy B. Nice notes:
On initial listenings, David Brinston's new collection doesn't match the spectacular accessibility of his last CD, KITTY WHIPPED (scroll down), but I'M AN O.G has its moments. The sly, tongue-in-cheek "I'm Hot In Mississippi" consists of verses rhyming female names with city/town names. It's also based in fact: Brinston IS "hot" in Mississippi. "This Is The Real Blues" isn't as singularly effective as "I Drinks My Whiskey" from SIDEPIECE MOTEL, but with his inimitable style Brinston spins a straight-blues vehicle better than just about anyone besides Bobby Rush.
"I'm Getting You Ready" boasts a seductive rhythm track and a fine, anthem-like chorus. "Diamond In The Middle," one of the niftiest slang-terms invented for the vagina, reprises one of Brinston's rare, non-Ecko releases (Back On Track, Delta Down) from 2014. Finally, the title track "I'm An O.G." brings a lot to the table both musically and lyrically.
"You know, sometimes you see an old man hanging out with a young lady," Brinston intones on the opening voice-over, "and the first thing y'all want to say is, 'He needs to go somewhere and sit down.' Well, 99 per cent of the time you may be right..."
And--you guessed it--Brinston goes on to discuss the 1 per cent with flair, honesty and humor. The balance of the set has its share of fluff and fat, often announced with instrumental phrases you've heard too many times before on previous Ecko releases. However, when he's "on," there's no one quite like David Brinston.
--Daddy B. Nice.
Listen to all the tracks from David Brinston's I'M AN O.G. album on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston's new I'M AN O.B. album on Spotify.
Buy David Brinston's I'M AN O.G. album at Apple
--Daddy B. Nice
Note: David Brinston also appears on Daddy B. Nice's original Top 100 Southern Soul Artists (90's-00's). The "21st Century" after David Brinston's name in the headline is to distinguish his artist-guide entries on this page from his artist-guide page on Daddy B. Nice's original chart.
David Brinston is now the #15-ranked artist on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 Countdown: 21st Century Southern Soul Artists.
See the chart.
***************
See "Tidbits" below for the latest updates on David Brinston, including recent CD reviews by Daddy B. Nice.
To automatically link to David Brinston's charted radio singles, awards, CD's and many other references on the website, go to "Brinston, David" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
*************
***********
March 3, 2013:
Daddy B. Nice's Updated Profile This 21st Century Countdown Artist Guide to David Brinston features a number of new additions. Along with the YouTube presentations of David Brinston music now available by Internet link (scroll down to Tidbits #1), the About Artist section contains a greatly-expanded account of Brinston's once-murky, pre-Fly Right resume, not to mention extensive new reportage on David Brinston's career over the last decade.
Also, I've been writing tributes to Brinston's "Kick It" for years without managing to lift its profile in the slightest. The praise is always buried in the text. So I've decided, at least at this point in time, to use my "bully pulpit" to feature "Kick It" with "Party" on The Top 100 21st Century Southern Soul Countdown.
Maybe, between its placement in the Artist Guide headline and its propitious presence on YouTube, available for fans to hear in full at last, this masterpiece of Southern Soul will begin to get some of its due, not least from the artist himself. "Kick It" boasts the best hook, the best instrumental track and the most passionate vocal of David Brinston's career.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Kick It" on YouTube while you read.
*********
An Appreciation of "Kick It" by David Brinston:
Excerpted from Daddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to David Brinston (90's-00's).
The near-perfect song. The perfect recording. The perfect, if also perfectly obscure, artist.
There is really no defensible reason, other than that David Brinston is one of the most under-appreciated performers in contemporary rhythm and blues, to deny that "Kick It" can stand right along such standards as "Big Head Hundreds" by Johnnie Taylor as a dance floor jam of the first order.
The bass pounds the bottom of "Kick It" like there's no tomorrow. If you don't hear the rhythm track and it's not shaking you, you've got to play it louder. And, as if to accentuate how good the groove is--that's the effect, at any rate--Brinston holds off for a few bars and in a low voice-over summarizes the situation.
A few of the old pals--now married or otherwise tied down--want to get together again, and there's just no way David Brinston's everyday hero can bear to miss the occasion.
"I know I've got to go home,
And face this woman of mine.
But right now I got to kick it, y'all,
Just one more time."
Meanwhile, a metronomic chord change--normally the province of a guitar but here a Spector-like wash of sound--has welded symbiotically onto the chugging rhythm track, making a monster of a dance floor groove that only a couple of other Southern Soul singles in recent memory (Stan Mosley's "Anybody Seen My Boo," O. B. Buchana's "Let's Get Drunk") have come close to matching.
It would be mind-blowing if it were only an instrumental, but the lyrics--happily for us fans--are infused with uncommon particularity and charm.
"My old lady's getting tired,
Tired of my past.
She already told me
She was going to leave my ass."
Songwriter Linda Stokes, who wrote both "Kick It" and "Party," producer Marshall Jones and Brinston make for a creative trio of unusual skill and originality. But the key is Brinston's unique tenor and syncopated rhythms as perfected in "Kick It." If Sam Cooke or Smokey Robinson were recording today, their work might sound like this.
--Daddy B. Nice
********
Listen to David Brinston's "Party Till The Lights Go Out" on YouTube while you read.
From Daddy B. Nice's May 1, 2010 Commentary: "Party 'Till The Lights Go Out" Never Grows Old,"
Out on the chitlin' circuit's smokey dance floors and sun-drenched lawns, hips sway, arms spread, pelvises roll and smiles abound. And those first beads of sweet sweat pop out on upper lips.
"You might be with someone's woman
Or somebody's man.
