September 12, 2025:

MIKE CLARK JR.: Keep On Steppin: Big Stepper Edition (ColliPark Music/Atlantic) Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Mike Clark Jr.'s new Keep On Steppin: Big Stepper Edition at Apple.

KEEP ON STEPPIN': BIG STEPPER EDITION Track List:

1. Mistreated (feat. Boozie Badazz & Anthony Q.
2. Keep On Steppin' (feat. Big Boogie)
3. Worry You (feat. 803Fresh)
4. Pop That
5. Trail Ride (feat. Bun B. & Jeter Jones)
6. Auntie Outside (Collipark Remix)
7. Stay Right There (feat. Big bo)
8. Break Up Letter (feat. Marcellus The Singer)
9. Dog House
10. Treasure
11. Keep On Steppin'

Exactly two years ago, September of 2023, Mike Clark Jr. burst upon the southern soul scene with "Auntie Outside Tonight". Almost forgotten now, "Auntie Outside" was an anthem. You could feel the excitement and hormones pumping through its verses. It had the makings of one of those energetic R&B/pop hybrids that become arena "jock jams," and it was southern soul all the way, elevating yet another new black slang term ("aunties") into the national lexicon. "Auntie Outside" rose to number one and his southern soul debut EP Club Mike Clark soon appeared. Still, I hadn't a clue Mike Clark Jr. would soon back up "Auntie" with even more astounding music.

But that's what Mike did. Another Top 10 Single, "Party," accompanied by E. Realist & Charity Harris, arrived that December. Another Top 10-charting tune, "Doghouse," followed in September of 2024. "Slow Roll It," an accomplished cover of the Love Doctor's seminal southern soul classic, charted in December of '24. Then---in 2025---came the "bomb" that would change the trajectory of Clark Jr.'s career from successful to legendary. But it wasn't easy.

"Keep On Steppin'" had the misfortune of debuting at almost the same time as 803Fresh's "Boots On The Ground," which had dropped and charted at #5 a month earlier. So in March of 2025 the viral "Boots On The Ground," which had practically everyone in the country---including the former first lady Michelle Obama---line-dancing to it, occupied the #1 Single spot, while Mike Clark Jr.'s "Keep On Steppin'" had to be content with the "#2 Single spot. Yet even then, at the height of the clamor for "Boots On The Ground" (including your Daddy B. Nice proclaiming it "the biggest phenomenon to hit southern soul music since King George's "Keep On Rollin'"), I was enjoying Mike Clark Jr.'s "Keep On Steppin'" just a little bit more. And with "Keep On Steppin'" trending throughout southern soul fandom in burgeoning numbers, I had no qualms in finally justifying its #1 game-of-southern-soul-thrones ranking in April of 2025. Huge. Eventful. A career-maker.

Published just two weeks ago, Clark Jr.'s new, eleven-track LP Keep On Steppin: Big Stepper Edition is a celebration of all things "keep-on-steppin". The fact the collection not only covers the mega-hit's iterations and other recorded singles (the danceable "Pop That," overlooked because it came out almost like a "B-side" at the same time as "Steppin'," the previously mentioned "Auntie Outside" and "Dog House," and two impressive, new, September-charting singles, "Break Up Letter" featuring Marcellus The Singer and "Worry You" featuring 803Fresh) has to make it a no-brainer for the trail ride, backyard barbeque and hole-in-the-wall, party album of the year.

And yet, as many people as "Keep On Steppin'" has drawn to the dance floor, and as many TikTok shorts and YouTube videos as it's spawned, little to nothing has been written about its memorable instrumental track. In my bullet commentary in March introducing "Keep On Steppin'" to the audience for the first time, I described the uniquely textured background to Mike's viral vocal in this way:

"It sounds like an entire army on the march. The vaguely military percussive effects---stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp---and hypnotic beat will stun you, and if you've got a dancing bone in your body you'll find it impossible not to jump on the dance floor and keep on steppin'."

Today I might describe it as layers upon layers of hand-claps, but "hand-clapping' doesn't do it justice. There have been some super-hot and innovative southern soul producers in the last decade---Beat Flippa (Pokey Bear), Slack (Jeter Jones) and Kang803 (King George) instantly come to mind---but to that list we must now add Mr. Collipark, Atlanta-based Michael Antoine Crooms, who took his industry name from the Atlanta suburb of College Park. Collipark is just as incredible, but with an entirely new and unique sound. Mostly working in hiphop, Collipark was the producer of V.I.C.'s "Wobble". For those too young to remember, this song was big in the Dirty South in the late aughts and early teens, even on southern soul radio and especially in the clubs, and it was two or three years before it became national and made the Billboard charts. Interestingly enough, like its 2025 counterparts, "Wobble" grew in popularity after inspiring a dance.

"Wobble" was all about the instrumental track, hugely percussive, with a wild upper melody line played by horns. Similarly, the forgotten and under-appreciated part of "Keep On Steppin'" is the respite from the stomping---the choruses! Signaled by a whistle, it's also a higher-pitched, anthem-like melody line---all humming---rendered by Mike Clark Jr. in eloquent contrast to his style in the verses, giving the song's powerful chant an eerie, unforgettable resonance.

And there's one last aspect of "Keep On Steppin'" that deserves testimony. The key words in the lyrics---the ones no one thinks about---are "They don't like it". It's an emblem for adversity, whether it be in one's job, one's health, one's social interactions or whatever. Anything in the world that puts shackles on one's spirit. So when you start steppin', you're saying, "No, I won't quit! I won't give up!"

---Daddy B. Nice

Buy Mike Clark Jr.'s new Keep On Steppin: Big Stepper Edition at Apple.

