T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

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"Try Me"

T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Composed by Terry Kimble

January 1, 2021:

T.K. Soul is now the #6-ranked southern soul artist on Daddy B Nice's new Top-100 Chart---The New Generation.

Click here.

November 28, 2020:

NEW ALBUM ALERT!:

Buy T.K. Soul's new CHOCOLATE JAMZ album at Apple.

CHOCOLATE JAMZ TRACK LIST:

1.
Sippin and Trippin

2.
They Just Wonna

3.
Bout to Go Stepping

4.
Put It on Replay

5.
Viral

6.
What Cha Drinking

7.
Thats Life

8.
Hey We Wonna Party

9.
Love My Fans 4 Life

10.
I Got That Feeling

Daddy B. Nice notes:

"Time will tell
Just how things gonna be.
If we're together,
It would be so nice.
But if we don't be,
That's life."

"That's Life" marks a powerful, new phase in T.K. Soul's career. The music is superbly executed yet coldly realistic. "I was gonna be one of the world's greatest entertainers/ And you were gonna be my queen." "That's Life" is a sober self-portrait by a performer who has seen it all and done it all, including fame and shame, gratification and misery. This is as far away as you can get from the "feel-good" music of, say, T.K.'s own "They Wonna Party With Me"---with its deliriously "riding-high" verses---

"Stepped out of the car.
Feel like a star.
They saying my name.
Boy, things have changed."

And yet, ironically---and although it's not always easy to listen to---"That's Life" comes off not only as admirable but courageous, a fitting flip-side to the entertainer's high of "They Wonna Party (With Me)". T.K. Soul is as tough as a stick of hickory, and it's hard to think of another soul performer who could deliver "That's Life" with similar conviction.

As a set, CHOCOLATE JAMZ ranges across a bewildering spectrum of styles: the whimsy of "What Cha Drinking," to the celebratory connectivity of "Love My Fans For Life" to the early-rap, Sugarhill replication of "Hey, We Wonna Party" to the electronic coziness of "Bout To Go Stepping," the set takes the listener on a roller coaster of diverse styles and techniques.

DBN notes: T.K. Soul has also just released a new compilation of twenty of his most popular songs. Scroll down to the piece immediately following.

Listen to all the tracks from T.K. Soul's new CHOCOLATE JAMZ album on YouTube.

Buy T.K. Soul's new CHOCOLATE JAMZ album at Amazon.

Listen to T.K. Soul's new CHOCOLATE JAMZ album on Spotify.

November 28, 2020:

NEW ALBUM ALERT!:

Buy T.K. Soul's new SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY album at Apple.

SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY TRACK LIST:

1.
Ride or Die
Play
2.
Puff Puff No Give
Play
3.
Caught up in Doing Wrong
Play
4.
I’m Looking for a Lady
Play
5.
Somebody Loves You
Play
6.
Single Woman
Play
7.
I Wanna Hold My Baby
Play
8.
If You Sexy Clap Ya Hands
Play
9.
We Gonna Party Tonight
Play
10.
The Zydeco Bounce
Play
11.
Rehab
Play
12.
They Wanna Party
Play
13.
Try Me Tonight
Play
14.
Party Like Back in the Day
Play
15.
It Ain’t Cheating Til U Get Caught
Play
16.
Cheating and Lying
Play
17.
If You Don’t Want Me
Play
18.
My Kind of Girl
Play
19.
Where Jody Stay
Play
20.
Meet Me at the Spot

Daddy B. Nice notes:

Rejoice, T.K. Soul fans. SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY is hands-down the best collection of T.K. Soul singles ever, from the song that started it all, "Meet Me At The Spot," to
"Caught Up In Doing Wrong" to "If You Sexy Clap Ya Hands" and so many more.

This album is an express lane to T.K.'s best work.

Listen to all the tracks from T.K. Soul's new SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY album on YouTube.

Buy T.K. Soul's new SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY album at Napster.

Buy T.K. Soul's new SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY album at Apple.

Listen to T.K. Soul's new SOUTHERN SOUL ROYALTY album at KKBOX.

