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Diane Durret & Soul Suga—Put A Lid On It—Blooming Tunes
Music
Atlanta born Diane, is yet another artist who has had to postpone
her live work due to covid but, she has not been idle during that
time, for Diane, who takes lead vocals and her band, who are;
Melissa Junebug; drums, B’nai Yehuda; Hammond B3 and
keyboards, Fuji Fujimoto and Gregg Shapiro; bass guitars, featured
guitarists are Tomi Martin, Daniel Groover, Cody Matlock, Ian
Schumacher, and special guest Tinsley Ellis. Backed by the ‘Good
Times Horns’ Melvin Jones; trumpet and Mike Burton; saxophone,
have recorded 8 new numbers. Diane’s smoky alto is certainly brought to the fore on the stark
piano led opener ‘In My Soul’, the smouldering B3 and slowly heart pounding percussion allow
Diane’s smouldering vocal to emotively rise to a satisfying crescendo.
The plaintive guitar and B3 led ballad, ‘Sweeter Love Grows’, is a tender, swaying autobiographical
declaration of a love that has and continues to stand the test of time. Diane’s memories and
experiences of services attended in her youth at the Ponce De Leon Baptist Church on Peachtree
Street certainly come into their own for this modern day hymn ‘Wish It Would Rain’, once again the
smouldering B3 and stark, crisp piano back Diane’s heavenly, rising vocal.
‘Blue Water’, possesses a wistful hot summer feel, from the warmly popping bass and organ work to
the swaying percussion, while the sprightly guitar work carries you along. ‘Good News’, is a late
night raunchy roller, filled with burning B3 and honking horns. Diane spells out exactly what she
wants with her late night imploring, instead of the news. ‘Put A Lid On It’, delivers uplifting,
punching horns backing the raw vocal from Diane while a rolling piano and burning organ underpin
a scintillating guitar from Tinsley Ellis.
Most impressive!
Brian Harman
Beth Hart—Tribute to Led Zeppelin—Provogue
Beth Hart is often described as a power house vocalist and was
asked to do an album of Led Zeppelin covers some time ago. She
declined on the grounds that in order to do so effectively you had
to be pissed off and as she put it had spent the last five years
moving on from that state of mind. Then the pandemic hit!
That was enough for Beth who immediately started to learn the
songs.
Here we have nine specially selected Zeppelin tracks, without exception, outstandingly recorded
and produced. It is impossible to select a favourite, but the tracks include some of the best known of
the band’s works and one or two outliers: ‘Whole Lotta Love’, ‘Kashmir’, ‘Stairway To Heaven’, T’he
Crunge’, ‘Dancing Days’ / ‘When The Levee Breaks’ (Medley), ‘Black Dog’, ‘No Quarter’ / ‘Babe I’m
Gonna Leave You’ (Medley), ‘Good Times Bad Times’ and ‘The Rain Song’. A great selection and an
outstanding album.