Powerhouse Radio Blog

0 Soul Train Rides The Rails to Viacom's BET

News
by Kingsley H. Smith
04/06/2016

What's great about digital syndication? Films and television shows can last forever! Enter Soul Train. First it was Time Life for the DVD package shown below, now it's Viacom, another aggregator of digital intellectual property that has acquired the rights to distribute Soul Train. According to the Los Angeles Times did you know that there are more than 1,100 episodes of the classic Soul Train programs? Maybe the 'rest in peace' soul of Don Cornelius approves of this acquisition (as long as his heirs are getting a piece of the action). Read Viacom's BET acquires Soul Train franchise in the Los Angeles Times. Previous Post | Next Post

0 Mysterious Soul: Prince and The Revolution

Review
by Kingsley H. Smith and guest
02/27/2016

We discovered an article we think you'll like. Guest Pitulah analyzes at Noogatoday with a lot of background why Purple Rain by Prince was such an outstanding achievement. Read "Record Bin: The mysterious soul of Prince and The Revolution's "Purple Rain" by Pitulah. Previous Post | Next Post

0 Live365 - Powerhouse Radio Shutdown

Commentary
by Kingsley H. Smith
01/22/2016

Thank you, our thousands of listeners in the USA and around the world for your support of Powerhouse Radio. You made us the number one classic soul R&B streaming channel during most of our Live365 run. "Radio revolution" pioneer Live365 will pull the plug on all of their channels effective January 31, 2016. You can blame The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and very high online music streaming licensing fees for this surprise shutdown. We began our Powerhouse Radio journey on Live365 in 2001. For a couple of years (2004 - 2006) we also streamed the award winning Live365 Fabfoursoul channel playing all Beatles music by R&B, soul, and jazz performers. Read additional information on Kurt Hanson's Radio and Internet News service about the Live365 shutdown. Previous Post | Next Post

0 Christmas Classic Soul Crooners

Christmas
by Kingsley H. Smith
12/14/2015

Every December Powerhouse Radio connects with and plays a unique collection of non-stop commercial free holiday music for about a week leading into Christmas. Here's a short 30 second video with just a tiny selection of artists. See our complete Powerhouse Radio holiday playlist in our archive. Enjoy! Previous Post | Next Post

0 12 Standout Male Blue-Eyed Soul Singers?

Review
by Kingsley H. Smith and guest
10/02/2015

When you review Rob Patterson's list of the 12 Standout Male Blue-Eyed Soul Singers you may see a few people that you don't know. I only agree with 6 people out of 12 on his list. Can White people sing "Black" music effectively articles always amuse me. You are the ultimate judge whether or not the vocal interpretation is authentic to the bone, or should I say soul. Scan the article, watch a few of the sample videos, and decide for yourself who is the real deal on the best classic bands website! 12 Standout Male Blue-Eyed Soul Singers Previous Post | Next Post