**********
Note: T. K. Soul also appears on Daddy B. Nice's original Top 100 Southern Soul Artists (90's-00's). The "21st Century" after T. K. Soul'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.
*************

*************
For the latest updates on T.K. Soul, scroll down to the "Tidbits" section. To automatically link to T.K. Soul's extensive charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other citations on the website, go to "Soul, T.K." in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
************

********

Listen to T. K. Soul singing "Try Me" on YouTube while you read.

--Daddy B. Nice

About T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

T. K. Soul is a reedy tenor in the Michael Jackson mode, one of the few Southern Soul singers not to tout gospel-singing in childhood (it shows in his vocal style, which has a lighter touch) and the composer of many songs that have gone on to become Southern Soul standards (with a wide spectrum of styles and arrangements).

Terence Kimble, aka T. K. Soul, was born in Winnfield, Louisiana in 1964. Kimble started out as a songwriter ("Wiggle," "Party Like We Used To"), producer and keyboard player for Willie Clayton, his first big break coming in 2000 and 2001 on the Call Me Mr. C and The Little Giant Of Soul albums by Clayton.

Kimble wrote all tracks (as would become his custom) on One Woman Man, his recording debut as a solo artist, released in 2002 on his own imprint, Soulful Records/Raw Entertainment.

"Meet Me At The Spot Tonight," from ONE WOMAN MAN, became T. K. Soul's first radio single. Although it had a different, "slicker" sound than the southern soul of the day, "Meet Me At The Spot" gained a foothold in Jackson, Vicksburg and Greenville, Mississippi, the small but vastly influential hub of the Southern Soul universe.

"Straight, No Chaser," "My Life" and "One Woman Man" from the album also garnered some radio play.

T. K. Soul: The Bad Boy Of Southern Soul (Raw Ent. Soulful 2003), seized the "bad boy of Southern Soul" label from fellow recording artist (the late) Reggie P., causing some short-lived hostility in some circles. Soul later said he hadn't realized he'd encroached on another's name. "My Kind Of Girl" was the most commonly-played single from the set, but the CD wasn't well-received at the time and posterity has generally regarded it as T.K.'s most dispensable.

The performer followed with his third album, Love Games (Soulful 2004), now considered T. K. Soul's "break-out" into Southern Soul "headliner" status. The album began with five songs that achieved considerable radio popularity:

"Cheating And Lying," which grafted a pop-like melody onto a sure-fire chitlin' circuit theme, became Soul's most important song to date, defining his street-wise, story-telling personality.

"Let's Stay Home Tonight" burnished Soul's already-growing reputation for interestingly tempo-ed, melody-rich ballads.

"Candy Girl" had the bouncing, snare-heavy beat of "Cheating And Lying" and the soon-to-be-recorded (on the next album) "Party Like Back In The Day."

"We Be Slidin'" was Soul's first successful synth-vocal. Although it sounds fairly ordinary now, it was viewed as strange and experimental in southern soul circles at the time.

Finally, "You Ring My Bell" constituted T. K. Soul's first legitimate stab at a masterpiece.
Here's a contemporaneous account from Daddy B. Nice at the time:

1. March 16, 2006. T. K. Soul's "You Ring My Bell" continues to please. In fact, the Love Games CD, with both "Cheating And Lying" and "You Ring My Bell," is slowly but surely headed for Southern Soul classic status. In an informal survey of chitlin' circuit station playlists through the first quarter of 2006, it was hard to find a deejay who was not including either "Cheating And Lying" or "You Ring My Bell" in his priority queue. This is an incredible feat when you recall that material from Love Games hit the air waves back in 2004. That's over a year of constant radio exposure for "Cheating And Lying" in particular.

So why does Daddy B. Nice have such a fondness for "You Ring My Bell"? T. K. Soul delivers his best vocal ever on this track, and the chorus is a roundelay with a tidal pull as strong as the full moon.

Meanwhile, T. K. Soul is capitalizing on his success by touring extensively, including spring dates headlining concerts at the Main Street Heritage Fest in Port Gibson, Ms. and a date (along with Reggie P. of "Why Me" fame) at the Vicksburg, Ms. City Auditorium.

(The reference to the joint live concert appearance with Reggie P. underlines the apparent lack of acrimony between the two performers by this time.)

