Around the time that Damien Rice began recording with a golden voiced ingénue named Lisa Hannigan, the Jim Kweskin Band was introducing the world to their own secret siren Samoa Wilson. Though Samoa was featured prominently on Jim Kweskin's Now and Again
- most notably her sultry cover of "Why Don't You Do Right" and melodious vocal on "Cry Me A River" - and the band once again joins on her on her solo debut Live The Life, it is Samoa's beautiful voice that takes the spotlight.
Samoa Wilson was a Mountain Stage find for me. I attended the 2003 concert to see Ani Difranco, and ended up discovering new favorites Hamell on Trial, Ben Taylor, and Xavier Rudd. But it was Samoa Wilson's performance with the Jim Kweskin Band that I remembered most. It was hard to believe such a big, beautiful voice was coming out of that tiny, seemingly shy girl. Wilson made her singing debut with the Kweskin band when she was just twelve years old and formally joined them in 1997.
If you're at all familiar with the Jim Kweskin Band, you know they play a mix of jaunty jug band music, old-timey folk, and vintage jazz, blues, and swing. The same is true for their work with Samoa Wilson. Wilson's voice adds a new depth and sophistication to their Tin Pan Alley sound. It's the kind of rich, timeless alto that only Patsy Cline and a thimbleful of other singers possessed.
The opener "I'm Going To Live The Life I Sing About" is the Mahalia Jackson track that inspired the album's title. As usual, the finespun instrumentation of Jim Kweskin's band is the perfect accompaniment for Samoa's astonishing voice. The softer "Sun Going Down" follows, the only original tune on the disc and written by Wilson at age sixteen.
Jim Kweskin duets on the suave "Some of These Days" - which Samoa glommed from a Bing Crosby recording - and again on the brassy 1940s pre-rock shuffler "Choo Choo Ch-Boogie". Wilson lifted "Oh Papa Blues" from a Ma Rainey record, "Dedicated To You" and the finale "Goodnight My Love" from Ella Fitzgerald, and W.C. Handy's brilliant "St. Louis Blues" from Bessie Smith. The album also includes instrumental renderings of Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues" and "Organ Grinder's Swing" by the Jim Kweskin Band.
Samoa's voice slides from thick honey to airy trills on "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" from Showboat. But the stand out tune is the one that first grabbed my attention at the Mountain Stage concert. Samoa's expressive rendition of Billie Holiday's "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" is buoyed by the Kweskin band's infectiously merry mandolin and fiddle. This may be the only time that I prefer a cover over a Billie version.
I was not granted permission to share an mp3, but you can hear samples at the links below.
Samoa Wilson MySpace
Buy CD
- most notably her sultry cover of "Why Don't You Do Right" and melodious vocal on "Cry Me A River" - and the band once again joins on her on her solo debut Live The Life, it is Samoa's beautiful voice that takes the spotlight.Samoa Wilson was a Mountain Stage find for me. I attended the 2003 concert to see Ani Difranco, and ended up discovering new favorites Hamell on Trial, Ben Taylor, and Xavier Rudd. But it was Samoa Wilson's performance with the Jim Kweskin Band that I remembered most. It was hard to believe such a big, beautiful voice was coming out of that tiny, seemingly shy girl. Wilson made her singing debut with the Kweskin band when she was just twelve years old and formally joined them in 1997.
If you're at all familiar with the Jim Kweskin Band, you know they play a mix of jaunty jug band music, old-timey folk, and vintage jazz, blues, and swing. The same is true for their work with Samoa Wilson. Wilson's voice adds a new depth and sophistication to their Tin Pan Alley sound. It's the kind of rich, timeless alto that only Patsy Cline and a thimbleful of other singers possessed.
The opener "I'm Going To Live The Life I Sing About" is the Mahalia Jackson track that inspired the album's title. As usual, the finespun instrumentation of Jim Kweskin's band is the perfect accompaniment for Samoa's astonishing voice. The softer "Sun Going Down" follows, the only original tune on the disc and written by Wilson at age sixteen.
Jim Kweskin duets on the suave "Some of These Days" - which Samoa glommed from a Bing Crosby recording - and again on the brassy 1940s pre-rock shuffler "Choo Choo Ch-Boogie". Wilson lifted "Oh Papa Blues" from a Ma Rainey record, "Dedicated To You" and the finale "Goodnight My Love" from Ella Fitzgerald, and W.C. Handy's brilliant "St. Louis Blues" from Bessie Smith. The album also includes instrumental renderings of Duke Ellington's "C Jam Blues" and "Organ Grinder's Swing" by the Jim Kweskin Band.
Samoa's voice slides from thick honey to airy trills on "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" from Showboat. But the stand out tune is the one that first grabbed my attention at the Mountain Stage concert. Samoa's expressive rendition of Billie Holiday's "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" is buoyed by the Kweskin band's infectiously merry mandolin and fiddle. This may be the only time that I prefer a cover over a Billie version.
I was not granted permission to share an mp3, but you can hear samples at the links below.
Samoa Wilson MySpace
Buy CD