We ain't here to knock it.
We just want to dance."
This is the song that countless chitlin' circuit club advertisements have used as their background music on Deep South radio stations for going on ten years. Its effortless-sounding rhythm section has never been equaled. Brinston's sugary vocal is one of the most winning performances in the history of contemporary Southern Soul.
To read Daddy B. Nice's May 1, 2010 Commentary: "Party 'Till The Lights Go Out" Never Grows Old," go to Daddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to David Brinston.
--Daddy B. Nice
About David Brinston (New Album Alert!)
David Brinston was born in Marks, Mississippi--near blues hub Clarksdale--in 1959, and spent much of his formative years in Clarksdale. In the early nineties Brinston moved to Memphis and began performing on Beale Street and other chitlin' circuit venues.
After signing with Jomar Records, Brinston produced his first single "Love Maker." His first major recorded single, "Hit And Run," produced by Marshall Jones, was a hybrid, mixing elements of mainstream, commercial R&B with Southern Soul, chitlin' circuit-style rhythm and blues.
Brinston recorded two albums worth of material for Jomar. His first album, Hit And Run (1992) featured the single along with songs like "Trouble Maker," "Love Maker" and "Dirty Lover," all of which began to garner a small following on radio outlets in north-central Mississippi. The second album was Slow Down (From The Run Around).
In 1993, Brinston recorded the single that made his brand. "Two Way Love Affair," became his biggest hit to date, although it would not appear on an album until 1999. Meanwhile, Brinston teamed up with producer Carl Marshall for the CD The Real Deal in 1997.
1998's Too Hot album (R & B) marked the appearance of That Stokes Girl--songwriter Linda Stokes (the ballad "I Loved Being Tied Down")--who would become Brinston's special muse, tailoring songs for him ("Party 'Till Lights Go Out," "Kick It," "Rockin'," "Beat It Up," etc.) for close to two decades.
Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake (METT, 1999) featured the long-running single, "Two Way Love Affair," written by another composer/musician who would become a perennial Brinston associate--Morris J. Williams--in addition to the uncharacteristically deep, smoky soul of the title tune, "Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake," also written by Williams, which gained Brinston a further underground following.
All of these albums were scantly distributed, as was his next, Brinston's claim to fame, Fly Right (Suzie Q, 2001), which created a chitlin' circuit sensation.
The Stokes-written "Party Til The Lights Go Out" and "Kick It" became major hit singles throughout the Stations of the Deep South and attracted additional fans to the newly-emerging Southern Soul genre as a whole.
The album was produced and in large part written by Marshall Jones, whose groove-heavy rhythm tracks were instrumental in its success, and published by Stan and Lenny Lewis's Suzie Q Records, based in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Fly Right album also spawned the chitlin' circuit singles "You're So Freak, Girl," "I Caught Ya," "After All I Do" and "I Paid The Price."
The fan response to David Brinston's Fly Right and an opening-act tour with Marvin Sease led to a contract with Jackson, Mississippi's prestigious Malaco Records' (home of Johnnie Taylor, Z. Z. Hill, etc.) affiliate Waldoxy Records for the 2005 CD, Rockin'.
Despite three new Stokes tunes (including the title song) and the addition of another talented writer/producer, John Ward, on the well-received single, "Hard Working Lady," the relatively generic album failed to record a major hit and passed without much notice.
Brinston went on his own the following year, publishing the most eclectic collection of his career with Mississippi Boy. With an opening chord progression identical to Brinston's "Two Way Love Affair," the album title and title tune bore no relation to the Floyd Hamberlin-written, Will T. and Charles Wilson-performed song, "Mississippi Boy" that was causing a sensation across the chitlin' circuit at the time, and in fact the choice of name generated some backlash from fans who perceived it to be unethical.
The confusion with the Hamberlin classic was unfortunate because the S. Parsom-written "Mississippi Boy had first-rate, evocative lyrics:
"Mississippi's where it's hot.
All we do is party and drink
A hell of a lot."
Eventually, the song became better-known throughout the chitlin' circuit as "Mississippi's Where It's At." The single "Good Woman (With Some Bad Habits)" also notched substantial air play.
Brinston signed a contract with John Ward's Ecko Records in Memphis, Tennessee in 2007 and settled into a series of annual, middling, formulaic collections that gave the singer a steady but dimming presence on Southern Soul radio.
Each album featured a competent lead single surrounded by lesser "B-side' material, the exception being the best of the lot, Dirty Woman, as follows:
Here I Go Again (Ecko, 2007, prominent single "Too Many Women");
Party Time! (Ecko, 2008, prominent single "I Just Love Women");
Dirty Woman (Ecko, 2009, prominent singles "Dirty Woman" (a John Cummings/Morris Williams-composed duet featuring J. Blackfoot on vocals with Brinston), "Something I Want (a John Ward-written tune later done as a popular duet with Ms. Jody on her Ms. Jody's In The House album), and the John Ward-written "Don't Tease Me With It");
....and Beat It Up (Ecko, 2010, prominent single "Beat It Up").
Despite a two-decade career in which David Brinston created a durable brand as a respected Al Green-evolved singer and thematically-incorrigible ladies' man, his self-published 2012 album It's Gonna Be a Showdown passed without promotion and received scant notice on the chitlin' circuit.