0 Jill Scott In Her Own Groove

Review
by Kingsley H. Smith
09/16/2015

Jill Scott has paid her dues. Scott's slow to medium tempo tunes don't compete with dance floor favorites. They don't have too. It doesn't matter. The living my life like it's "Golden" lady has carved out her own niche. You should enjoy this Jill Scott feature below: Woman: The confessions of R&B singer Jill Scott below was written by Hiram Lee and originally appeared at wsws.org. ---------- American R&B singer Jill Scott has been making music for 15 years now. In addition to her successful singing career, she has also written poetry and appeared in a number of films, including the interesting James Brown biopic Get on Up (2014). While not quite a household name like fellow R&B performers Beyoncé, Alicia Keys or John Legend, Scott has garnered a significant following and earned the respect of her peers. Her new album Woman debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts when it was released in July. Born in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Scott was one of several R&B singers to emerge at the end of 1990s and in the early 2000s as part of the so-called "neo-soul" movement. While maintaining connections to hip hop, these performers (D’Angelo, Raphael Saadiq, Erykah Badu and others) took most of their cues from classic soul and R&B. Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Donny Hathaway were significant reference points. Scott’s early singles "A Long Walk" and "Gettin' in the Way” epitomized the neo-soul style. They featured rich bass guitar lines that wound their way in and out of the path of strutting drums and the always shimmering electric piano. One was struck by the flexibility and warmth of Scott’s voice. Her latest work is tougher. Though some songs hark back to her earlier recordings, the new material is less relaxed, less "cool." There is less jazz, perhaps, and more blues. Among the most successful songs on Woman are those done in collaboration with producer/writer Aaron Pearce. "Run, Run, Run," is a propulsive R&B number that digs in and grabs the rhythm with both hands. Scott belts it out, but never puts on pretenses—she doesn’t use her songs as mere vehicles to demonstrate her vocal prowess. The fast-paced number, with its relentless bass guitar thumping away the seconds of an exhausting day, recounts the story of someone "overworked, underpaid" who has to keep going all the same. "Gotta put food on the table," sings Scott. The narrator is pulled along by her tasks (and the music) almost in spite of herself. "Can't Wait," co-written and produced by Andre Harris, is something of a companion track. Its most memorable verse sees Scott singing, "We all running the same race/Just to pay some bills/Staring monsters in their face (with grace)/You’d be so proud/Money made, bills to be paid/Like each and everybody/But baby I need and I need you." There is at least a touch of the real world in songs like these, a hint of the pressures bearing down on working people. Not all of the songs are so meaningful, however. For all her talents, Scott has a tendency to get in her own way at times. Her spoken word interludes ("Wild Cookie," "Say Thank You," "Lighthouse") are pretty weak and delivered with a little too much self-importance. "Prepared" goes even farther in that direction. The song comes to us in the form of a disjointed series of confessions, large and small. It provides a snapshot of the artist's thinking and day to day concerns, which, in this instance at least, prove to be regrettably narrow. "I’ve been reading my old journals," sings Scott. Among the more banal observations that follow, Scott informs us that she's "been eating more greens." "I've been getting recipes off the internet," she sings later. "I let the queen inside—I let her shine," she adds. "I've been listening for God more, I've been doing my chores," she assures us. What can one say about a song that treats matters as small as adding spice to a dish as though they were major turning points in one's life? This is self-involvement turning into self-parody. It is a song that bears the burden of middle class self-involvement and notions of self-empowerment that dominate neo-soul and “conscious” hip hop. It is not an easy task to sing about oneself without only singing about oneself. When an Otis Redding or an Aretha Franklin approach a song, they bring something else to it, something true to life and not just their own lives. You finish listening to Redding’s "I've Been Loving You Too Long," and you feel as though you've gotten something off your own chest. And he does it without about half as many words as today's singers. In some respects, it is unfair to compare Scott to figures like Redding and Franklin. But why shouldn’t one ask more of art, even when considering the most talented musicians? There is a tendency on the part of some listeners to approach the work of someone like Scott or similar performers and say "At least they aren’t backward or just talking about money and jewelry all the time like all the other stuff." But is that asking enough? For all the hip hop grooves and spoken word flights of fancy, it is the blues which makes the biggest impact on the album, and a song from Redding and Franklin's era. It is a real pleasure to hear Scott's version of Jerry Ragovoy's "You Don't Know." Ragovoy (1930-2011) was the producer/composer responsible for such remarkable songs as "Get it While You Can," "Time is On My Side," "Piece of My Heart" and "Cry Baby." A relatively straightforward blues ballad, "You Don't Know" nevertheless speaks volumes. Scott really comes to life in the performance. She is very much at home in this material, perhaps sensing she has something more substantial on her hands. Jill Scott is a performer of real talent. She's a commanding presence on the stage, in particular. The best moments on Woman are well worth hearing, but there is still that nagging unevenness about the whole thing. Previous Post | Next Post

0 Earth, Wind & Fire - Chicago

Video
by Kingsley H. Smith
08/19/2015

Earth, Wind & Fire together with Chicago Saturday, August 15, 2015 on the Heart and Soul tour in Camden, NJ segue from "September" into Chicago's "Free." Enjoy 18 seconds of both groups playing together! Previous Post | Next Post

0 How Students Remix Classic Soul

Video
by Kingsley H. Smith
05/21/2015

Drexel University in Philadelphia is known for teaching technology. A fortunate group of students taking Uncovering the Philly Groove course at Drexel are embracing tech to remix a bunch of unreleased City of Brotherly Love tracks never heard by the public. Watch the video and learn how the students add different elements to the old classic soul songs mixing up something fresh. If the embedded video doesn't play, you can follow the direct link below to the story on 6abc Philadelphia. Students at Drexel University get to remix old R&B, soul songs Previous Post | Next Post

0 Aretha Franklin Sings The Great Diva Classics

Songs
by Kingsley H. Smith
12/11/2014

Clive Davis signed Aretha Franklin to Arista in 1980. Davis left Arista in 2000. In October, 2014 Aretha and Davis reunited for "Great Diva Classics." This album features hit covers including Barbra Streisand's "People," Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train To Georgia," Alicia Keys' "No One," Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," Destiny's Child's "Survivor" and more. http://amzn.to/1us5j73 Have you heard it? Available from Amazon. Previous Post | Next Post

0 Earth, Wind & Fire's Holiday

Christmas
by Kingsley H. Smith
12/01/2014

For Earth, Wind & Fire lovers, lead singer Philip Bailey's new 2014 autobiography, and EWF's hot new Christmas album Holiday http://amzn.to/14HUnxb are here and available at Amazon. Previous Post | Next Post