Wendell B: Departed 2023
Daddy B. Nice's #8 ranked Southern Soul Artist
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Wendell B: Departed 2023Daddy B. Nice's #8 ranked Southern Soul Artist |
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"Get 'Cha Head Right" Wendell B: Departed 2023 December 1, 2023: WENDELL B: DEPARTED 2023**************************Listen to Wendell B singing "Get'cha Head Right" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B singing "Just Don't Understand You" on YouTube. September 23, 2023:  News & Notes Wendell B's passing has ignited a resurgence of interest in his work, with multiple albums on the charts, including his last and greatest, Real Talk, at #1. See Daddy B. Nice's 5-star review (scroll down this page to Tidbits #3).....
Wendell B, the "Barry White" of Southern Soul music, has passed away.Wendell Brown, aka Wendell B, died peacefully from cancer complications early Thursday, August 3, 2023. Wendell Brown had been noticeably absent from the concert scene for the past year, and his battle with cancer had been kept secret by his family. Wendell had been scheduled to return to concert appearances only recently. Click here to read reactions and tributes from friends and peers. Wendell B. is a Top 10-ranked southern soul artist on Daddy B. Nice's most current artist chart, the New Generation of Southern Soul.Listen to Wendell B's comments two hours before his death. 
August 13, 2023 (first published on Daddy B. Nices's Corner: News and Notes.) Wendell B We Hardly Knew Thee Now that the shock of his death has subsided, the most striking thing about Wendell B is how secretive he was. The St. Louis native's family never published a local obituary, nor were services posted, although it is rumored that they took place on August 10th at Greater Grace Church in St. Louis. Diagnosed with cancer in 2022, Wendell Brown went through treatment in secret with the possible exception of one family social media post. Meanwhile, he was missed on the concert circuit, prompting comments on my part that health issues might be the cause.
A Wendell B Musical MomentMarch 15, 2015: DADDY B NICE SAYS WENDELL B's "CELEBRATE CHO DAY" IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY SONG IN SOUTHERN SOUL!(From Daddy B. Nice's Corner) Listen to Wendell B. singing "Celebrate “Cho Day" on YouTube. (DBN notes: I think of the next video as the 'Euro Wind In My Face" "Celebrate 'Cho Day".) Listen to Wendell B. singing "Celebrate “Cho Day" on YouTube.
************************************************* See the chart: The New Generation of Southern Soul. Listen to Wendell B singing "Get'cha Head Right" on YouTube. Scroll down to Tidbits #3 for Daddy B. Nice's five-star review of REAL TALK! April 1, 2021: Daddy B. Nice's Profile
--Daddy B. Nice About Wendell B: Departed 2023 Wendell Brown, aka Wendell B., was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were from the South, and as a child Brown attended family reunions in Mississippi and Alabama, where he soaked up the blues and gospel culture. He also sang in family-oriented gospel groups, where he inevitably became the lead singer.
Best Southern Soul CD of 2020: Real Talk by Wendell B.See Daddy B. Nice's BEST OF 2020. Tidbits 1.April 1, 2021: Wendell B on YouTube:Listen to Wendell B singing "Get'cha Head Right" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "Just Don't Understand You" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "She Didn't Have To Hurt Ya Boy Like That" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. Singing Live Onstage in Arkansas on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "The Best Time I Ever Had In My Life" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "I Can Deal With The Leaks" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B singing "Love Directions" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "Everything Gone Be All Right" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B singing "Check Now" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "Heaven Sent Me An Angel" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "Save A Little Room For Me" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. and Stacie Kaid singing "Should We Break Up" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "Bounce" on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B. singing "Sing A Song For You" featuring Roger Troutman on YouTube. Listen to Wendell B and friends singing "Still Learning 'Bout Love." Listen to DJ Sir Rockinghood Presents The Ultimate W.B. Mix Part 1 on YouTube. 2.February 6, 2021: Daddy B. Nice’s Top 25 Songs of 2020 #2 & #8 Songs of 20202. "Staying In Love Ain't Easy"------Wendell B
See the chart. 8. "Get'cha Head Right"------Wendell B See the chart. Best Male Vocalist: "Get'cha Head Right" and "Staying In Love Ain't Easy" by Wendell BListen to Wendell B singing "Get'cha Head Right" on YouTube. Best CD of 2020: Real Talk by Wendell B
3.November 1, 2020: WENDELL B.: Real Talk (Smoothway Music) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven. Wendell B kicks off "Cadillac Willie," the closing track of his new album Real Talk with, "Hey, Willie, here's a little change. Dance for me." "Cadillac Willie" is a new version (or an updated vision) of "Mr. Bojangles," the beloved folk-rock standard by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (written and also performed by Jerry Jeff Walker), which in turn is based on the real Mr. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who was born in the 1880's and was making $3500 a week---not exactly spare change---at his peak. The lyrics are delightfully personal and detailed, but it's the music in "Cadillac Willie," and indeed throughout this, the best album of Wendell B's career, that serves as the platform for all the good words---and "real talk".
