Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Ryan Shaw, Cover Songs and Two Coincidences (Pt. 2)


Ryan Shaw - I Found a Love


The Silver Harps of Detroit, MI - I Found The Lord



After a very busy morning, I serve up Part Two of this feature. (Please refer to yesterday's post for Part One.) I think that Ryan Shaw's vocal amalgam of old-school soul and contemporary R&B styling serves "I Found a Love" very well, despite the apparent presence of a drum machine. Although I have some quibbles about the album, it's great to know, though, that there are young artists out there who are interested in the sounds of vintage soul, and that in Shaw's case, a major label was willing to step up and take a gamble on an album. I have a feeling that seeing Shaw live would be a real treat, especially if he performs with a full band of the calibre, say, of the Dap-Kings. Keep on pushin', Ryan!

The Silver Harps of Detroit's gospel take, "I Found The Lord," wins my popularity contest due to its eccentricity. The only accompaniment on the tune is from a lone drummer, who lays down a rock-solid beat for the group to do their thing over. And their "thing" is very tight: like is the case with so many gospel groups, strong harmony is the order of the day, and their harmony work shines over such a sparse backing. Although I think Harps overdo the use of "dip-dip" as a rhythm and harmony syllable, the tune is great.

(Special thanks to John Glassburner for the Silver Harps track.)

1 comment:

soulbrotha said...

Hi Jase! Welcome back, bruddah!

I definitely like this track by Mr. Shaw much better than "Looking For A Love". I'm sorry but "Looking" needs the grits, collard greens and chitlins that Bobby Womack infused it with, and Shaw's version was way too "clean".
This song suits him much better and I agree that live, he is probably great. Thank God, the youngins' are coming back to real music!