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Sly and the Family Stone, Higher!

2013 | Label: Epic/Legacy

By Britt Robson eMusic Contributor

08.27.13 Of the three pillars of funk — James Brown, George Clinton and Sly Stone — Sly was always the most adventurous and the most open-ended about his music, his politics and his self-identity. At the height of the Black Power movement, he championed integration and trumpeted inclusion with good-natured populist anthems like “Everyday People,” “Stand” and “Everybody is a Star.” And he walked his talk by assembling the first mainstream band — Sly and the Family Stone — that mixed races and genders among its core personnel while playing a… more »

Various Artists, South Side Of Soul Street

2013 | Label: OMNIVORE RECORDINGS (OMN)

By Holly George-Warren eMusic Contributor

08.19.13 The “boogaloo beat,” name-checked in Genie Brooks’s shake-your-tailfeather title track, is all over this collection of criminally overlooked singles from the Valparaiso, Florida-based Minaret. Though most R&B diamonds cut in Memphis and Muscle Shoals have gotten their due, the 40 sides included here represent a whole other batch of down-South treasures from 11 different artists. The label’s “Otis” is should-have-been-a-contender Big John Hamilton, from Augusta, Georgia. Not only does Hamilton have a magnificent voice, but he wrote distinctive, well-crafted songs like the heart-tugging ballads “I Have No One” and “How… more »

Mayer Hawthorne, Where Does This Door Go

2013 | Label: Republic Records

By Barry Walters eMusic Contributor

07.16.13 Mayer Hawthorne doesn’t insist you take him seriously. He shoots deliberately goofy videos. His vibe is playful, not tortured and belabored. Yet his records rank among the most detailed and precise of today’s vintage soul practitioners, even if the results favor pure entertainment over profound enlightenment.

On his third album, the cheeky guy gets a bit more serious. Teaming with Pharrell Williams, Anthony Hamilton/Cee-Lo Green producer Jack Splash, Mika/Katy Perry collaborator Greg Wells and other hit-makers, he broadens his palate beyond the blueprints of the past, mixing, matching and updating styles… more »

Mavis Staples, One True Vine

2013 | Label: Anti/Epitaph

By Barry Walters eMusic Contributor

06.25.13 Decades after her 1969 solo debut and a whopping 63 years since she joined her family in the Staple Singers, septuagenarian Mavis Staples is once again doing work that eclipses records of singers a third her age. The follow-up to 2010′s stunning You Are Not Alone, One True Vine continues her collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, a pairing that seems strange in theory but sounds utterly sweet and mutually flattering in the grooves. As before, Tweedy gets unguarded performances from Staples that have sometimes eluded more conventional producers, and Staples… more »