If LOVE GAMES was an admirable outing, Undisputed, Soul's fourth LP (Soulful 2007), was still better. Again, the contemporaneous account:

August 10, 2007. T. K. Soul's new disc, Undisputed: The Album, powered by two strong chitlin' circuit singles, "Party Like Back In The Day" and "It Ain't Cheatin' Til You Get Caught," has entered the Billboard R&B chart at #85, not to mention the Billboard Blues chart at #9, a rare feat for a Southern Soul album. The chart success testifies to the pent-up demand for the CD, released and distributed nationally in late June, due to heavy airplay of the two singles on the Stations of the Deep South throughout the late winter and spring.

The CD artwork features T.K. in the boxing robe (emblazoned with "undisputed bad boy of Southern Soul") he uses onstage in concert. DBN.

But "Party Like Back In The Day" and "It Ain't Cheatin' Til You Get Caught" were not the only singles from the album. In due time "#1 Fan," "Good Love" and--most prominently--"Try Me" all captured the fancy of the Southern Soul fan base. "Try Me," especially, was revered.

From an unapologetically-gloating section of an article entitled IN PRAISE OF "REHAB" that ran at the time (Daddy B. Nice's Corner October 31, 2009):

Nobody--and I mean nobody--writes a better Southern Soul love ballad than T. K. Soul. When The Undisputed album (his last) came out, I felt lonely standing at the platform while the bandwagon for "Party Like Back In The Day" and "It Ain't Cheatin' Until You Get Caught" took off. While I acknowledged the former's danceability and the latter's thematic strength, they just didn't enthuse me.

"Try Me," the love ballad from the album, captivated me from the very beginning. I pegged it as the "soul" of the album and the "very best cut" on the album, and time has born me out. "Try Me" has gone on to become one of the most heavily-played classics on Southern Soul radio. DBN.

T. K. Soul's fifth album, The Evolution of Soul (Soulful 2009), continued the unprecedented upward trajectory of the artist's output since 2004'S LOVE GAMES, securing popular singles with "Rehab," "Zydeco Bounce" and "They Wanna Party (With Me)." Even the album's second-tier songs--"You Got To Cheat," "She Told On Herself," "That's How I Feel," "Soul Ship" and "Baby I Love You"--garnered considerable air play.

"Rehab" in particular drew critical kudos.

Listen to T. K. Soul singing "Rehab" on YouTube while you read.

From Daddy B. Nice's "In Praise Of Rehab" (Daddy B. Nice's Corner (October 31, 2009):

One seldom finds such fine technique in the company of such convincing emotion. The song is tight. The vocal is as masterful as they come. Every musical phrase is a pleasant surprise. You can listen to it again and again, marveling at this or that melodic element.

"Rehab" begins in the musical territory first turned over by "It Ain't Cheating Until You Get Caught," but "Rehab" only takes that song's considerable accomplishments as a starting point.

T. K. pares down the sound for "Rehab," substituting a more contemplative organ-keyboard sound in addition to a traditional piano in places. His rhythm section is impeccable, finalized with simple but echo-prone, hand-clap/wood block punctuation.

Words, however, don't do justice to the melody. Like some of the early Lennon/McCartney songs, the stanzas of "Rehab" are so musically original they almost leave you gasping. The stanzas are so good they sound like inspired bridges, and the bridge, when it comes--

"She was so stimulating,
Had me always waiting.
Wasn't loving me like she should,
So when she did I thought it was so good. . . "

--is supremely successful.

Whatever else can be said about EVOLUTION OF SOUL (and there is much more to the album), I can confidently predict one thing. "Rehab" will join "Try Me" and "You Ring My Bell" and "#1 Fan" as T. K. Soul slow classics for posterity. From a purely musical standpoint--disregarding lyrics, theme, and topicality--"Rehab" may very well be the best song T. K. Soul has ever recorded.

But "Rehab" was by no means the album's only claim to fame. Despite less-than-unanimous reaction from Southern Soul traditionalists, "Zydeco Bounce"--a fast-tempo-ed, Southern Soul-Zydeco hybrid, secured unheard-of national exposure when big-label Universal Records took over the hot dance single's distribution.

