By the Ambassador

From the label that brought us Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, we now have a male soul shouter. Charles is a former/current James Brown impersonator, so he’s trained in the art of the “get down”, but he’s got his own style as well, somewhere between Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. Lots of heart on these songs and the Menahan Street Band bring some great music to back up this 50+ year old soul survivor. FCC clean. Try #1, #2, or #12

1) **Killer album opener about the state of the world. Chunky drums, catchy piano line and heart-wrenching vocals. CLASSIC; 2) ** song comes in at 0:14 Funky groove with percussion, piano and sinuous guitar and spoken word intro. Killer groove about love squabbles. Nice horn lines; 3) nice, mid-tempo song about the “Golden Rule”, sweeping organ, horn accents and stepping rhythm section ; 4) *Pleading love song with touching vocals; 5) Short instrumental – great for background: funky groove with afro-beat style guitar part and siren sound effects; 6) Stax-styled ballad with some serious churchifying and soaring horns @ chorus, 7) *title track – up-beat motivational stomper with nice femme back-up vox, nice breakdown w/ horns in middle; 8) bluesy pleader of a song, again about the state of this country; 9) moody down-tempo tune with swirling organ, guitar and hypnotic groove; 10) pleading message song about “making it in America” ; 11)* instrumental acoustic groove – really mellow, perfect for a sunny picnic in the park with funky percussion, whimsical horns, bubbling horns and grooving acoustic guitar; 12)** Timeless tune that coulda been an Otis classic. True story about Charles’ brother’s death. Heartfelt lyrics sung with intensity and classy, gritty music to back it up.