What if We All Stopped Paying Taxes?

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are probably one of the best current bands that are making soul music today. Whenever someone would cite Amy Winehouse in the beginning of her huge success, I would always turn them in the direction of Sharon Jones. Few singers as skilled as Sharon Jones at stuffing notes with ache and meaning might be willing to invest in a sound so fully occupied by the likes of Bettye LaVette and Tina Turner in the Ike years, too. She was born in Augusta, Georgia, sang in her church choir and with the support of her community she got the nerve she needed to move to Brooklyn with her family and there she immersed herself in 70's disco and funk and planned to make her own record. She got steady work as a backup singer for gospel, soul, disco, and blues artists, most of it uncredited. In the '80s, however, Jones' sound was deemed unfashionable, and instead of pushing ahead with her soul diva's dream she went back to church singing. She also took a job as a corrections officer at New York's Rykers Island.

It wasn't until the late 90's that Desco Records would discover Jones and she released several singles with the labels' house band, the Soul Providers. During this time she began to be known as the "Queen of Funk". It wasn't until 2002 that she released her first full length release, Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Since then she has toured extensively and made follow up albums, 100 Days, 100 Nights and Learned the Hard Way.

There is nothing modern about Soul Time!, yet it sounds both refreshing and contemporary. The exceptional musicianship and impeccable vocals may not be to everyone’s taste, but for 40 very happy minutes, you can revel in SJDK’s very discrete world.

Just how does one pick a soul track? I went by the title, which was unexpected for me, to find the band jammin' out to some current events and getting political. I didn't think someone could sing a song about taxes since the Beatle's Tax Man.
Lend me your ears!



Buy your copy of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings' Soul Time! here.