It's hard to believe Wendell B already has eight major albums to his credit---hard to believe "Just Don't Understand You" was fifteen years ago! Virtually all southern soul insiders consider Wendell to be a major artist, and yet even the term "major" doesn't do justice to the man's off-the-charts vocal gift. Every time he opens his mouth, it's hard not to think (in a conspiratorial whisper), "He could be number one."  Currently in southern soul music there are two "W. Browns," Wendell and Wardell (the latter much better known under his recording and performance name of Big Pokey Bear.) The two outsized talents form bookends at opposite ends of the southern soul spectrum. Stylistically, Pokey plays it "rough" and Wendell B plays it "smooth." (Even his label is called Smoothway.) Pokey Bear presently rules the roost at #1, but no one is counting Wendell B out, and to imagine southern soul without either one of the "Browns" is unimaginable.
Wendell B's blockbusters from 2019 are both here. That would be "Beautiful," with the atmospheric, synth-washed, Sir Charles-like production, and "Still Learning 'Bout Love," with the Soul Music Representatives (Magic One, Jason Little & Curtis Jefferson), in which Wendell collaborates with his "brothers" but dominates like a man among boys. "Beautiful" charted as the #1 Southern Soul Single in April of 2019. "Still Learning 'Bout Love" charted at #3 in December of 2019. The latter amassed nearly a million YouTube views (that was in 2019---the views in 2020 now number over 5 million) and achieved Daddy B Nice's "Best Collaboration of 2019," the second year in a row Wendell was an instrumental and indeed commanding cog in a southern soul communal effort. See Daddy B Nice's Best Collaboration of 2018: "High Heels & Jeans," with Magic One, Vick Allen, L.J. Echols & Avail Hollywood. I gave REAL TALK an extensive and enthusiastic new album alert! in January when the CD first broke, cautioning that I didn't want to give the album too much hype on such scant and preliminary listening. To illustrate how long ago that now seems, the Covid-19 pandemic hadn't yet broken. In January I wrote prudently that "even a humble tune like "Get'cha Head Right" charms." Three months later, after months of listening, "Get'cha' Head Right" was #1 with a bullet in Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles, occasioning the aside: "Wendell is this generation's Ronnie Lovejoy, and if you were going to record a new version of top-rated southern soul classic "Sho' Wasn't Me," Wendell would be the no-brainer choice to sing it." "Staying In Love Ain't Easy," charted at #3 in June, and "Cadillac Willie came in at #3 in July. There hasn't been such a run of Top 10 singles from a solo album since Tucka's "Working With The Feeling". But what about the filler, you say? There is no filler. "Make'em Mad" is a typical Wendell B track, reminiscent of his earlier work, cloning hiphop techniques with Luther Vandross-style vocals. "Check Now" has the stirring chords of a true anthem, accentuated by synthetic strings that wash over the chorus in pleasurable waves. Watch for it yet to hit the charts. "That's What We Gone Do" pulses with feeling, propelled by a scintillating "stepping" beat. Background vocals lend even more to the sensation of dancing. "Love Directions" rocks back and forth like a baby in an old-fashioned cradle, with pristine keyboard runs playing like light around Wendell's phrasings. "Can We Just Talk" sails along on a "Summertime Madness"-like synthesizer line with Wendell weaving and bobbing vocally through the ascending and descending chords. "Missing You" slows down to prime White/Vandross territory, with a dense, syruppey-sounding chorus. There isn't a bad or reptitive cut on the album. Each song has something in common with the others---a certain style, a certain quality, Wendell's brand---yet each carries its own weight. Which leads me to proclaim: Real Talk is an honest-to-God primer in the art of production. In most of these songs, it's difficult to assess whether it's the melody or the arrangements toting the creative load. That's really remarkable. As for the lyrics, I know most fans (and most recording artists, actually) place the importance on the words, but the fans wouldn't be listening to the words if the music hadn't gotten their attention. Take "Get'cha Head Right": Listen to Wendell B singing "Get'cha Head Right" on YouTube. The words are specific, urgent, and meaningful, from one lover to another---"If Shorty get her head right/ The Boss stay every night" (the "Boss" being Wendell B, of course)---but the music runs even deeper. First, the delicate, moody, treble-clef strumming that sounds vaguely like one of those big harps you only see in movies anymore. Then the White-like opening voice-over. The pulsating of the drum. The thumping of the bass. Quirky. Hand claps. Spare. Yet ideal. Mixed to perfection, each element sounding like whole sections of a symphony orchestra. And then, like a curtain opening on the main event, the Wendell B vocal in all its wandering glory, the "real talk" as only "The Boss" can sang it, synthesizer fillips curling around his prolonged phrases. Oh yes, and the rap, an undulating verse of words to spice it up. And then all the elements start swirling around one another as Wendell bobs between lead, background and chorus vocals. It's incredible. This may be a year you want to put behind you, but before you evacuate 2020, pick yourself up a little Wendell B and bring it along with your pets, precious papers and memories. ---Daddy B. Nice Buy Wendell B's Real Talk album at Apple. Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Wendell B. Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . . -------NOVEMBER 2020------- …2. "Check Now"-----Wendell B.