David Brinston Discography
Hit And Run (Jomar 1996)
Slow Down (From The Run Around) (Jomar 1997)
The Real Deal (R & B 1997)
Too Hot (R & B 1998)
Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake (METT, 1999)
Fly Right (Susie Q 2001)
Rockin' (Waldoxy 2005)
Mississippi Boy (R & B 2006)
Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake (Ecko 2007)
Here I Go Again (Ecko 2007)
Party Time! (Ecko 2008)
Dirty Woman (Ecko 2009)
Beat It Up (Ecko 2010)
It's Gonna Be a Showdown (Delta Down 2012)
Back On Track (Delta Down 2014)
Backseat Rider (Delta Down 2015)
Song's Transcendent Moment
"Me and my friends
Meet in the same old spot.
Been coming here for so long, y'all,
And it's really hot.
I've got to kick it, y'all.
I've got to kick it, y'all, one more time.
Now I'll be back, baby.
Now you know I will.
I love to kick it with my friends, babe,
And that's my only thrill.
Now I ain't looking for no woman
Because, baby, you are my life.
If you let me kick it tonight, baby,
I'll stay home tomorrow night."
Tidbits
1.
March 2, 2013: The Best of David Brinston on YouTube
Listen to David Brinston singing "Kick It" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Party Til The Lights Go Out" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Hit And Run" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Party" and "I Caught Ya" and other tunes Live Onstage at Blues On The River in Little Rock, Arkansas on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Two Way Love Affair" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Work That Thang" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston and the late J. Blackfoot singing "Dirty Woman" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "After Party" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Love Me Girl" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Don't Tease Me With It" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Two Way Love Affair" Live Onstage at Mobile, Alabama's Spring Fling on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Party 'Till The Lights Go Out" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Should Have Been Me" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston and Carl Marshall singing "Friday Night, Ladies Night" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Troublemaker" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Love Maker" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "I'm Tangled Up" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Lay On You" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Beat It Up" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "I Just Love Women" Live Onstage at Blues On The River in Little Rock, Arkansas on YouTube.
2.
"David Brinston: A Cautionary Tale" (Excerpted from Daddy B. Nice's Corner, 2007)
David Brinston's career is a cautionary tale for young recording artists who believe the first hit or two is just the beginning of an endless gravy train of hits.
You can spend a career trying to get back to the lofty place where an initial hit transported you, and what you thought was as easy as falling backwards can become the hardest thing in the world to do.
All I know is I'm having a hard time getting used to the "new" David Brinston--today's David Brinston--the middle-of-the-pack journeyman, always to be counted on for a certain professional level of Southern Soul music, but nothing extraordinary or magical.
I'm in love with the great, unknown-genius David Brinston of the early 00's, and I don't want to give up that reason for cherishing him. Latter-day fans don't know what they're missing, and, sadly, with so much of the early material out of print, you'd have a hard time convincing them of what a Southern Soul star David Brinston really was.
Excerpted from "David Brinston: A Cautionary Tale," which ran on Daddy B. Nice's Corner, 2007: To read the full commentary, go to DBN's Original Artist Guide To David Brinston and scroll down to TIDBITS #8.
3.
March 30, 2014: NEW ALBUM ALERT!
Sample/Buy David Brinston's new BACK ON TRACK CD.
Daddy B. Nice notes: Just when you think the genre has exhausted all the possibilities for sexual double entendres (i.e. "stand up in it," "rock that man in the boat," "beat it up,"), another source of southern soul creativity surprises us with yet another.
"My baby's got a diamond in the middle.
She knows how to make that thing wiggle."
From "Diamond In The Middle," the opening track of David Brinston's new BACK ON TRACK CD.
*********
4.
April 19, 2014:
DAVID BRINSTON: Back On Track (Delta Down) Three Stars *** Solid. The artist's fans will enjoy. Three songs from David Brinston's new album BACK ON TRACK have already wormed their way into my head so far I may never get them out. Normally, that would be cause for recommendation and celebration, but the collection as a whole--praiseworthy though it assuredly is--does have flaws that throw up a "yellow" flag for fans not already under Brinston's thrall.
As with all of David's latter-day albums, your Daddy B. Nice stacks BACK ON TRACK against his first two CD's (now long out of print), the ones that had Stan & Lenny Lewis and Marshall Jones at the helm.
Notwithstanding the many great Brinston songs recorded since ("I Just Love Women," for example), it's hard to describe to today's fans how much the early-century David Brinston charmed fans, attracting them to the new southern soul music coming out of the Deep South. The songs, arrangements and vocals were close to full-blown masterpieces. The songs from that era generally regarded as most representative of David's since-somewhat-eroded "southern soul stardom" are:
Listen to David Brinston singing "Two Way Love Affair" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Party 'Til The Lights Go Out" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Kick It" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Hit & Run" on YouTube.
Like their illustrious forbears, the attention-getting songs on the new Brinston LP have the same strong songwriting base and the same ability to take over a corner of your mind usually reserved for commercial jingles.
I first encountered "Tragic Love" via the radio: Nikki DeMarks in Mobile, Alabama. From...
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .
----------MARCH 2014------------
10. “Tragic Love”----------David Brinston
This is brand new David Brinston getting back to his roots, vocally-speaking. Like an old Fredrick Brinson. (That’s a joke.) But there’s truth in the fact that at their best, both the young artist and the old artist convey weathered wisdom and strafed vulnerability. Thumbs up for the (some-might-say-amateurish) female background: it fits in with the overall strangeness.
Then I received the hard copy of the album and instantly began humming the first track, "Diamond In The Middle," with its right-on, naughty couplet:
"My baby's got a diamond in the middle.
She knows how to make that thing wiggle."
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .
----------APRIL 2014------------
4. ”Diamond In The Middle” ------------David Brinston
Just when you think the genre has exhausted all the possibilities for sexual double entendres (i.e. "stand up in it," "rock that man in the boat," "beat it up,"), we’re surprised with yet another: "diamond in the middle," which certainly strikes your Daddy B. Nice as both apt and vivid. If David Brinston’s one-of-a-kind vocal were any more tattered, it'd blow away in the wind.