Listen to all the tracks from Mike Clark Jr.'s new Keep On Steppin: Big Stepper Edition album on YouTube.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul The New Generation Artist Guide to Mike Clark Jr.

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August 17, 2025:

TUCKA: Hit Nation Compilation Volume 1
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Tucka's new The Hit Nation Compilation at Apple.

HIT NATION COMPILATION VOL. 1 Track List:

1. King Of Hearts (Intro) --- Mike Bolden/House Of Grooves
2. Boogie Boots --- Shelton Richardson
3. Trail Ride Blues --- Terry Rogers
4. Pull Up --- Nino The Gentleman
5. One Night --- Nino The Gentleman
6. Last Time --- Mr. Mister
7. Trouble --- Mr. Mister
8. Gypsy Blues --- Terry Rogers feat. Jubu Smith
9. She Loves Me --- Mr. Hot Topic feat. Tucka
10. Come On Baby --- Mr. Smoke
11. Stop, Drop & Roll It --- Mr. Smoke feat. FPG
12. Walk That Walk --- T-Man

This mint-new sampler from Tucka's Hit Nation label begins with a teaser, an instrumental track by Mike Bolden called "King Of Hearts," as stunning in its "thrill-is-gone-ish" musicality as in its stubborn wordlessness. Glimmers of "Jukebox Lover" may flit before your eyes, and you may be thinking, "This is too good not to be fleshed-out with lyrics!" And you may wait, anticipating Tucka's patented, heavy-velvet, vocal accompaniment. After all, he couldn't resist, could he? Well...Yes. He could.

The album's second track comes at you like a Shohei Ohtani change-up. Shelton Richardson's "Boogie Boots" is a hoot---a vintage funk curveball so cheeky and self-absorbed you can't compute it being in the same queue with "King Of Hearts". But there it is...Tucka James Presents The Hit Nation Compilation Volume 1 is not for the timid of heart. And if you've already been honed down to near-simpleton status by your personal algorithms, be warned. In the Hit Nation world there's a surprise around every bend.

Such as the third selection, a sophisticated blues by Terry Rogers called "Trail Ride Blues," that couldn't be more different from either of the opening two tracks. In other words, this is a "sampler" in the truest sense of the word: a myriad of performers and styles. And this sampler, coming off the recent appearance of Kang803's EP New School Blues, harks back to the days when compilations were a steady musical diet. The seminal John Ward's decades of Ecko samplers were the best (though in recent years, as the musical content atrophied, the samplers lost some of their luster), and in later days Dylann DeAnna's shorter-lived CDS label's compilations became as ubiquitous as yesteryear drugstore racks of "greatest hits". But ever since the Covid era, samplers and compilations have become nearly extinct. And that is why, despite its flaws, this new project from Tucka beckons like an oasis in the Sahara.

After weathering the anti-algorithmic shocks of the opening tunes, the album does settle down into a fairly straightforward presentation of new and aspiring recording artists, each gifted a pair of selections. The bluesy Terry Rogers is represented by the previously mentioned "Trail Ride Blues" and the equally skillful "Gypsy Blues" featuring Jubu Smith. Nino The Gentleman is represented by the already trending "Pull Up (On Me)" and "One Night," while Mr. Mister (yes, that's his name) checks in with the robust ballad "Last Time" and "Trouble". The raw-throated Mr. Smoke, who really isn't "new" but could accurately be described as "aspiring," is represented by two tracks that build upon old classics "Rocking Chair" (Gwen McRae) and "Stop, Drop & Roll" (La'Keisha), the first titled "Come On Baby" and the second "Stop Drop And Roll It". FPJ guests on the latter.

It's no secret that Tucka, like his respected colleague King George, has simplified ("dumbed-down" would be too cruel a word) his newer music, eschewing the spectacular presentations of his fan-winning, early career in favor of two-and-three-chord hooks that more often than not fall short of the primal gold 803Fresh was blessed enough to tap into with the viral "Boots On The Ground". Tucka's also gained weight---something I noticed while watching a podcast of one of his recent concerts. His head is wider. He's looking and acting like a grown man---dare I say middle-aged? In the aforementioned concert, he pauses without blinking, staring at the audience, and the pause continues long enough to make a point, as if he's waiting for some missing respect, obeisance or validation. It's something only a mature man, thoroughly confident in his skill and status, could muster.

I bring this up because of the sampler's two remaining tracks, T-Man's "Walk That Walk" and Mr. Hot Topic's "She Loves Me (She Love Me Not)," Tucka appears on the latter. It's his only appearance of the entire compilation, and he takes over the song like a plundering conqueror. Although Mr. Hot Topic provides the key---the opportunity---it's Tucka who seizes on its nursery-rhyme simplicity and transforms it into a Tucka classic, the very southern soul nirvana he's been seeking with his own tunes like "Make It Roll".

---Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from Tucka's Hit Nation Compilation on YouTube.

Buy Tucka's The Hit Nation Compilation at Apple.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Tucka: The New Generation Southern Soul:
#2 ranked Southern Soul Artist.

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

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P.O. Box 19574
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July 27, 2025:

FAT DADDY: Perfect
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Fat Daddy's new PERFECT EP at Apple.