"They Wanna Party," a vocally-enhanced vehicle in the mode of "We Be Slidin'," became a "sleeper" radio hit. And years after the album's release, solidly-melodic, skillfully-arranged "B-sides" like the anthem-like "That's How I Feel," "(Stepping On The) Soul Ship" (named after T.K.'s annual winter Bahamas cruise ship "tour"), "Baby I Love You," "She Told On Herself" and "You Got To Cheat" were still Southern Soul radio fodder.

As solid as his material was over the three-album span, T.K. backed it up with extensive touring--the most consistent of any of the younger-generation stars--doing shows in one small Delta town after another (along with larger festival shows). His road band became regionally famous and went on to back up friendly rival Sir Charles Jones.

In 2010 T.K. Soul joined fellow artists Vick Allen and Omar Cunningham (both on the Reggie McDaniel Soul 1st indie label) in recording the single "Haters Gone Hate" (T.K. Soul/Soulful).

Soul went all-digital with his sixth album, following the example of fellow Louisiana artist Cupid (among others), and the results were mixed. Whether it was the the lack of hard product in the still ephemeral world of digital marketing, or whether it was just a rare outing of sub-par, unrealized material, Ghetto Superstar (Soulful 2012) never seemed to "materialize" to any extent on the Southern Soul circuit nor inspire much attention from Southern Soul media and fans.

Marking the first time since THE BAD BOY OF SOUTHERN SOUL that a T.K. Soul album had not notched a five-star "recommended single" in Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide, the collection had an aura of experimentation. Despite ending Soul's run of smash Southern Soul singles, however, the Ghetto Superstar set contained some worthy tracks: among them "Street Light," a quasi-acapella slice of autobiographical nostalgia, "We Gonna Party Tonight" (a slow-bubbling, likable dance floor ditty) and "Ghetto Superstar" (a full-blown, mid-eighties-like disco arrangement grafted onto a funk rhythm track).

The Hit Maker: 10 Years of T. K. Soul, a "best-of" compilation bringing together such singles as "Try Me," "Rehab," "Party Like Back In The Day," "Zydeco Bounce," "Meet Me At The Spot," "It Ain't Cheatin' Until You Get Caught," "Cheating And Lying" and more, was released in 2012 (Terence Kimble/Soulful Records).

**********

August 25, 2013:

I once wrote that young Southern Soul stars shouldn't worry about writing "southern soul" songs, just write the best songs they can come up with--songs that transcend all genres--and the "southern soul" will take care of itself.

T. K. Soul does that. He goes his own way. That's why, at this point in time, I don't fault him at all for the experimentation in "Ghetto Superstar." (After a trilogy of great albums? Are you kidding?) T.K.'s just doing his thing, stretching out, and he'll come back even stronger. You wait and see, #1 fan.

--Daddy B. Nice

Tidbits

GREAT SOUTHERN SOUL SONGS WITH CHEESY PROGRAMMED HORNS (THAT YOU WILL NEVERTHELESS LOVE 'TIL THE DAY YOU DIE)

--------

"Try Me"
T. K. Soul

"Money Can't Buy Me Love"
Jackie Neal

"Life On The Line"
Lee Fields

And so on.... Very select company, and....

Yes, T.K. Soul's "Try Me" is at the top of the list, and now that your Daddy B. Nice has ranked "Try Me" the number-four song in contemporary southern soul, I'm thinking about those "cheesy horns," because in ranking "Try Me" so highly its flaws become even more exaggerated and hard to explain to those who might say, "It sounds like a demo."

Can the fourth-ranked song in the 21st Century Southern Soul canon really sound this...thin?

Well, yes, it will have to, because it features the songwriting apex of arguably contemporary Southern Soul's greatest songwriter--and not only that. It also features that singer/songwriter in the midst of a vocal so lucid the performer's heart is transparent.

On first impression it's impossible to assess how durable--how lasting, how quenching--that emotional transparency is, but as countless Southern Soul fans have come to realize listening to the tune over the years, "Try Me" broadcasts a vivid message and melody with chord changes as fresh as the morning breeze. Most of all, the song is pure. It's straight from the heart. It never grows old.

"Why don't you
Let yourself go?
Go and get
With T. K. Soul?"

And how about this one?

"I'll be a gentleman,
Baby."

To true Southern Soul fans, these lines are touchstones--instantly recognizable.