Finally, I've succumbed to "911," a contagious, "Kick It"-style dance track with an ambience reminiscent of Donnie Ray's "Who's Rocking You?"
Other tunes with underlying strength and promise are "One Way" (with a hint of "Hit & Run") and "Your Love," with That Stokes Girl filling in on female background, as she does on "Tragic Love."
What separates the early classics from the new tracks? It's easy to name the culprit--production, lack of budget--but it's harder to put a finger on the specifics. The participants on this close-knit CD are people your Daddy B. Nice cherishes: laborers in the musical vineyard who have given their lives to contemporary southern soul.
Morris Williams, longtime Ecko Records associate, has become the defacto producer on jobs Ecko CEO John Ward can't make "work" on his higher overhead. Williams, for instance, produced the latest John Cummings CD, BACK TO THE GRIND, also reviewed on this page. But muscular rhythm tracks (ala Bigg Robb or Big Yayo) are not Williams' talent.
Linda Stokes is Brinston's longtime songwriter ("Nothing But A Party," etc.) and in a very real sense his muse. She contributes background vocals, songwriting and general support to the CD, but sophisticated vocals are not her bailiwick.
David's brother Terry Brinston is executive producer and sound engineer. In sum, this is a "family" effort, straight from the source (meaning authentic southern soul), but lacking in the polish and panache that powered the early hits.
For veteran southern soul fans, the best songs on this set are too good to miss, yet even a Brinston-watcher can easily imagine better versions. Ultimately the difference may lie in Brinston himself.
The vocals which in David's earlier years seemed to pour out as effortlessly as syrup in August have grown less generous, even a bit pinched and grating. At times, even on the superb "Diamond In The Middle," David calls attention to his delivery (whether consciously or unconsciously), which shouldn't happen, and didn't happen in the old days when David mesmerized us with:
"You might be with someone else's woman
Or someone else's man.
We're not here to knock it,
We're just here to dance."
(from "Party 'Til the Lights Go out/Nothing But A Party").
--Daddy B. Nice
Sample/Buy David Brinston's BACK ON TRACK CD at CD Baby.
Read Daddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to David Brinston.
Read Daddy B. Nice's 21st Century Artist Guide to David Brinston.
To automatically link to all the awards, citations, chart-listings and other references to David Brinston on the website, go to Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
*********
5.
Re-posted from Daddy B. Nice's CD Reviews:
June 7, 2015:
DAVID BRINSTON: Back Seat Rider (David Brinston) Two Stars ** Dubious. Not much here.
David Brinston was one of the reasons your Daddy B. Nice left all the "other" music behind, and it's been uncomfortable watching the southern soul star slip a little, CD by CD, like a photograph fading to sepia in the sun.
I remember searching for the unknown artist who did a song called "Nothing But A Party." Back in those days, there was no one and no website to turn to for assistance. You searched through Napster and every other music avenue available, looking for these unknown artists and in many cases untitled songs you'd heard at random, often hampered by the wrong keywords, a process that took months and in some cases years. The David Brinston song was called simply "Party," or as it quickly became known, "Party 'Til The Lights Go Out," the fifteenth-ranked song on the Top 100
Southern Soul Songs: Daddy B. Nice's 21st Century Countdown
The song is magical. From the opening bars of the rhythm track, the music transports you to a beautiful place, a nirvana of love and dancing. Brinston's vocal is relaxed and confident, one of a kind. Brinston's longtime songwriter, Linda Stokes, who's always been humble about her singing abilities, can be heard in the background, just as she still can be heard today.
Ironically, there's a song on Brinston's new CD BACK SEAT RIDER that recapitulates "Party," and yet "Just Like Your Mama" is such a weak rendering by comparison that I didn't realize it was the "Party" background instrumental track until I heard the first few bars on the radio one afternoon.
That's the key to this album. If you don't have those fond memories of Brinston, there isn't much here. Brinston's unique high tenor was always fragile--at its best, vulnerable. Now it's downright weak. The voice literally disappears in the middle of notes. I was reminded of watching Bill Withers' acceptance into the 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on TV the other night, when Bill had to let Stevie Wonder and John Legend sing his signature songs ("Lean On Me," "Use Me," etc.), and then, even Stevie Wonder, advancing in age, faltered. It was painfully obvious he was missing notes. The only singer left and able to carry the day was the youthful Legend.
I'm aware that I've been hard on Brinston CD's over the last decade, basically for the same reasons described above--nothing comes close to "Party" and the FLY RIGHT ("Party," "Kick It," etc.) album. And it's true there have been many great if idiosyncratic songs on those latter-year CD's, "Mississippi's Where It's At" for example--last year's excellent "Diamond In The Middle," for another, although the latter does sound like the voice of an old man. "911 (It's An Emergency"), from the same album Back On Track," has become another personal favorite.
Still, on this new set, with its nondescript material and production, I find nothing especially worthy of radio play: possibly, "Low Down, Dirty," "Just Like Your Mama," or "Back Seat Rider." Will your Daddy B. Nice be looking back a year later, wondering if I under-rated these songs, too? In my own defense, I was very complimentary of those songs in my review and gave the BACK ON TRACK album as a whole a much more positive three-star ranking.
I'd be interested in hearing from David's true fans. Is he meeting your expectations? Is he even relevant? In a new southern soul world of Bigg Robb, Tucka, J'Wonn and Pokey, does Brinston's tattered vocal sound still have appeal?