PERFECT Track List:

1. Got My Money Right
2. Thick Like 40 Weight Gravy
3. Perfect (feat. FPJ)
4. License To Steal
5. Good Vibes Only
6. I'm Him

Like Paul Atreides in the movie "Dune," the dreamer--Fat Daddy--has awakened. There is no musically measurable reason Arthur Young, for example, should have published a half-dozen albums in roughly the same span of time in which Fat Daddy has whiffed, recording only a similar number of singles. Yes, it's been six years since F.D.'s impressive 2019 debut album, Fat Daddy Gonna Love You Right. And while Arthur Young has exhibited the superior compositional genius and boasts a burgeoning catalog of worthy material, the two up-and-coming stars share the same powerful tenors and mahogany richness of tone. Moreover, as his new EP Perfect attests, Fat Daddy actually has the edge when it comes to the clarity, contrasts and panoramic scope of his vocals.

If you've ever listened to Fat Daddy singing "Mr. Nobody," his clone of Johnnie Taylor's "Mr. Nobody Is Somebody Now," you know that even Johnnie's son T.J. Hooker Taylor, who makes a living doing tributes to the godfather of southern soul, can't approach the eerie resemblance in vocal quality Fat Daddy shares with Johnnie. And then there's Fat Daddy's relationship with Tucka. They have a special bond (they're said to be related) and often tour together. But hanging out with a star of Tucka's magnitude and profiting from the celebrity access, albeit a choice any aspiring musician would be reluctant to forgo, could also explain some of Fat Daddy's inattentiveness to the progress of his own career.


Fat Daddy (who by the way is not "fat") is the performance name of Allen Turner, the son of blues legend R.L. Griffin, longtime owner of R.L.'s Blues Palace in Dallas, Texas. He first emerged with "The Blame," Daddy B. Nice's Best Debut of 2018, an outstanding southern soul anthem with a vintage-quality melody, a head-swiveling lead vocal, a sublime female chorus and a classic instrumental track. Fat Daddy's done some crazy stuff in his career, among other things kidnapping Jesse Graham's single "Mr. Mailman," instrumental track and all, and recording it as "Strong Woman," then turning around and recording an entirely new song called "Mail Man,"

In any case, Perfect is an eye-opening reminder of Fat Daddy's under-utilized talent only waiting to be tapped. "Got My Money Right," the opening track, was a #4-ranked single on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 for July 2025. "License To Steal" is an exemplary cover of a not-well-known classic previously recorded by Clay Hammond and Vernon Garrett. The least original track on the set, ironically, is the title track, "Perfect". It's a threadbare melody and beat reminiscent of projects Fat Daddy has done with Tucka. Even guest artist FPJ's contribution seems unenthusiastic, not to mention woefully buried in the instrumental mix.

But the vibrant "I'm Him" and the gently-rocking "Good Vibes Only" more than make up for this solitary lapse. The sleeper of this EP---so daring, I suspect, that Fat Daddy himself is unsure and wary of its value---is the deftly-produced "Thick Like 40 Weight Gravy". With a scintillating acoustic guitar accompaniment, the song offers Fat Daddy plenty of space to take wing and soar, vocally speaking. And Fat Daddy can be rousing with such ease. It's a revelation of what marvelous paths to musical self-fulfillment beckon this performer if he only gains confidence and gets into the studio and works.

---Daddy B. Nice

Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Fat Daddy.

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

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June 26, 2025:

JUBILEE REVIEW: The Trail Ride Album That Started It All

JETER JONES: Trailride Certified (Jones Boys Entertainment)
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Jeter Jones' TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED album at Apple.

TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED TRACK LIST:

1 She's Ratchet (feat. Big Pokey Bear)

2 Dat Country Boy Lovin'

3 Haters Gone Hate

4 Something About The Rain (feat. David Jones)

5 Trailride Certified (feat. Crystale)

6 Watch My Boots

7 Them Country Girls (feat. Crystal Thomas)

8 Single Footin' (feat. DJ Big Tony)

9 Ghetto Woman

10 Thank U

11 My Country Girl

12 Cat Killer

13 Come Out The Bushes

14 Take One For The Team (feat. Crystal Thomas)

From Daddy B. Nice's "News & Notes" June 22, 2025:

This Jeter Jones retrospective "Trail Ride Jubilee" review was inspired by Tonio Armani and S. Dott's "Cowgirl Trailride, currently Daddy B. Nice's #1 Southern Soul Single its second time round. The new "Cowgirl Trailride" line dance has gone viral in "Boots On The Ground" fashion, with over a million and a half new streams in the first three weeks since its June 1st reappearance.

Here Is A List Of "Trailride" aka "Trail Ride" Songs Currently In My Music Library.

"Trail Ride"---Carl Sims 2011
"Trail Ride"---Lebrado 2013
"Trailride Certified"---Jeter Jones, Crystale 2016
"Zydeco, Blues & Trail Ride"---RMG Family (Beat Flippa, Pokey Bear, Jeter Jones, Crystal
Thomas, Big Cynthia, Miss Portia et.al.) 2016
"Trail Ride"---Jaye Hammer 2016
"Ratchet Trailride"---Jeter Jones, Boozie Badazz, DeShay, DJ Scooter 2021
"At The Trailride"---Pokey Bear 2017
"Trailride 101"---Jay Morris 2025
"Trailrider's Shuffle"---Big Mucci, Rico 2020
"Trail Ride"---Lady Redtopp, Bri Rocket 2023
"That Trail Ride Life"---J.B. Hendricks 2023
"Trail Ride Slide"---Angel Faye Russell 2017
"Dukes & Boots" (Trail-Ride Version)---Avail Hollywood 2021
"Trailride Anthem"---Jeter Jones 2023
"Headed To The Trailride"---Meeka Meeka 2025
"Trailride Certified (Remix)"---Jeter Jones, Cupid, Big Tony 2018
"A Party At The Trailride"---Stephanie McDee, Mr. Cotton 2014
"Trailride Sailing"---Meechie 2023
"Trailride Love"---Tyrus Turner 2025
"Come To The Trailride"---Jeter Jones 2023
"Trail Ride"---Sir Charles Jones, Jeter Jones 2022
"Trail Ride GMix"---Sir Jonathan Burton 2023
"Trail Ride Jump"---Cheff Da Entertainer, Poka Jones, Sticky P 2023
"Trail Ride Party"---Jeter Jones, Just Just-K 2021
"Take Me To The Trailride"---V. Sunshyn 2024
"Love You Down (Trailride Mix)"---Jeter Jones, JD 2021
"Trailride Certified 3"---Jeter Jones, Level 2024
"Cowgirl Trailride"---S. Dott, Tonio Armani 2024
"South Carolina Trailride"---ToneDrake 2025
"Trail Ride Slide (Remix)"---Honey Gurl, Jeter Jones, JFly Barber 2025
"Trail Ride Shawty"---Marcellus The Singer 2022
"Trailride Certified"---Jennifer Watts 2021

