A few years ago I had the pleasure of seeing Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings perform at a free concert and was blown away. Although Ms. Jones obviously didn't fit the age requirements (the younger, the better) that record companies enforce, she was a talented, stylish singer who I knew would contribute to the canon of soul. Although I haven't heard Jones & Daps new album, this review makes it sound like I really need in my life.

http://www.soulsummer.com...e-hard-way

you do and catch the show live every chance you get

She is really on the upswing as of recent. Ive been digging her and her band for sometime now, and have all three of her recordings. I highly recommend them. Word on the street is that she mentored Miss Winehouse.

She was on Mo'Nique's show last week, and was on Dave Letterman's show last night. They were supposed to be The Late Show two weeks ago, but got halted by the volcano. They rescheduled and appeared last night. They did the title track of their I Learned The Hard Way album.

These guys are awesome. They bring back old R&B and Soul music, and it's not a gimmick, it's just who they are. Sharon Jones used to be a correctional officer at Riker's Island, and also was an armed guard for a Wells Fargo truck. Someone heard her sing, and the rest slowly became history. The girl has a gift from God, and she recognizes and respects that.

Find all their 3 albums, and dig into it. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings are one of the handful of people that are the saviors of modern popular music.

ernestsewell said:

Time to get to youtubin'!

Saw them on Jimmy Fallon last week and Better Things To Do is stuck in my head.

ernestsewell said:

Four albums.

MrSoulpower said:

ernestsewell said:

I saw them live when they had just released their second one. I had been a big fan of the first one.

The raw funk cover of "What Have You Done For Me Lately" was what grabbed my attention at first. And some articles in magazines I was reading back then, like Big Daddy.

Cinnie said:

I never caught that right off the bat, but I was listening in the car and I thought "Hmmm, that sounds familiar".

MrSoulpower said:

I flat out wasn't counting their current one! hahaha. Duh! :

I LOVE those album covers, and I'm really digging their attempts to get back to old school funk and soul. I saw them on the Colbert Report and she said the studio they built used equipment that recreates the sound of albums from the late 60s and 70s.

They put on a solid live show which I enjoyed, but my concern/question is, are they good just because they mimic a sound which is great, or is there anything significant that separates them from being more than just a retro/nostalgia group that plays it safe with a succesful formula?

I'm considering picking up an album, but I don't want to if it's just going to blend in with a lot of other soul I already have.

savoirfaire said:

I don't think they're trying to mimic anything. Sharon noted how someone came to her and told her about two white boys with more soul than she'd ever seen. The kind of music they're doing is just who they are, it's not an attempt to land in a whatistrendyville.

ernestsewell said:

They don't mimic at all. I've booked some shows in Europe for them and I've DJed at a lot of their shows (including one just recently), and I can assure you that these guys are as real as it gets. They have spearheaded the global Deep Funk revival in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and they are puzzled about their current success. Especially Sharon can't believe that she now sells more records than the singers who inspired her, like Marva Whitney and Lyn Collins.

I think it's amazing that they have managed to break through into the mainstream, and they deserve every dollar they make. They produce quality records like they used to be made back in the 1960s, and they do not compromise their sound and they will not compromise, now that they are enjoying mainstream success.

We did a Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Daptone special on my radio show last November and Sharon and other band members/label owners joined us for a chats about the Daptone philosophy ... here's the link to this archived show for anyone who's interested ...

http://wrir.org/x/modules...ryid=11442

This was last night on Letterman ... Only half of the original Dap-Kings played last night, but still a great performance ..

MrSoulpower said:

Saw her on "Monique", they tore it up.

Timmy84 said:

dang...miss that one

They are an AWESOME group. No mimicry here. . .