--Daddy B. Nice
Sample/Buy David Brinston's BACK SEAT RIDER CD at CD BABY.
6. August 8, 2015: RE-POSTED FROM DADDY B. NICE'S CORNER
July 23, 2015:
A DADDY B NICE SHOUT-OUT TO WDLT MOBILE, ALABAMA'S DJ STORMY FOR PLAYING DAVID BRINSTON'S "KICK IT" In a reversal of the usual male-dominated, streaming-radio scene, female deejays have long held a cabal on Southern Soul Saturdays at Mobile, Alabama's WDLT, where the esteemed Beverley McDowell has been succeeded by the lying-in-the-bushes, Saturday-morning charm of Nikki DeMarks, who has been cited frequently in Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul Singles Previews over the years, not to mention memorialized in Unckle Eddie's (yes, that's how he spells it) paean to ornery husbands and brash daughters in "I'm Gone Tell Mama."
The possessor of a fine-tuned and extensive southern soul vocabulary, DJ Stormy fills the seat vacated by Nikki DeMarks in the early through late afternoon each Saturday, and last weekend she played David Brinston's five-minute-plus "Kick It" from his classic and long out-of-print album, FLY RIGHT.
Your Daddy B. Nice has been touting "Kick It" for years, even as the FLY RIGHT CD slipped further into oblivion. Johnny-come-lately fans of the current southern soul scene may find it hard to believe that turn-of-the-century songs like Stan Mosley's "Anybody Seen My Boo" and David Brinston's "Kick It" utilized hard-edged rhythm tracks as seductive as today's "Mr. Sexy Man" (Nellie "Tiger" Travis) or Big Yayo's "Cowgirl."
And when your Daddy B. Nice heard the Marshall Jones-produced rhythm track pounding from the stereo speakers last Saturday, it was with a mixture of awe and pleasure that simultaneously catered to my memory bank and my appreciation for the latest, cutting-edge sound. It was the first time in at least a decade I had heard the song on the radio. (Not posted on YouTube until 2011, the song has only received a meager 6,000-something plays.)
And yet--best of all--as "Kick It" was concluding with David Brinston's most passionate growls and yells on record, DJ Stormy exclaimed--"That's my favorite David Brinston song."
....Amen, DJ Stormy. To read Daddy B. Nice's exegesis of "Kick It", go to Dadddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to David Brinston and scroll down to Daddy B. Nice's Original Critique: In Praise of "Kick It".
Listen to David Brinston singing "Kick It" on YouTube.
7.
March 26, 2017: New Album Alert!
Sample/Buy David Brinston's new SIDEPIECE MOTEL album at Amazon.
Track List:
1 Dance with Me
2 I Drinks My Whiskey
3 My Outside Woman
4 I Got You
5 Southern Soul Party
6 Sidepiece Motel
7 I Ain't Goin' Nowhere Tonight
8 She's a Freak
9 Give Me All Your Love
10 You Got to Make a Change
Daddy B. Nice notes: This is David's first album published by Ecko Records since 2010's BEAT IT UP.
8.
December 7, 2017: Originally posted in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
May 22, 2017: DAVID BRINSTON: Sidepiece Motel (Ecko) Four Stars **** Distinguished Effort. Should please old fans and gain new.
David Brinston sounds refreshed and energized from the opening bars of his new CD, SIDEPIECE MOTEL. Faithful readers have become familiar with the less than stellar pattern of recent Brinston CD's and the Daddy B. Nice reviews which--in response--have hopscotched between present-day disappointment and rousing memorials to Brinston's early achievements.
Marking David's first original album on Ecko Records since 2010's Beat It Up, SIDEPIECE MOTEL will quickly remind die-hard Brinston fans of one of his more fondly-remembered, mid-career albums, the self-published MISSISSIPPI BOY, in its attention to and celebration of Delta blues and chitlin' circuit culture.
The first single from the album to chart here (May 2017) is a smashing return to artistic form and evocation of Deep South ennui and coping entitled "I Drinks (sic) My Whiskey":
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .
-------MAY 2017-------
3. "I Drinks My Whiskey"-----David Brinston.
Ohhh, David. My-oh-myyy. You haven't sounded this "wasted" in years, and it is a beautiful thing to hear. And just so readers don't get the wrong impression...It takes supreme alertness and the technique of a star to pull off this kind of authentic "oneness" with a song. From Brinston's new album, SIDEPIECE MOTEL.
Listen to David Brinston singing "I Drinks My Whiskey" on YouTube.
"I Drinks My Whiskey" may be the finest and "bluesiest" ballad Brinston has recorded since the durable "Somebody's Cutting My Cake". Written by James Jackson, one of the most inspired composers to come out of the Memphis area in recent years, "I Drinks My Whiskey" is a heart-breaking piece of T.R.U.T.H. any man can relate to. After a litany of miseries including "they turned my cell phone off," David sings:
"Whenever my life gets rough,
I get into my pickup truck,
And turn the radio on,
And hear me some blues.
And I drinks my whiskey.
Everything's going to be all right,
...For a little while."
It's the "for a little while"--and the pregnant pause that precedes it--that sinks like a hook in the vulnerable soul of any self-medicating man, fearful of substance abuse yet desperate for inner peace. It's the "for awhile" that hurts--that gives the song "bite".
"My Outside Woman," on the other hand, is one of those familiar-sounding, mid-tempo, Ecko records that a southern soul devotee instantly associates with Brinston, O.B. Buchana or Ms. Jody. Written by Raymond Moore and John Ward, who have penned hundreds of like-sounding songs, it nevertheless detours around outright cliche by virtue of its impeccable execution and Brinston's inspired vocal, putting the same listener on notice that even the borderline-trite content on this LP is rendered with fortitude and commitment. That belief in executing detail informs the entire CD. And when David sings--
"Now I'm married to a woman
Who put my love on a shelf.
