South African expatriate Jonathan Butler isn't really a jazz artist, but his laid-back, slightly jazz-tinged approach to R&B/pop has earned the singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer a lot of supporters in the urban contemporary, adult contemporary, quiet storm, and smooth jazz/NAC markets. Butler has enjoyed a following since the late '70s, although he reached his commercial peak in the late '80s, and he continues to tour and record in the 21st century. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in October 1961, Butler was only a child when he started singing and playing acoustic guitar. Butler, who was the youngest of about 12 children, absorbed a variety of music when he was a kid. He was an admirer of South African stars like singer Miriam Makeba, but he was also hip to the American soul and jazz artists who lived thousands of miles away in the United States. Stevie Wonder became a major influence, and so did former-hard bop-guitarist-turned-R&B/pop-singer George Benson.

The Eastern North Carolina Sacred Soul all stars, Dedicated Men of Zion are back with the follow up to their critically acclaimed, 2020 debut album, Can't Turn Me Around. The Devil Don't Like It picks up where we last heard DMZ, blending traditional sacred soul offerings with the fire and passion of a touring outfit. Backed by the Sacred Soul Sound Section and produced by Bible & Tire founder, Bruce Watson, these songs are presented just as they should be, with a precision of sound and style but as raw as the original recordings demand. These men did not come to play, they came to work for the Lord.

This album is one of the cornerstones of Riverside Records' "Original Blues Classics" series. Regardless of the moniker, these sides loom large in the available works of seminal blues icons Pink Anderson and Rev. Gary Davis. Both performers hail from the largely underappreciated Piedmont blues scene - which first began to flourish in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - near the North/South Carolina state border. Anderson's seven tracks were recorded in Charlottesville, VA, on May 29, 1950 - while he was literally on the road. His highly sophisticated and self-accompanied style of simultaneously picking and sliding - accomplished using a half-opened jackknife - could pass for an electronic effect…

An often stirring 20-member ensemble whose music was better suited for devotional and inspirational material than commercial R&B or soul, the Voices of East Harlem included lead vocalists Gerri Griffin and Monica Burress. Producers Leroy Hutson and Curtis Mayfield worked with the group, whose ages ranged from 12 to 21, and cut some material on the Just Sunshine label that didn't generate any chart action. But their 1973 LP, The Voices of East Harlem, was a superbly performed release nonetheless, and the single 'Cashing In' was a cult favorite. The single 'Wanted Dead or Alive' was later reissued as a 12' remixed cut and got some international dance attention.

TV host, author, and singer/songwriter Kathie Lee Gifford created The Way, an epic film that brings to life classical Biblical themes and legendary characters. The 2 CD audio soundtrack features Gifford with guest vocalists Nicole C. Mullen, Danny Gokey, Larry Gatlin, Jimmie Allen, BeBe Winans, Kathy Troccoli, Katie Ohh, and Louis York, all accompanied by 65 members of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. These four oratorios take listeners on a journey through the Old and New Testaments.

"Yet another 5-album box by the great Queen of Soul, which brings together her very first works. A very young Aretha but with great talent she has become the sacred monster par excellence of black music. The albums reissued for the occasion are "The gospel soul of Aretha Franklin", "Aretha with the Ray Bryant Combo", "The tender, tha moving, the swinging", "The electrifying Aretha Franklin" (which I love!) and " Laughing on the outside". Even in this case I can only confirm 5 stars."

From the opening bars of Soul on Fire you could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to a new Ry Cooder album at last but you would be wrong by a windmill or two. Influenced by the likes of Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy, Dutch guitarist Hans Theessink (pronounced "tay-sink") successfully moves across musical borders with ease on his 15th album. Lifeline is just the right mixture of deftly played acoustic blues, gospel and soul channelled into a union that highlights the diversity and durability of roots music at it's best with guests like Charles Brown and The Holmes Brothers. There are 11 excellent original tracks to soak up, as well as covers of Rev Gary Davis, Blind Willie Johnson, and the Neville Brothers. A rare treat!