About a year ago, I found myself in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. I was in town for a Predators game and didn't have a whole lot to do whilst waiting for the puck to drop, so sue me. It surprised me to no end that the establishment had a huge exhibit on Ray Charles and his impact on the Country & Western genre. When considering cowboy-flavored music, my mind doesn't immediately leap to soul masters like Ike & Tina, James Brown or Sammy Davis, Jr. This would show under-education on my part, and I'd hate for the same thing to happen to you. Fortunately for all of us, German label Trikont wants to make sure nobody stays that uninformed for long. The label has just put out a second compilation album, More Dirty Laundry: The Soul of Black Country, which showcases some of the many important contributions black artists have made to the otherwise assumed white domain of C&W. What makes this CD so compelling is to hear a completely different take on a number of established "classics," as well as stabs at the genre itself. Both R&B and C&W have a lot of the same problems to discuss: broken hearts, too much booze, and a seeming preference for various hound dogs. While the backgrounds of the singers might be strikingly different, the heartaches we all experience prove that one skin's color is a shallow reason indeed to keep us separated. As both a study in genres and simply a damn fine disc of good tunes, Trikont's Dirty Laundry series will keep me coming back to the hamper time and again.mp3: Ike & Tina Turner - Don't Believe Nothing
1 comment:
Wow....who could have picked a better selection of tracks! Jeez
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