I make no claims to this list being an exhaustive tally---it merely reflects my particular favorites. What I do find interesting are the dates (approximate). With a couple of exceptions--Carl Sims, Lebrado, Stephanie McDee--none of the recordings predate 2016, the year Jeter Jones's third and breakthrough southern soul album "Trailride Certified" appeared, swiftly followed by Beat Flippa's "Trailride Music: Volume 1". Before that, "trail ride" wasn't a "thing" in southern soul music. And when I return to my original review of TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED (see below) today, I'm impressed not with my prescience in predicting Jeter Jones would become the "Kang Of Trailride Blues"---I had absolutely no idea at the time---but with the newfound authority and knowledge-of-self I instantly recognized in Jeter Jones' music after two promising but flawed debut projects.


March 19, 2017:

JETER JONES & THE PERFECT BLEND: Trailride Certified (Jones Boyz Ent.) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.

All you can ask of a practitioner of any art form is that he or she keeps getting better: honing craft, living in a way that facilitates inspiration, surrounding oneself with the best professional fellowship, forging ahead through adversity and disappointments. Jeter Jones' debut album, Sweet Jones Live @ Leroy's Chicken Shack, with its impressive debut single "Da Boot Scoot," was nevertheless flawed by its author's unfamiliarity with the southern soul canon, specifically the confusion resulting from some of its instrumental tracks by collaborator Eric "Smidi" Smith being previously used on songs by Chuck Roberson and Bobby Jones.

Jeter's second album, Da GQ Country Boy, with its equally deserving single, "Cold Pepsi And A Hot Man," steered clear of such outside influences, posing a handful of new singles tied together with voice-over interludes by a gritty-voiced "master of ceremonies" named Da Big Dawg, who goaded Jones into doing short, impromptu, acapella stints.

Such distractions often sabotage a long-playing record, and while the interplay avoided excess and seemed to energize and loosen up Jeter Jones, it did add a note of hubris that detracted at times from the music. There’s none of that emcee posturing on Jones' new CD, TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED. Songs--most in the three-minute range--roll out of the speakers in an unfurling carpet of sound, and just when you think the end is near, the carpet of tunes continues to unroll: fourteen original tracks in all, double the music of the average album.

You don’t go through TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED thinking every song is a hit single, although a surprising number of the tracks qualify. But you do go from song to song thinking, “This is from the heart," or, "This is yet another piece of Jeter’s heart.”

TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED displays a compulsion to sing, a compulsion to tell stories. Jones is all "in," without pretense or artifice, without self-doubt or self-congratulation.

Combining refreshing songwriting with top-notch, live-instrument execution (contributors include Pokey Bear, Beat Flippa, Crystal Thomas, David Jones, Damon J. Scruggs, Antonio Smith, Lil' Jabb, Tomi Gran, Tommy Granville, Jr. and Gifted Sounds), the set grabs your interest and covers a plethora of musical territory without cliché or repetition.

Nor is this music with a lot of specific, obvious musical antecedents. Southern soul and zydeco blend with dashes of hiphop, rock, country, funk, and New Orleans swing in a sound as sophisticated and unique as far-more-acclaimed, fellow Gulf-Coast performers like Pokey Bear and Tucka.

Take “Single Footin’,” featuring DJ Big Tony, an instant dance jam classic. You want to hug the percussionist, then do the same to the button accordionist. The piano line at the heart of the song--two long single notes with no frills on what sounds like an old-fashioned, stand-up piano--is so daring, so right. Never been done in southern soul.

Can’t make out the lyrics. I’m hearing, “Single-footing stallion / A single-footin’ mare.” But don't quote me. “Single Footin’”clocks in at six minutes. In this set of otherwise thankfully-short songs, it's an astonishing length of time for a chant on the order of Lil’ Jimmie’s “She Was Twerkin’,” yet every minute is a delight.

But every song on this album has exceptional merits--that's what's so surprising. The ballad "My Country Girl" is a veritable anthem, perfectly sung and produced, letting the message shine through:

"I got a country girl.
I don't need no sidepiece."

And it's the best "Sidepiece" response song from the "fidelity side" yet. Every detail Jones sings about comes off as stone-cold, truthful observation. Meanwhile, the song's melody pulls at you like a full moon on the beach.

Unlike "Single Footin'" and "My Country Girl," “She's Ratchet,” the opening track, is taciturn in mood, with a minor chord-like feel, and one of at least two Beat Flippa contributions to the set (the other being the Jeter/Crystal Thomas collaboration “Them Country Girls”). Sounding more Argentinean than Cajun, Flippa’s moody organ dominates, and since the tango isn’t a staple of the South, my guess is the ambience defaults to hiphop. This is also the track featuring Big Pokey Bear.