But I think almost anyone who has heard T. K. Soul's "Try Me"--which note for note has more heart than any other song he's ever done--has imagined how spectacular the song would sound with a Revelations-style, real-horn section inserted into that instrumental hook of the chorus.

I understand the context of how the song was originally recorded, buried in all the other riches of the UNDISPUTED album--just another song at the time, unheard, untested, and therefore...unknown.

But now that the song has proven to be a veritable signpost of Southern Soul music, T. K. Soul owes it to his fans (and to himself) to re-record "Try Me." This song could be overwhelming with a live-instrument-driven arrangement.

But save the vocal from the original--it will never be duplicated, not even from T. K. himself. Make it a remix.

To read more about "Try Me," go to Daddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to T. K. Soul.

--Daddy B. Nice

**********

5.

February 23, 2014: NEW ALBUM ALERT!

Sample/Buy T.K. Soul's LIFE AFTER LOVE CD.

Listen to T.K. Soul singing "I'm Looking For A Lady," the new single from the album, on T.K. Soul's MySpace.

See Daddy B. Nice's #1 "Breaking" Southern Soul Single for March 2014: T.K. Soul's "I'm Looking For A Lady"

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6.

August 1, 2014: COLUMN ALERT: T.K. SOUL IS FEATURED PROMINENTLY THROUGHOUT DADDY B. NICE'S NEW "CORNER" RECAP OF 3 SOUTHERN SOUL CONCERTS IN 30 HOURS"

See DADDY B NICE TELLS STORIES ABOUT THE WEEKEND CLUBBING IN THE DELTA on Daddy B. Nice's Corner.

Listen to Daddy B. Nice's featured T.K. Soul single from the story, "Now This Is A Party (For The Grown Folks)" on YouTube.

The song also charted on....

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

----------JULY 2014------------

2. "Now This Is A Party For The Grown Folks"-------T.K. Soul

It's the summer of 2014 and it's great to be alive, with T.K. Soul grooving on the radio, sporting impeccable vocals and feathery-light acoustic guitar, the culmination of everything we could have hoped for from this "phenom" a dozen years ago.

This tune brings out the "Michael Jackson" in T.K. At times, aided by T.K.'s extraordinary confidence, technique and maturity, the resemblance is eerie.

And while you're at it, check out:

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

----------MAY 2014------------

4. "Caught Up In Doing Wrong"-----------T.K. Soul

Listen to T.K. Soul singing "I'm Caught Up In Doing Wrong" on YouTube.

***********

7.

February 1, 2016: 2015 Southern Soul Music Award Winner

Hardest-Touring Crowd-Pleaser: T.K. Soul

See Daddy B. Nice’s Best of 2015.

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8.

July 1, 2016: New Corner Article

T.K. Soul’s New Retrospective LEGACY, Why Not A Remix Of “Try Me”?, & The Demise of the Blues Harp (ala Bobby Rush) in Southern Soul

See Daddy B. Nice's new column on T.K. Soul at Daddy B. Nice's Corner.

Sample/Buy T.K. Soul's new LEGACY collection at CD Universe.

9.

June 13, 2015: RE-POSTED FROM DADDY B NICE'S NEW CD REVIEWs

August 7, 2014: Caution, some of the YouTube videos contained in the links in the article have since been deleted.

T.K. SOUL: Life After Love (T.K. Soul/CD Baby) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

T.K. Soul's ground-breaking new album, LIFE AFTER LOVE, defers to the audience's wishes and needs as perhaps no other Southern Soul album has in years. It features T.K. at the peak of his creative and technical powers, with his love for his listeners at such a high level the album fairly pulses with emotional solace and buoyant optimism.

"T.K. Soul,
That's who I am,
Meet me on the floor,
This is your jam."

So begins the first song of the set, "Now This Is The Party (For The Grown Folks)," an updating of the fan-friendly "#1 Fan." But as good as "#1 Fan" was at the time, "Now This Is A Party" represents a giant leap forward in both vocal styling and production expertise.

The scintillating textures T.K. captures with his acoustic guitar (abetted by Stevie J's guitar overlays) would lapse into folk if not for the subtle but unmistakable funk the artist infuses into the song's cradle-rocking rhythmic line, a kind of ebb-and-flow tempo that would do Nile Rogers (David Bowie's "Let's Dance") proud.