I didn't want to
But I had to
Find me somebody else..."
--you have the perfect explanation--and the best I've encountered in recent lyrics--why a man is driven to finding a "sidepiece."
SIDEPIECE MOTEL neither avoids the historical David Brinston catalog nor retreads it in banal re-do's. But it does till up familiar ground, so that to a cynically-inclined, onetime Brinston fan, a song like "Southern Soul Party" from the new set can be seen as yet another attempt to bask in the nostalgia of David's justifiably celebrated "Party 'Til The Lights Go Out." But I believe fans will keep returning to "Southern Soul Party," as I did, once the aforesaid commitment to excellence sinks in.
"Southern Soul Party" is self-contained and simple, with an insistent little hook minimized from the old "Party" by composer John Ward, and Brinston brings it off with such insouciance and
southern-soul-insider wit that any thought of "Party" becomes secondary to the "southern soul party" going on right here and right now.
"Sidepiece Motel," the title tune, is fascinating in spite of its melodic familiarity as well. Brinston lets out a "Wooooooo..." near the end of the song that is so intimate it may raise a couple of hairs on your neck.
The album cover art shows a sign emblazoned with "SIDEPIECE MOTEL ("Low Hourly Rate")". Who would come to such suspiciously-named lodgings? Brinston stands underneath, leaning against the motel's front facade. Now where did they shoot that picture? Was it the home of the Louisiana Blues Brothas (and Big Pokey Bear), or was it Adobe photo-shopped? In any case the lyrics remind you of those abortive tourist stays in motels from hell, and let's not even mention the condition of the coverlets.
"You may not have a working TV." (David warns.)
"This ain't no five-star."
David, however, is preoccupied with explaining the "why's" and "where-for's" of one or two-hour trysts at places where--
"If you got your money right
No words will be exchanged."
"She's A Freak" is a re-tuned version of "You're So Freak, Girl" from the classic Brinston album, FLY RIGHT, with "Party 'Til The Lights Go Out (Nothing But A Party)" and "Kick It").
Similarly, this album's "echo" of Brinston's iconic "Kick It," a tune called "I Ain't Goin' Anywhere Tonight," stands on its (modest) own while still relating to the former via its contrarian message. Brinston's vocal here and throughout is inspired. Other songs from the set, like the splendid ballad "I Got You" and the slow-but-steady-rocking "Dance With Me," fit in well.
Who sings like this? Nobody. Strike that. A handful... Robert "The Duke" Tillman. LaMorris Williams, at times. Also young disciple "King" Fred Hicks. Speaking of which, Robert "The Duke" Tillman and David Brinston were peers in the late 90's and early 00's; David's career has been much more productive since then. But if you want to hear David sounding so much like Tillman you'd think it was Tillman (and even more so since we associate Tillman with ballads), listen to "Give Me All Your Love" from this new set by Brinston.
Ecko's track record with publishing David Brinston (approximately 2007-2010) has been mixed. Surely, it never achieved the kind of success both parties envisioned, resulting in a sequence of CD's we associate in retrospect with lone singles (good singles)--"Too Many Women," "Dirty Woman," "Beat It Up," "I Just Love Women"--nevertheless surrounded by a lot of "here-today, gone-tomorrow" material.
SIDEPIECE MOTEL defies all those expectations. Instead of delivering a "knock-out" single and little else--as did past albums--it offers a real, album-like tapestry of music to be enjoyed from beginning to end, a slice-of-life in which no one cut stands head-and-shoulders above the rest (with the possible exception of "I Drinks My Whiskey"), and all are produced to their ultimate fulfillment, with David's vocals providing the crucial fulcrum.
In a very real sense, this new album on Ecko restores Brinston's reputation and unique niche among contemporary southern soul singers as a countrified version of the legendary Al Green. It's one of the highest compliments one can give a southern soul vocalist, but one Brinston richly deserves as he reminds us in track after track what a laser-precise and poignantly-pirouetting vocal instrument can do.
Strong contributors to the CD include Big John Cummings, who did much of the songwriting, and stalwart partners with long Brinston histories, Morris J. Williams and Marshall Jones. Longtime Brinston writer/background singer Linda Stokes isn't listed in the credits, but her background singing--or right-on approximations of it by the Ecko crew of Ward, Cummings, Williams & Terry "Smooth" Johnson--can be heard in "Dance With Me and "She's A Freak".
--Daddy B. Nice
Sample/Buy David Brinston's new SIDEPIECE MOTEL CD at Amazon.
************
************
9.
February 28, 2018:
Daddy B. Nice Announces THE WINNERS of the 2017 (11th Annual) SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC AWARDS.
Best Song by Longtime Veteran Top Contenders:
“Honey Hole” ------ Vickie Baker
“Born Under A Bad Sign” ----- William Bell
“Are You Ready To Love?” ----- Lebrado
“Living In A Rooming House” ----- Carl Sims
“Something To Talk About” ----- Simone De
“Lady Luck” ----- Wilson Meadows
“Back To The Hole In The Wall” ----- Little Kim Stewart
“I Drinks My Whiskey” ---- David Brinston
“I’m In Love By Myself” ---- Peggy Scott-Adams
“Feel Real Good (Remix)” ----- El’ Willie
"Sneakin' & Creepin'" ---- Willie Clayton
Best Song By Longtime Veteran: "I Drinks My Whiskey" by David BrinstonListen to David Brinston singing "I Drinks My Whiskey" on YouTube.