Even a “minefield” of a theme for southern soul singers like “haters” is given a tender, almost affectionate spin. "Haters Gone Hate" has some of the best detail on the album to go with its lilting, pleasant melody, although I admit to thinking, every time Jones sings, "I just want to go / Where the rain don't fall," that he's going to say, "I just want to go / Where the sun don't shine."

"Haters Gone Hate" actually segues into another song about rain, namely "Something About The Rain," featuring David Jones. If you moved and presently live in a dry climate, this song will remind you of what it's like to be intimate on rainy days.

The successful sound that runs through all the songs on the set (one review can't do them all justice) does make occasional genre digressions: the pure zydeco of the title tune, "Trailride Certified," with Crystal rapping, the funk of "Cat Killa" and the hypnotic "Watch My Boots," and--most markedly--the classic R&B and hiphop of "Ghetto Woman," another strong candidate for hit single.

Even songs that seem light or transitional on the first or second listens reveal uncommon depth the more you hear them, for example the winsome "Thank You," with another spate of authentic, personally-detailed lyrics to its credit. Then there's the New Orleans street jazz of "Come Out Of Them Bushes," whose lyrics bring Jeter around to the same home-sweet-home he described in "My Country Girl," this time with a different agenda, rousting a neighborhood "Jody".

I said it at the outset and I'll say it again. This album is original. From the heart. And fun to listen to. This is Jeter Jones’ RUBBER SOUL (Beatles), his OFF THE WALL (Michael Jackson), or closer to home, his MISSISSIPPI MOTOWN (LaMorris Williams). TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED is one of those rare albums that's all of a piece: a perfect portrait of a rising star at the moment when it all comes together.

--Daddy B. Nice

Buy Jeter Jones' TRAILRIDE CERTIFIED album at Apple.



May 17, 2025:

New Review

DAVID BRINSTON:
David Brinston Live (Delta Down Creations)
Three Stars *** Solid. The artist's fans will enjoy.

Buy David Brinston's new DAVID BRINSTON LIVE album at Apple.

DAVID BRINSTON LIVE TRACK LIST:

1 David Brinston Live Intro

2 I'll Be There Live

3 Hit And Run Live

4 Two Way Love Affair Live

5 I Paid The Price Live

6 Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake Live

7 Freaky Girl Live

8 Party To The Lights Go Out Live

9 Kick It Live

It took only a few minutes of listening to David Brinston's new LIVE album to realize my high expectations were going to be dashed. I was instantly captivated by the live instruments, especially the horn section. After all, Stan Mosley and Crystal Thomas had published live-instrumental albums in recent years with often tremendous results. The difference is they were studio albums, while Brinston's is a live-in-concert album, traditionally a much more difficult form to record with pristine sound fidelity.

The "David Brinston Live Intro" (opening track) was especially excruciating, featuring three long minutes of the back-up band (no Brinston) warming up in a pop/funk style that couldn't be further from the 21st-century southern soul Brinston himself was instrumental in popularizing. And almost as quickly I was struck by the difference between the "peppy" sound this live aggregation created and the transcendent pleasures of Brinston's originals. It unfortunately carried over into the ensuing opening tracks, including "I'll Be There" and two of David's biggest, "Hit And Run" and "Two Way Love Affair".

In a 2022 exchange, "Daddy B. Nice Gets Chatty With David Brinston," David told me he was planning a "Greatest Hits" album, and as I listened to the balance of this "live" set, I couldn't help thinking David had made a strategic mistake in going for the "live" option over the original recordings. Consequently, I've taken the time to hyper-link each of those standards scrupulously captured in Brinston's "live" Louisiana appearances to their originally-recorded originals on YouTube so that new fans will understand what they're missing. Here are the originals:
"Hit And Run,"
"I'll Be There,"
"Two-Way Love Affair,"
"Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake,"
and of course the two indisputable classics,
"Party 'Til The Lights Go Out" and
"Kick It".

Fans of the King George/803Fresh generation may find it hard to believe, given the unfamiliar product and raggedy "live" sounds, but Brinston was the reason many of us music-starved fans in the late 90's and early 2000's left hip-hop, traditional blues, punk, reggae, funk and new wave for southern soul. It's difficult to describe what David meant to us in those days. Magical. Almost like the feelings a beautiful woman arouses...Like Sam...Like Smoky. A combination of Brinston's idiosyncratic vocal style (which made you wonder "Would he falter?"), Linda Stokes' wonderful compositions and Marshall Jones' delicate balancing acts in production.

"I Paid The Price" is the song on LIVE where I first said, "Oh. This is the David Brinston I know." At first I thought that was the fault of the band, who to be fair gets better and better as the set continues, but when "Somebody's Cuttin' My Cake" turned out to be just as satisfying, I realized the ballads were better backdrops for Brinston in a live format. Whatever the case, the remaining tracks convey both a more comfortable Brinston and a more disciplined band, culminating in creditable treatments of both "Party" and "Kick It".

"Party" is the song countless chitlin' circuit club advertisements used as their background music on Deep South radio stations for years. Its effortless-sounding rhythm section has never been equaled. "Kick It's" bass pounds the bottom like there's no tomorrow. Meanwhile, a metronomic chord change grafts symbiotically onto the chugging rhythm track, making a monster of a dance floor groove. And all of this comes through on David Brinston Live to make a happy ending, whose purpose is after all a tribute to longtime fans. This one's for the southern soul aficionados.

---Daddy B. Nice.

Listen to all the tracks from David Brinston's new DAVID BRINSTON LIVE album on YouTube.

Read Daddy B. Nice's 21st Century Artist Guide to David Brinston.