When Wendell gets to, "Can't you see Martin shaking his head?", the pounding piano and the gorgeous musical depth transported me back to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" This is looking like the album of the year. Read Daddy B. Nice's 5-star review of Wendell B's Real Talk. Listen to Wendell B singing "Check Now" on YouTube. ************
January 25, 2020: NEW ALBUM ALERT!:Buy Wendell B's new REAL TALK CD at Apple.REAL TALK TRACK LIST:1In the Club 4:21 2 Make'em Mad 3:43 3 Beautiful 4:40 4 Check Now 4:02 5 Get'cha Head Right 4:56 6 That's What We Gone Do 4:00 7 Staying in Love Ain't Easy 5:20 8 Still Learning Bout Love 5:32 9 Can We Just Talk 5:05 10 Missing U 5:23 11 Love Directions 4:15 12 Cadillac Willy Daddy B. Nice notes: The blockbusters from 2019 are both here. That would be "Beautiful," with the atmospheric, synth-washed, Sir Charles-like production, and "Still Learning 'Bout Love," with the Soul Music Representatives (Magic One, Jason Little & Curtis Jeffreson), in which Wendell collaborates with his "brothers" but dominates like a man among boys. The latter amassed nearly a million YouTube views and achieved Daddy B Nice's "Best Collaboration of 2019," the second year in a row Wendell was an instrumental if not commanding cog in a southern soul communal effort. See Daddy B Nice's Best Collaboration of 2018: "High Heels & Jeans," with Magic One, Vick Allen, L.J. Echols & Avail Hollywood.
It's hard to believe Wendell already has six major albums to his credit--hard to believe "Just Don't Understand You" was fifteen years ago! Virtually all southern soul insiders consider Wendell to be a major artist, and yet even the term "major" doesn't do justice to the man's off-the-charts vocal talent. Every time he opens his mouth, it's hard not to think, "He could be number one." So as we await a new Wendell B release, the expectations are sky-high, and on first impression, the REAL TALK album doesn't disappoint. The songwriting and production across the board sounds solid and fertile, out of which might come any number of popular singles. "Cadillac Willie" is interesting (above and beyond the street-nostalgia in the lyrics) because it shows Wendell riding a mid-tempo, near-dance-able, "stepper" without the oft-past digressions into hiphop. It almost sounds like a typical southern soul song, meaning the kind of song most artists record. (With the added bonus of Wendell on vocals.) And even when Wendell does serve up his usual fare, mixing the Luther Vandross/Barry White style with interludes of rap as in "Love Directions," it's done with exquisite precision and taste. More remarkably, the set doesn't let up. One stellar tune after another, the CD gathers momentum, as with the masterful sounds of "Staying In Love Ain't Easy," which has all the earmarks of the finest hits from Wendell's past, "Just Don't Understand You" among them. And even a "minor" tune like "Get'cha Head Right" charms and infatuates with its modesty and humility, with just the right instrumental touches for the content. I don't want to give the album too much hype on such scant and preliminary listening, but at its very least, Real Talk sounds like one of those rare CD's you can listen to repeatedly without getting irritated. Real Talk will buoy you up with energy and optimism. Finally--dare I say it?--it may be the album that finally takes Wendell B to the mountaintop. By the way, Wendell B. just charted this month (April 2020) on a stunning collaboration with Bigg Robb. Here it is: Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
Listen to all the tracks from Wendell B's REAL TALK on YouTube. Wendell B's new REAL TALK album at Spotify. Listen to Wendell B's new REAL TALK album on iHeart Radio. Buy Wendell B's new REAL TALK album at iTunes. 
Honorary "B" Side "Staying In Love Ain't Easy" |
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