Independent (label)
14 August 2020 (released)
03 August 2020
Lynne Jackaman has been around a little while, most famously as the lead singer of Saint Jude, but this debut solo album is a whole new kettle of fish and a right tasty one too.
Ms Jackaman followed in the footsteps of Elles Bailey and Amanda St John by taking off to the mighty FAME Studio at Muscle Shoals Alabama and her soulful and subtle voice really has blossomed in the environment.
“Recording at Muscle Shoals makes you up your game,” comments Jackaman. “When you’re singing, you look up and see albums on the wall by Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Bobbie Gentry… But the most arrogant thing anyone could do would be to try to imitate those artists. Aretha and Otis were the sum of everything going on around them politically, from growing up singing in the church. I grew up in a very different place in a very different way. But that music has always made me think it’s home.”
Bringing in the likes of Spooner Oldham on organ, Marvin and Aretha’s keyboardist Clayton Ivey, Ray Charles’ bassist Bob Wray, Bonnie Raitt’s guitarist Will McFarlane; and The Shoals Sisters, backing vocalists for everyone from Etta James to Alicia Keys meant that her vocals needed to be at an incredibly high standard to avoid being lost in the mix and she actually stands up to the task brilliantly – I’d heard good things about her singing but this is soul music of an altogether higher order than most.
She had me gripped right from the opening track ‘Supernasty’, a super Stevie Wonder-esque soul/pop groover with a great horn sound and wicked vocal.
From there on, every track exposed something else of her talents whether it is sultry and sexy(‘Nobody’s Fault (But Yours)’) or soft and pleading (‘One Shot’) or the gorgeous piano ballad of ‘On My Own Stage’ and every number seems to bring more and more out of her so that by the end of the album you have heard more than you usually would in an entire soul chart.
I think that she is a real fresh new talent and that this album deserves to be a massive hit for her. There really is great music being made, even in the lockdown.