Buy David Brinston's DAVID BRINSTON LIVE at Apple.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to David Brinston (90's-00's).

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

Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
Or e-Mail:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
Hard copies given preference for CD reviews.
*************

April 19, 2025:

VOLTON WRIGHT: Love Games
Four Stars **** Distinguished Effort. Should please old fans and gain new.

Buy Volton Wright's new LOVE GAMES album at Apple.

LOVE GAMES Track List:

1. Love Games Intro
2. Love Games
3. Real Thang (feat. B. Pureese)
4. Lost And Found (feat. Sir Charles Jones)
5. She's A Good Woman
6. Take Care Of Home
7. Southern Soul Southside (feat. Bigg Sacc)
8. Don't Get Down Like That
9. Just A Man
10. Maneater
11. Pick It Up (feat. P2K & Slack)

Love Games (Volton Wright's third and newest LP) finds a deep and authoritatively-voiced announcer intoning, "JBE presents the smooth vocals of Volton Wright." It's an interesting opening and one which I think is more apropos than the artist and his team may realize. First, it's an accurate observation. Volton's vocals are "smooth," and in southern soul music, at least, smooth implies a tendency towards mainstream (I'm tempted to use the adjective "polite") R&B as opposed to the wilder, rougher, more humorous or raucous tendencies to be found in southern soul vocals.

Second, "smooth vocals" focuses on what I believe to be the major issue when assessing Volton's music. Does the audience readily recognize Volton Wright's vocals in the way, for instance, it knows the vocals of Theodis or Jeter or Latimore or Sir Charles? Another way of putting it: Has Volton recorded a song (like "Stand Up In It," like "Black Horse," like "Let's Straighten It Out," like "It's Friday") which the audience immediately relates to as a Volton Wright vocal? I don't think so. Naturally, this is the quandary of every aspiring performer, but I believe Volton to be one of the most talented aspirants in southern soul. So I was most interested to see if LOVE GAMES contained that magical, hot-button tune that will define and endear Volton to the fans for posterity (aka "make him a star").

In Volton's case the process is complicated even more by his natural humility and propensity to share the spotlight with guest artists. Who can forget "Southern Soul Girl" feat. T.K. Soul, arguably his most popular song, with over one million YouTube views? Or how he defers the lead vocal in "Supa Woman," a deliriously catchy tune featuring J.D. and Jeter Jones (also from his impressive debut disc), to the youthful J.D. who despite his anonymity and amateurism has an instantly recognizable vocal identity and steals the show? A process, I might add, that is repeated in Love Games when Volton cedes the lead vocal to P2K in the estimable "Pick It Up"

Love Games the album is a mixture of previously recorded material (for example, the superb, cradle-rocking melody of "Lost And Found" with a cameo remix by Sir Charles Jones) and surprising new projects like "Southern Soul Southside," possibly Wright's most southern-soulish undertaking yet, with the assistance of rapper Bigg Sacc. "Love Games," the title tune, is especially impressive, a worthy composition with majestic choruses and a fine Wright vocal. Another previously-released single, "Just A Man," comes closest to what I believe is Volton Wright's best vocal identity---a charismatic mix of personality, texture and timbre pleasantly recreated (for much different purposes) in the new tune "Maneater". Other worthy tracks include "Real Thang" (featuring B. Pureese) and "She's A Good Woman".

I dwell on Volton's vocal identity because every singer can sing in a multitude of ways and/or styles. Although variety is to be desired, vocal recognition---usually accomplished via a hit single---takes precedence. Even in the absence of a hit single, vocal personality is what we associate with the singer and why we love the artist. Wright's vocal style in "Take Care Of Home" represents Volton's yellow brick road to acceptance and stardom. The more generic R&B style Volton adopts in Don't Get Down Like That" is a dead end path. And indiscriminate sampling of vocal styles is something to be avoided. There is plenty of evidence in LOVE GAMES that with the right character, intensity and self-awareness Volton Wright can become a southern soul star. Until he scores that elusive hit single, however, the focus needs to be on forging and marketing a more coherent, creative and consistent vocal sound.

---Daddy B. Nice.

Listen to all the tracks on Volton Wright's new LOVE GAMES album on YouTube.

Buy Volton Wright's new Love Games album at Apple.

Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Volton Wright.

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March 23, 2025:

MS. JODY: Cougar On The Prowl
Four Stars **** Distinguished Effort. Should please old fans and gain new.

Buy Ms. Jody's new COUGAR ON THE PROWL album at Apple.

COUGAR ON THE PROWL Track List:

1. Cougar On The Prowl
2. I'll Be Your Lollipop
3. I'm In That Mood Again
4. Our Love Ain't Going Nowhere (feat. Mr. Willy)
5. Dance Dance Dance
6. Bitch You Better Not Have
7. You Done Messed Up
8. I'm Ready For Whatever
9. Strokin' Kind
10. It's Still Yours
11. I Need A Car Drivin' Man

This album arrived as a hard-copy CD in the mail, and as the small print at the end of the reviews on this page clearly states, hard copies are given preference. Having said that, Ms. Jody's Cougar On The Prowl is the first hard copy I've received in a year. Even Jeter Jones doesn't send me hard copies any more. I was beginning to think they had become extinct.

John Ward's Ecko Records has set the standard for professionalism in southern soul over the last twenty-five years. When they promote a record, they do it the right way. The tracks are listed, each one with its composer(s). The producer or producers are memorialized, as are the musicians. Southern soul artists would learn a lot about the recording business visiting Ecko's studio on North Hollywood in Memphis. From the creative and producing process through the licensing and distributing process, John Ward has created a catalog of music whose royalties will carry him stress-free through retirement. Isn't this in essence what all creative artists strive for?

