Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings Soul Time! 2011 Brendan Benson Upstairs At United 2011

For the last four years the third Saturday in April has been Record Store Day. Record companies big and small release new music, and they also release some limited edition products aimed at the "collector" market. This year the Record Store Day folks decided to have another Record Store Day on Black Friday, and for the first time in what feels like forever I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I went specifically to purchase the new Sharon Jones record, which her web site had announced for release on Record Store Day. The guys at the store had to dig into a shipping box to produce the LP. They didn't think they had it. Record stores never change.

The new Sharon Jones is killer. The sales pitch calls it the funkier side of Sharon Jones, and the liner notes say the songs are live show staples that never made it to a record. I'd have to say that they nailed it. Jones and the Dap Kings have long emulated the best of James Brown, but their sound is more sixties Brown sounding, in a good way of course. This new one digs deep groves more like Brown's remarkable seventies output. Genuine Parts 1 an 2 is seven minutes of if you ain't dancin', you dead. He Said I Can, I'm Not Going To Cry, and When I Come Home keep the funky soul driving right at you.

You've got to love What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes, and they make a pretty good lyrical point. Settling In and Without A Trace are deep soul highlights, and the remarkable Christmas funk of Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects is spectacular, and previously existed only in 45 rpm, 7 inch format. Everything they've done has been great, and they just keep getting better at it. I really didn't think they could outdo I Learned The Hard Way, but they've at least matched it right here.

The only thing that Sharon Jones and Brendan Benson have in common is that I bought them both on Record Store Day. While at the store, I looked through the special Record Store Day limited edition vinyl releases, and I was tempted by some overpriced Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan 7 inch "box sets" of four singles in a set. The Dylan stuff was original sixties mono mixes, and the Janis had some "rare" versions. Snap out of it!

But there was this 12 inch 45 rpm four-song Brendan Benson Upstairs At United, recorded live to tape and pressed on black plastic. Benson sings and plays guitar, and is ably assisted on drums (Nicole Childrey), bass (Young Hines) and keyboards (Andrew Higley).  As you wouldn't expect from a songwriter of Benson's talent, they do four cover songs: David Bowie's Candidate, Dave Davies' Strangers, Elvis Costello's Beyond Belief, and Randy Newman's Love Story. Strangers and Beyond Belief are top notch, and Benson delivers them reverently. The all-analog direct to tape sound is very immediate. It sounds like you're in the room with the band. Lovely really.

If I'd known that shopping on Black Friday was this much fun, I would have done it long ago.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings I Learned The Hard Way 2010

I can't believe I haven't mentioned Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings before this! Sharon is the closest thing you're going to find to a living and breathing James Brown. This is her fourth record (all are available on vinyl), and it is the work of a mature artist, band , and label all coming together at once.

Some backstory. Sharon was the first artist released on DapTone Records from Brooklyn, NY. Daptone is a small label that releases Sharon's records as well as ten or so other bands, several including Dap Kings band members. Neal Sugerman, the Dap Kings sax player, is half-owner of the label, and the whole outfit is a tight knit family-style operation. Check it out at Daptone.

This is the new one, and definitely her best. 2005's Naturally comes very close, though, and they are all good. But the songwriting, almost all done in-house at Daptone, plus the recording, the singing, the performance of a smokin' hot band on a mission, it all adds up to a monster soul record. The modern day Otis Blue. These guys are old school, and nobody can do it better, at least not today.

If you like Amy Winehouse (and why wouldn't you like Back To Black- it was killer, and oh, the Dap Kings backed her up on most of it), or James Brown, or Irma Thomas, or funky soul in general, you need this record. The vinyl sounds great, very much like the best of the Stax and Atlantic sides of the sixties out of Memphis.

I could try to describe the songs, and tell you about the hooks, and the great lyrics, and Sharon Jones' amazingly soulful voice. Otis Redding. Sly and the Family Stone. Aretha Franklin. This is not an imitation of authentic soul music. It's the real deal.

Last month Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings played a concert at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here in C town, and I got to be there. It was incendiary. They are touring the southwest this month, and then they are off to Europe and Australia through early December. Heads up there across the pond, this is a must see band, completely on fire.