Best Arranger/Producer (Co-Winners!)Top Contenders:
John Ward: Ms. Jody --- "I Had To Lie"; David Brinston -- "I Drinks My Whiskey"; Mr. Sam -- "She Don't Want Me No More"; Joe "Blues" Butler -- "I've Got A Mule To Ride"
Jeter Jones: Jeter Jones -- "Single Footin'," "My Country Girl"
Christopher Mabry: Big Yayo w/ Omar Cunningham & Gentry Jones -- "Bedroom Rodeo"
Beat Flippa: Pokey Bear & Crystal Thomas -- "All I Want Is You"; Sharnette Hyter & Big Cynthia -- "I'm Ready"; Pokey Bear & Bishop Bullwinkle -- "I Can't Be Faithful"; Miss Portia -- "It's Go Cost You"
Mike Lockett: Sharnette Hyter -- "Stilettos & Jeans"
Floyd Hamberlin: Nellie "Tiger" Travis -- "Textual Harassment," "Spacey Love"
El' Willie: El' Willie -- "Feel Real Good (Remix)," "Caller I.D."
Heavy (Highway Heavy) aka Charles Lewis: Adrian Bagher -- "Don't Blame It On Jody," "Dirty"; Sharnette Hyter -- "You Ain't Getting It Here"
Best Arranger/Producer (Co-Winners for work done independently of one another): John Ward / Beat Flippa
Listen to the John Ward production of David Brinston singing "I Drinks My Whiskey" on YouTube.
Listen to the Beat Flippa production of Miss Portia singing "It's Go' Cost You" on YouTube.
See David's other nominations in Daddy B. Nice's Best of 2017.
10.
August 12, 2018:
New CD Review! See Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
June 2, 2018:
New Album Alert!
Sample/Buy David Brinston's new KITTY WHIPPED CD at iTunes.
KITTY WHIPPED TRACK LIST:
1
Kitty Whipped
2
Nothing Like Good Sex
3
Club Booty
4
I'll Do Me a Big Girl
5
I'm Taking a Stand
6
Daisy Dukes with Thigh High Boots
7
Sexy and You Know It
8
Gonna Have a Good Time
9
Buckle Up
10
I Want to Show You Girl
11
Club Booty (Zydeco Remix)
Daddy B. Nice notes:
David Brinston is undergoing a full-blown, career revitalization, following up his critically acclaimed SIDEPIECE MOTEL album (scroll down this page to Tidbits #8 for Daddy B. Nice's review) with his second Ecko release in as many years. Brinston himself wrote much of the material, and the production by John Ward has a comfy, sure-handed, party ambience.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Kitty Whipped" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Sexy And You Know It" on YouTube.
Listen to David Brinston singing "I'll Do Me A Big Girl" on YouTube.
Buy David Brinston's lowest-priced KITTY WHIPPED CD at Target.
--Daddy B. Nice
11.
December 1, 2018: Originally posted in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
August 12, 2018:
DAVID BRINSTON: Kitty Whipped (Ecko Records) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven. I perked up with the first two notes--broad, brash guitar chords--of the album-opening title track of David Brinston's new Kitty Whipped CD. I was reminded of another song I liked, and for a minute (that's an "old-school," sixty-second minute to the millennials) I couldn't place it. Then it came to me... Klass Band Brotherhood's "Back To The Sugaa Shack," in which the almost identical notes are carried by the keyboards. "Sugaa Shack" was a magical record, and "Kitty Whipped" possesses that same, magical instrumental sound, a delight to hear no matter how many times one hears it.
Fifteen years ago, if anyone had asked me if David Brinston would be putting out significant music in 2018, I would have probably shaken my head no. As captivating as his sound was in the late nineties and early aughts, it seemed too ephemeral to sustain. We're talking the early underground hits here--"Party 'Till The Lights Go Out-Nothin' But A Party," "Hit and Run," "Two Way Love Affair" and "Kick It," and the landmark album that included the former and latter, Fly Right--but especially the signature song, "Party 'Til The Lights Go Out".
If you got into that record, you never got out. "Party" became a house with endless rooms, the contrast between the exquisite vocal on the one hand and the hypnotic rhythm track on the other shifting like shade on late-afternoon walls. It was a paradoxical song. You could never really figure out what made it so special, and there seemed no way Brinston was ever going to get that lucky again. There was even the suspicion that mysterious, never-heard-from-again producer Marshall Jones was the secret key to Fly Right's chitlin' circuit cachet, even though it was the vocals--make no mistake about it--that made the records memorable. The vocals blazed a distinct lineage descended from Al Green and passing through to LaMorris Williams and (recently) King Fred.
Over the years there were plenty of choice David Brinston singles to follow, not to mention a handful of great songs no Brinston fan would want to be left without, but in retrospect Brinston's "middle" years were uneven, even lukewarm, the occasional hits looking backward to recreate the turn-of-the-century Brinston brand, and looking backward to remind fans of the "Camelot" that was "Party".
Not so with these last two albums. This album's immediate predecessor, the Ecko-published Sidepiece Motel, was a hint, with several good songs and the critically-acclaimed "I Drinks My Whiskey," a tour de force thrown down like a gauntlet for every other southern soul singer to outdo.
In Kitty Whipped, the second in his new collaboration with Ecko, Brinston busts out. There is no thought of looking back. He's looking forward. He's creating in the moment. Famous popular singers like Loudon Wainwright and Randy Newman would be proud--and right in their bailiwick--recording these songs. And the first couple of times I heard the album, I thought of the debut studio album by The Ramones (yes, the punk band) in 1976. Kitty Whipped has that same zing-zing-zing to it, one snappy song after another, as if the artistry behind the album was limitless.