But more about "Now This Is The Party" later.

The first single from the album, "I'm Looking For A Lady," now a radio favorite across the chitlin' circuit, first charted here in March at #1, ahead of the album's release, with the following tongue-in-cheek commentary:

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

----------MARCH 2014------------

"I'm Looking For A Lady"-------------------T.K. Soul

Dare we say....the Return of T.K. Soul?

In a case similar to the late Michael Jackson’s, the real T.K. Soul, while recording a “stepping” song in 2012, was abducted and replaced by aliens. The aliens co-opted the song, the album (Ghetto Superstar) and Soul’s body until—in 2014—unable to withstand a ten-minute trance during which TK played “Where I’m From” over and over, the invaders’ heads exploded just like the Martians in “Mars Attacks” when they heard yodeling country music.

Happily for Southern Soul fans, the survivors returned to their own galaxy and a rejuvenated T.K. Soul penned the instant classic “Looking For A Lady”--not to mention the superb new album surrounding it--in one dazzling swoop of pent-up inspiration.

Although the album was wildly experimental and uneven, "Ghetto Superstar" (the single) was actually an exuberant and more charismatic track than hinted above--the commentary more of a sneaky critical jab at the monotony of "Where I'm From," one of two fast songs from the new album (the other is "Get It") that might be labeled generic.

However, watching T.K. Soul perform fast jams in clubs recently, it didn't escape your Daddy B. Nice's notice that un-southern-soul-like fast songs ("Zydeco Bounce," anyone?) do lend themselves to dance-floor participation in a way that classic mid-tempo southern soul does not.

In stark contrast to the repetitive, minimalist hooks of "Where I'm From" and "Get It," "I'm Looking For A Lady" is conspicuously sumptuous and melodic, just a notch short of the sentimental effulgence of urban R&B balladeers (Vandross, Houston, Carey, Wilson, Beyonce), a characteristic no doubt attributable to up-and-coming performer/producer Ricky White, who co-wrote and co-produced the tune, although not with the dreary, tinny, horn-programming sameness that marred his recent Ricky White Presents Combination 2 sampler. At this point, T.K. is far too sophisticated for that. He embraces the structure of Ricky White's composition and makes it totally and triumphantly his.

The late, great Michael Jackson has been a long-running motif in Daddy B. Nice's commentaries of T.K. Soul. Like Michael, T.K. was less immersed in gospel music than many of his compatriots in contemporary Southern Soul, giving his songs (beginning with "Meet Me At The Spot") a different, more pop/commercial sound. The biography section of my Artist Guide to T.K. Soul begins:

T. K. Soul is a reedy tenor in the Michael Jackson mode....

...And four months after charting "I'm Looking For A Lady" at #1 and two months after charting the affecting, contemplative ballad "Caught Up In Doing Wrong" at #4 (May 2014), your Daddy B. Nice returned to the Michael Jackson comparisons to describe the pristine focus and quality of T.K. Soul's music.

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .

----------JULY 2014------------

2. "Now This Is A Party For The Grown Folks"-------T.K. Soul

It's the summer of 2014 and it's great to be alive, with T.K. Soul grooving on the radio, sporting impeccable vocals and feathery-light acoustic guitar, the culmination of everything we could have hoped for from this "phenom" a dozen years ago.

This tune brings out the "Michael Jackson" in T.K. At times, aided by T.K.'s extraordinary confidence, technique and maturity, the resemblance is eerie.

Having listened to the full CD of LIFE AFTER LOVE many times since, your Daddy B. Nice would go even further and posit what may sound sacrilegious to Michael Jackson fans. T.K. Soul's vocals are even better than MJ's early and late-period work, avoiding the thinness of MJ's vocals up to "Human Nature" and steering clear of the attenuated pomp of MJ's vocals after "Billy Jean."

T.K.'s tenor, while sacrificing none of the radiance of Michael's best work (an outstanding accomplishment in itself), has a wholesome, healthy, masculine edge that had leached away from Michael's vocals in the last years, as he became ever more agoraphobic and drug-dependent.