One of Ecko's signature artists for the last two decades, Ms. Jody (Vertie Joanne Delapaz) brings a light touch to Cougar On The Prowl. The first three tracks of the set ("Cougar On The Prowl," "I'll Be Your Lollipop" and "I'm In That Mood Again") have garnered the predominance of initial streams, with "I'm In That Mood Again," the first official single, gaining the most attention with a respectable 8.8 thousand views on YouTube in the album's first month. Watch "I'll Be Your Lollipop" however. The melody, as light as an ice cone, occasions one of Ms. Jody's most pleasant and appealing vocals.

The Raymond Moore-written "Bitch You Better Not Have," arguably the album's most confrontational tune, is also one of the set's best tracks, but even its production and instrumental track adhere to a lady-like propriety and "lite" vibe.

Ms. Jody has always had an uncanny ability to balance a kind of empathic niceness with a roguish orneriness, but in "Bitch You Better Not Have" and "You Messed Up" she brings so much "shine and polish" to irreverent behavior it feels almost socially acceptable. The lyrics in songs like "Strokin' Kind" and "It's Still Yours" are similar, running sexual innuendo through an R&B blender and pop-music filter until they seem acceptable for all age groups and any occasion---washing morning dishes with kids running around the kitchen, for example.

Is this a bad thing? The worst you can say is that this is not "cutting-edge" music as West Love and Cecily Wilborn are currently making music. And yet, Ms. Jody's genteel gravitas, along with the exceedingly supple instrumental sound John Ward and the Ecko crew generate throughout, carries the day, emphasizing the melodic with a smooth and seamless ease. There may not be a blockbuster hit single in this set, but it is an incredibly easy and pleasing album to listen to.

---Daddy B. Nice

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February 23, 2025:

T.K. SOUL: Timeless
Four Stars **** Distinguished Effort. Should please old fans and gain new.

Buy T.K. Soul's new TIMELESS album at Apple.

TIMELESS Track List:

1. Put A Freak On Me
2. The Way I Do
3. Baby Got Us Jamming
4. Freaking With Our Boots On (feat. Luster Baker)
5. There She Go
6. Confessions Of A Girlfriend
7. Never Gonna Cheat (Throw Back)
8. Toxic
9. Throw The Flag
10. Small Town Kingpin

T.K. Soul's new TIMELESS album doesn't rank among his best. It's just flawed enough to get fans thinking about his career and its many highlights. I was there in Jackson, Mississippi in 2001, listening to his very first southern soul radio single, "Meet Me At The Spot," on the local radio station WMPR. And I'm here in 2025, rejoicing over his upcoming and well-deserved appearance in the Blues Is Alright Tour---long known for inexplicably spurning him---in an upcoming April 18th appearance in Houston's cavernous NRG Arena.

Along with Sir Charles Jones and a few other intrepid young guns, T.K. (short for Terry Kimble) was a key member in the generation given short shrift to succeed the likes of Johnnie Taylor, B.B. King and Marvin Sease. It was the generation I've been vindicated in supporting and promoting for the last two decades, and yet who could see ahead to today's southern soul scene in which Sir Charles and T.K. are now the grizzled, soon-to-be seniors watching today's young generation (King George, etc.) climbing on their calloused shoulders and clamoring for the attention?

TIMELESS contains some worthy songs, among them "Freaking With Our Boots On" (a duet and ballad with Vickie Baker's brother Luster), the previously-released "There She Go" and the new, zydeco-tinted, album favorite, "She Put A Freak On Me". But it doesn't include the kind of blockbuster hit singles that were staples of T.K. Soul albums in his mid-period, salad days. However, "Confessions Of A Girlfriend" and "Never Gonna Cheat" possess flashes of excellence, and Baby Got Us Jamming deserves to be in the exalted company of that heady trio of best songs, making TIMELESS a valuable addition to the T.K. Soul catalog.

Overall, though, the once plentiful melodies appear to be in short supply. "The Way I Do" has a recycled feel (where have we heard it before?), and "Toxic" and "Small Town Kingpin" are fragments looking for more pieces, more substance---perhaps more instrumental background and more production enhancement around T.K.'s solid but somewhat stubbornly solo vocals. It's as if T.K. is insisting he's a singer/songwriter and that is enough: nothing else is needed. That is why this longtime advocate comes away from the set with the nagging suspicion T.K. Soul is (perhaps unconsciously) holding back, keeping a distance. Neither the vocals or arrangements have the intensity and passion of "Try Me" or "Looking For A Lady" or any of the couple dozen or more mid-period T.K. Soul classics. That T.K. is contained in the full-bodied, mid-tempo gems "There She Go" and "She Put A Freak On Me" and even more so in the unique and fresh vibe of "Freaking With Our Boots On".

---Daddy B. Nice

Buy T.K. Soul's new TIMELESS album at Apple.

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January 4, 2025:

JETER JONES: My Fans Only
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Jeter Jones' new MY FANS ONLY album at Apple.

