Lari, not Barry
Enjoyed listening to Green Eyed Soul, by Lari White on the way into work this morning. As the Suunday Times puts it:
I knew Lari well as a country singer, have all her records. They were the kind where you always had one or two absolutely cracking cracks, but then the rest of the album was a bit weak or half-hearted. Her voice, whilst not being straight out of Fame Academy "Soul" singing, was certainly more bluesy, more Gospel, more soul, than the usual kind of Country style.
Which is not to criticise the Country style, because I love it. And I love the machine, the Nashville production line, love the (female) mainstream, top-40 country pop sound. Martina McBride, Trisha, Sara Evans: these (and more) we have loved.
But it was disappointing to see Lari "fail" (if having a couple of gold records is failure, which it is, in this age), and I thought she was just going to be acting from now on. Nice to see her come back with a home-brewed Pro Tools manifesto.
Strangely akin to Shelby Lynne's post-country work, "Green Eyed Soul" is very Ally McBeal: Barry White and The Reverend Al Green all over the shop. But it's also personal and different. The musicians are allowed to play, to really play, together. There are a couple of extended outros with Hammond and guitar etc; and the singing is great, as ever. She always went for that fashionable ultra-dry vocal sound, and it's here in spades. It's all very similar to Shelby's recent home-made record. But whereas Shelby recorded everything on analogue equipment, Lari is Pro Tools through and through.
Now, Shelby would have argued she prefers the analogue sound, but Lari's effort sounds every bit as good. And of course, to be on CD at all, Shelby's tapes had to be digitised somewhere along the line. Lari sounds "warm," obviously using the right voice channels and plug-ins to achieve that "analogue" sound, possibly, even, recording at 192kHz on Pro Tools|HD. Now, it may be in inverted commas, but it sounds plenty good enough, testament to how much you can do for yourself, independent of major record companies, these days.
Colour management lets her down though: her eyes look blue on the cover.
To make a great soul album requires more than just a voice. It demands emotions actually lived: to have experienced pain and longing, love and lust, triumph and despair. Which is why the finest soul album this year comes not from Devon’s teen prodigy Joss Stone, but from Lari White, a 38-year-old mother of two, failed country singer and occasional actress.
I knew Lari well as a country singer, have all her records. They were the kind where you always had one or two absolutely cracking cracks, but then the rest of the album was a bit weak or half-hearted. Her voice, whilst not being straight out of Fame Academy "Soul" singing, was certainly more bluesy, more Gospel, more soul, than the usual kind of Country style.
Which is not to criticise the Country style, because I love it. And I love the machine, the Nashville production line, love the (female) mainstream, top-40 country pop sound. Martina McBride, Trisha, Sara Evans: these (and more) we have loved.
But it was disappointing to see Lari "fail" (if having a couple of gold records is failure, which it is, in this age), and I thought she was just going to be acting from now on. Nice to see her come back with a home-brewed Pro Tools manifesto.
Strangely akin to Shelby Lynne's post-country work, "Green Eyed Soul" is very Ally McBeal: Barry White and The Reverend Al Green all over the shop. But it's also personal and different. The musicians are allowed to play, to really play, together. There are a couple of extended outros with Hammond and guitar etc; and the singing is great, as ever. She always went for that fashionable ultra-dry vocal sound, and it's here in spades. It's all very similar to Shelby's recent home-made record. But whereas Shelby recorded everything on analogue equipment, Lari is Pro Tools through and through.
Now, Shelby would have argued she prefers the analogue sound, but Lari's effort sounds every bit as good. And of course, to be on CD at all, Shelby's tapes had to be digitised somewhere along the line. Lari sounds "warm," obviously using the right voice channels and plug-ins to achieve that "analogue" sound, possibly, even, recording at 192kHz on Pro Tools|HD. Now, it may be in inverted commas, but it sounds plenty good enough, testament to how much you can do for yourself, independent of major record companies, these days.
Colour management lets her down though: her eyes look blue on the cover.
posted by Anonymous at
Friday, June 25, 2004
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