Comparing anyone to the biggest R&B star of the last quarter-century is high--and from a hater's perspective, possibly damning--praise, but I defy anyone to listen to LIFE AFTER LOVE and find another artistic source more worthy of correlation. Other than the two dance jams already mentioned, there is not a song in the set that doesn't illuminate a musical journey of jaw-dropping emotional empathy and technical sophistication.

From the Django Reinhardt/Charlie Byrd-like jazz stylings of "Somebody Loves You" and "Everything" to the stately, classic, "You Ring My Bell" soulfulness of "I Stay Ready," what's most amazing about this album is the "newness" of a sound which yet comes across as pure Southern Soul.

With the assistance of the aforementioned Ricky White and Stevie J., in addition to Tonya Youngblood (background vocals), Wolf Jones (co-singing "That Kind Of Man"), Forest Gordon (recording/mixing) and the artist's trusty Apple iPad AKAI IMPC on production, T.K. Soul's LIFE AFTER LOVE is a CD no true Southern Soul fan can do without.

--Daddy B. Nice

Sample/Buy T.K. Soul's LIFE AFTER LOVE CD.

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10.

November 26, 2017: Re-Posted from Daddy B. Nice's "News & Notes; November 6, 2017"---Daddy B. Nice's Corner

3. The "Living Blues" Comes To Oxford, MS.

For many years, your Daddy B. Nice has teased Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi and "Living Blues" magazine, for completely ignoring (in terms of gigs and media) the southern soul musicians teeming just to the south. At last, a bona fide southern soul concert will be held Saturday, November 18, 2017, at The Martin Center, 1013 Jackson Avenue East. And who else but indefatigable touring artist T.K. Soul to initiate the town in southern soul music? See Daddy B. Nice's Concert Calendar.

In fact, if you can visualize Mississippi-Delta-based southern soul as a pressure cooker and imagine it superimposed on a map of the southeastern United States, then Oxford, Clarksdale and Memphis form a kind of east-to-west wall at the northern latitude along the Mississippi-Tennessee border, with the impenetrable "Game of Thrones"-like wall of Nashville to the north. As a result, the pressure of all that pent-up southern soul blows out to the east, curling up through Alabama into the Carolinas, and to the west (along with zydeco), sweeping into Louisiana, Arkansas and eastern Texas. (I should draw a map.) In the meantime, the three aforementioned cities cleave to blues preservation. Stax, Hi and southern soul's glory days in the case of Memphis. Mid-20th-century guitar-blues in Clarksdale's clubs and Oxford's influential magazine. With scant nods of attention to the southern soul music teeming in the rural areas all around them.

--Daddy B. Nice

11.

April 1, 2019:

NEW ALBUM ALERT!:

Sample/Buy new T.K. Soul's new album UNTOUCHABLE at Amazon.

UNTOUCHABLE TRACK LIST:

1
Zydeco Swing Out

2
Play Something with a Beat

3
Puff Puff No Give

4
Ride or Die

5
Its Ya Birthday

6
Love Is the New Hate

7
That Kind Of Man

8
Girl Bye

9
The Ladies Love to Slide

10
TK @ The Koko

Daddy B. Nice notes:

In his first set of new material since 2014's LIFE AFTER LOVE, T.K. Soul abandons the pristine, guitar-driven sound that captivated so many fans of that album. (Tucka seemingly appropriated that instrumental sound for his new album, WORKING WITH THE FEELING.) In its stead T.K. returns to a more simplistic, at times glib, keyboard/synthesizer instrumentation recalling Carl Marshall's later work. While interesting and at times experimental, as a whole the songs lack the heft and durability of T.K.'s many hit singles. Knowing the heart T.K. has poured into his music, fans will forgive the techno-slanted production, but they may be scratching their heads at this release--and adjusting expectations may be in order. Two of the more compelling, if not slam-dunk-successful, tunes from the set are "The Ladies Love To Slide" and "Girl Bye," the former "techno" and the latter "experimental".

Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . .

-------APRIL 2019-------

7. "The Ladies Love To Slide"

Beneath its synth-funk-disco exterior, there's a good and even personable dance-floor jam. Play it a few times. From T.K. Soul's unexpectedly idiosyncratic new album, Untouchable.