MY FANS ONLY Track List:

1. My Fans Only
2. Can't Run From Love (feat. Maia B. Music)
3. Lean Back And Stroke It (feat. FPJ)
4. Another Round
5. Hit My Line (feat. Kandy Janai)
6. Nail In The Middle
7. Dirt Road Remix (feat. Cecily Wilborn)
8. Boss (feat. JaLi The Gentleman)
9. Where I Belong
10. Second Chance At Love (feat. LaShonda Ford)
11. We Getting Ready Ready (feat. DJ Jubilee)
12. Let's Ride (feat. Hd4president)
13. Popping Tags (feat. Dioaka)
14. If You Say So (feat. Squirt Kelly)
15. Heart Of A Cowboy (feat. JaLi The Gentleman)

I think even those of us who admire Jeter Jones---and there are legions of us---underestimate what a unique treasure he truly is. In an era when even the top-grossing southern soul performers muster at best a few new songs per year, and the great majority of recording artists struggle to produce two or three songs, much less an EP, much less a full album, Jeter Jones is "jaw-droppingly prolific". I wrote that only a little more than a week ago in Southern Soul 2024: The Year In Review, before I realized Jeter had dropped yet another new album a couple of days before Christmas to go along with the Trailride Kang disc he released in August. Jeter Jones not only produces and networks harder than anyone else in the genre; his creativity keeps pace with and justifies his volume. Oh, and he sings like an archangel.

My Fans Only includes two newly-released songs that are slated for this month's Top 10 singles, "Another Round," a hefty, bluesy, mid-tempo gem in the vein of M. Cally's December-charting "She Say I Make Her Cheat," and "A Nail In The Middle (Of A Block of Wood)," a laid-back, more melodically supple, mid-tempo tune with an unusual but fascinating lyric. "A Nail In The Middle is currently ahead of "Another Round" by a nose.

The album also features at least two more previously-released and well-received singles, "Lean Back And Stroke It," accompanied by popular, younger-generation star FPJ, and a remix of TRAILRIDE KANG's "Dirt Road," which made Daddy B. Nice's Top 25 Singles of 2024, also just published a little over a week ago, at #14.

The only problem with "Dirt Road Remix" is that Cecily Wilborn, the talented young diva whose country-western-influenced material has taken southern soul by storm, opens the tune with a verse in which her vocal is double-tracked like an echo, distracting not only from the simplicity at the heart of the song but from the lucid and direct vocal style that has made her famous. (The duet does get better as it goes on.) There's no problem in that regard, however, with another fantastic new track, "Can't Run From Love". Here another newcomer with a set of gorgeous, deep pipes, Myia B ("Stand On Business"), justifies and adds to her burgeoning reputation.

These examples just scratch the surface of My Fans Only, a fifteen-track cornucopia of ballads, mid-tempo musings, hiphop-trailride hybrids and assorted experiments, not to mention a a Rose Bowl-like parade of guest artists (see track list above). You could do worse than sample the beginning and ending tracks: the aptly-titled and exquisitely-executed "My Fans Only" and "Heart Of A Cowboy" featuring JaLi The Gentleman.

---Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from MY FANS ONLY on YouTube.

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January 1, 2025:

SIR CHARLES JONES: The Elite King
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.

Buy Sir Charles Jones' new THE ELITE KING album at Apple.

THE ELITE KING Track List:

1. Good Time
2. Drop It Low (feat. Al Kapone)
3. Flow Like A River
4. Rooster (feat. EP The Blues Doctor)
5. Paying My Baby's Bills
6. Six In The Morning (feat. Boosie Badazz & YTB Fatt)
7. Love We Share (feat. Gary "Lil' G" Jenkins)
8. Are You Lonely
9. None of My Tears
10. Sorry (feat. Roi "Chip" Anthony)
11. Where I Belong
12. Drop It Low (Hip Hop Mix) (feat. Al Kapone)

If your expectations mirrored mine, you expected to see "Pour Me A Drank," which made Daddy B. Nice's Top 25 Songs of 2024 at #19, showcasing if not anchoring Sir Charles' new "The Elite King" album, which dropped almost exactly two years after his last long-play, the Christian and very personal My Life's Testimony. It's not included. However, it's embedded in the opening track ("Good Time") of this immensely interesting new set, making the perfect segue from past to present.

And the present is good. The first three tracks---"Good Time," "Drop It Low" and "Flow Like A River"---will make any Sir Charles Jones fan snap to attention. The brisk tempos and bubbling instrumental tracks are nothing short of head-turning. They charm with their originality and novel, buoyant sound, almost like a different back-up band has joined Charles' studio session. And after the comparatively somber and introspective "My Life's Testimony," the tunes leave the listener with a smile, thinking Charles is happy, Charles is "out and about," dropping nifty couplets like:

"Going to the Blues Palace
Down in Dallas"

Accompanied by ET The Blues Doctor, the album shifts gears with the provocatively-titled "Rooster" but loses none of its impetus or lyrical freshness, with couplets like:

"I know I'm a little older
But I hit it like a soldier"

and the chorus line:

"I can't rooster like I use-ter
But I still can get it on"

With "Paying My Baby's Bills" Charles returns to more familiar, balladeering territory but with a lilt and a lightness that maintains the album's radiant positivity. "Six In The Morning" is in the same vein, with Boosie Badazz assisting and extending Charles' commendable yet selective use of hip-hop guest artists.

Then Charles springs yet another surprise. In any past set a remix of his classic "Is Anybody Lonely?" (re-titled "Are You Lonely") might have a more predictable and lesser effect. But in this set, with its variety and fluid tempos, "Lonely" is luminous, searing. Charles twists and turns the phrasing that fans are so accustomed to in all the right ways.

Finally, as if "Is Anybody Lonely" reminded Sir Charles that he built his musical palace with stones made from carefully quarried ballads, "None of My Tears," "Sorry" and the musically brawny and thematically emotional "Where I Belong" slow things down, immersing fans in the familiar, meditative pool of classic Sir Charles Jones melancholy.

This is one of Sir Charles' best.

---Daddy B. Nice

Listen to all the tracks from Sir Charles Jones' THE ELITE KING on YouTube.


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UNDER CONSTRUCTION UNDER CONSTANT REVISION!!

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