Two of those jams have already charted here. "I'll Do Me A Big Girl (I'll Do A Slim One Too)," featuring Lucky Love, slipped in at #10 in July's Top Ten Singles with the Daddy B. Nice comment:
"Thumps happily along like a horn-laden, tuba-burping, New Orleans funeral parade.
"I'll Do Me A Big Girl" tackles the implication that "slim girls" are the odd women out in southern soul's obsession/fascination with "big girls". Like many of the songs from the set, the lyrics are funny, with Brinston swearing he won't discriminate. At the end, he inserts a sly and private note: "Because, ----, I wrote this for you."
And "Club Booty," a mid-tempo rocker celebrating juke-joint amenities such as ladies dancing "without any drawers," shot all the way up to #3 in the August countdown. Some people think "Hit And Run" is David Brinston's finest single. They'll want to listen to "Club Booty," which showcases the technical benefits Brinston has achieved collaborating with Ecko's John Ward. Ward's consistently sharp but robust instrumentation gives the music the competence necessary to carry the unflagging swagger in the lyrics.
The liner notes explain the process of putting the album together thus: "Produced by John Ward. Music tracks pre-produced by David Brinston." Background vocals throughout are credited to David, David's wife Terry and Terry "Smooth" Johnson.
The effusive, bass-thumping, fun-loving tracks continue apace. "Daisy Dukes With Thigh High Boots" goes back to the "ATL" for more short, snappy takes on club life. "Buckle Up" chides Brinston's sexual partner to "Buckle up, buckle up/ Give me that green light." David's vocal twists and twirls around each double-entendre with a merriment that's bound to generate bedroom (or bathroom, or kitchen or living room) giggles.
"Nothing Like Good Sex" continues in the same vein, unabashedly carnal and exuberant. The songwriting on this album is simple and first-rate, the bulk of the compositions coming from Brinston himself, with a little John Ward and Raymond Moore product thrown in. The only new element is the intriguing new songwriting trio of Brinston, Theo Price and Josepher Maull, who composed by committee "Nothing Like Good Sex" and "I'll Do Me A Big Girl". "I'll Do Me A Big Girl" is a jam anyone--bluesman, R&B'er, rock-and-roller--would love. You can visualize people hoisting drinks to it.
Although the set is primarily a party record, there are a couple of mid-tempo tunes that slow things down: "Sexy And You Know It" and "I Want To Show You, Girl". Both sustain the high quality of the overall disc. "I Want To Show You, Girl," in fact, is impressive. It grows on you, and it too may be a candidate for a hit single.
The lone ballad is "I'm Taking A Stand," another composition authored by David himself, with tasteful lead guitar and background singing by the folks quoted above. A contemplative love song with the soulful depth of "Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake," it too is a potential single.
On the downside, the melody and tempo is lost in the uninspired zydeco remix of "Club Booty". Nor was I crazy about Brinston's collaboration with Ju Evans: "Gonna Have A Good Time." Awfully generic tune, and Evans is not a great vocalist--more of a background singer. You'll notice the proceedings pick up in the second half of the record, when both singers take part. (And neither song detracts much from the album's overall excellence.) I do like the fact David's mixing it up with other musicians, though--for example, with Lucky Love in "I'll Do Me A Big Girl". It keeps him loose. I like my David Brinston loose.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy David Brinston's KITTY WHIPPED CD at Amazon.
Listen to David Brinston singing "Kitty Whipped" on YouTube.
See Daddy B. Nice's DAVID BRINSTON: NEW ALBUM ALERT!
If You Liked. . . You'll Love
If you liked Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," you'll love David Brinston's "Kick It."
Honorary "B" Side
"Kick It"
|
|
Party Till The Lights Go Out (Nothing But A Party)
CD: Fly Right Label: Suzie Q
|
Kick It
CD: Fly Right Label: Suzie Q
|
Hard Working Lady
CD: Rockin' Label: Waldoxy
|
Hit And Run
CD: Hit And Run Label: Jomar
|
I Just Love Women
CD: Party Time Label: Ecko
|
I Love Being Tied Down
CD: Too Hot Label: R&B
|
Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake
CD: Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake Label: Ecko
|
Two Way Love Affair
CD: Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake Label: Ecko
|
Beat It Up
CD: Beat It Up Label: Ecko
|
Diamond In The Middle
CD: Back On Track Label: Delta Down
|
Sample or Buy Back On Track |
Dirty Woman - (featuring J. Blackfoot)
CD: Dirty Woman Label: Ecko
|
Good Woman (With Some Bad Habits)
CD: Mississippi Boy Label: R&B
|
I Can't Win
CD: Rockin' Label: Waldoxy
|
I Caught Ya
CD: Fly Right Label: Suzie Q
|
Mississippi Boy
CD: Mississippi Boy Label: R&B
|
Rockin'
CD: Rockin' Label: Waldoxy
|
Something I Want
CD: Dirty Woman Label: Ecko
|
Too Many Women
CD: Here I Go Again Label: Ecko
|
You're So Freak, Girl
CD: Fly Right Label: Suzie Q
|
Bus Stop
CD: Mississippi Boy Label: R&B
|
Don't Tease Me With It
CD: Dirty Woman Label: Ecko
|
I Paid The Price
CD: Fly Right Label: Suzie Q
|
I'll Be There
CD: Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake Label: Ecko
|
Junk In Her Trunk
CD: Rockin' Label: Waldoxy
|
Showdown
CD: It's Gonna Be A Showdown Label: Delta Down
|
Trouble Maker
CD: Hit And Run Label: Jomar
|
|