Listen to T.K. Soul singing "The Ladies Love To Slide" on YouTube.
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Listen to T.K. Soul singing "The Ladies Love To Slide" on YouTube.

Listen to T.K. Soul singing "Girl Bye" on YouTube.

Listen to all the tracks from T.K. Soul's new UNTOUCHABLE album on YouTube.

**************

Buy T.K. Soul's new UNTOUCHABLE album at CD Baby.

Buy new T.K. Soul album UNTOUCHABLE at Amazon.

Buy T.K. Soul's new UNTOUCHABLE album at iTunes.

Honorary "B" Side

"Rehab"

Sample or Buy Try Me by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Try Me

CD: Undisputed
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Undisputed

Sample or Buy Rehab by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Rehab

CD: The Evolution of Soul
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
The Evolution of Soul

Sample or Buy #1 Fan by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

#1 Fan

CD: Undisputed
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Undisputed

Sample or Buy Cheating And Lying by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Cheating And Lying

CD: Love Games
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Love Games

Sample or Buy I'm Looking For A Lady by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

I'm Looking For A Lady

CD: Life After Love
Label: TK Soul/Soulful

Sample or Buy
Life After Love

Sample or Buy It Ain’t Cheatin’ Until You Get Caught by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

It Ain’t Cheatin’ Until You Get Caught

CD: Undisputed
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Undisputed

Sample or Buy Meet Me At The Spot by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Meet Me At The Spot

CD: One Woman Man
Label: Raw Ent./Soulful

Sample or Buy
One Woman Man

Sample or Buy My Life by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

My Life

CD: One Woman Man
Label: Raw Ent./Soulful

Sample or Buy
One Woman Man

Sample or Buy That's How I Feel by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

That's How I Feel

CD: The Evolution of Soul
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
The Evolution of Soul

Sample or Buy They Wanna Party (With Me) by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

They Wanna Party (With Me)

CD: The Hit Maker: 10 Years of T. K. Soul
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
The Hit Maker: 10 Years of T. K. Soul

Sample or Buy You Ring My Bell by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

You Ring My Bell

CD: Love Games
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Love Games

Sample or Buy Zydeco Bounce by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Zydeco Bounce

CD: The Hit Maker: 10 Years of T. K. Soul
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
The Hit Maker: 10 Years of T. K. Soul

Sample or Buy Good Love by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Good Love

CD: Undisputed
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Undisputed

Sample or Buy Let's Stay Home Tonight by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Let's Stay Home Tonight

CD: Love Games
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Love Games

Sample or Buy My Kind Of Girl by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

My Kind Of Girl

CD: Bad Boy Of Southern Soul
Label: Raw Ent./Soulful

Sample or Buy
Bad Boy Of Southern Soul

Sample or Buy Party Like Back In The Day by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Party Like Back In The Day

CD: Undisputed
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Undisputed

Sample or Buy Straight No Chaser by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Straight No Chaser

CD: One Woman Man
Label: Raw Ent./Soulful

Sample or Buy
One Woman Man

Sample or Buy Street Light by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Street Light

CD: Ghetto Superstar
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Ghetto Superstar

Sample or Buy We Be Slidin' by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

We Be Slidin'

CD: Love Games
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Love Games

Sample or Buy We Gonna Party Tonight by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

We Gonna Party Tonight

CD: Ghetto Superstar
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Ghetto Superstar

Sample or Buy Haters Gone Hate (w/ Vick Allen, Omar Cunningham by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

Haters Gone Hate (w/ Vick Allen, Omar Cunningham

CD: Haters Gone Hate Single w/ Vick Allen, Omar Cunnin
Label: T. K. Soul / Soulful

Sample or Buy
Haters Gone Hate Single w/ Omar Cunningham, Vick Allen

Sample or Buy She's Bad by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

She's Bad

CD: One Woman Man
Label: Raw Ent./Soulful

Sample or Buy
One Woman Man

Sample or Buy The Greatest Emotion by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

The Greatest Emotion

CD: Ghetto Superstar
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Ghetto Superstar

Sample or Buy The Ladies Love To Slide by T. K. Soul (Now #6 on the New Generation Chart)

The Ladies Love To Slide

CD: Untouchable
Label: Soulful

Sample or Buy
Untouchable

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