Fifteen years ago you had to look for them with a lantern: soul singers. And we're not talking about smooth R&B boys or Simply Red, but about artists who wanted to keep the tradition of men like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett alive. How different is that now. Don't be surprised if your thirteen-year-old neighbor's PC is full of MP3s of obscure soul singles. Undoubtedly, it is the same with the
… young Jesse Dee. On his debut album, this white brother from Boston shows searing soul and rhythm & blues as it was once conceived in the studios of Muscle Shoals and Stax. 'I work real hard because I got bills to pay,' he sobs in the infectious Around Here. Despite all that hard work Dee is not yet Otis or Stevie, but with Bittersweet Batch he delivers a sincere and welcome album. A nice counterbalance to the weak bite that is nowadays dismissed as 'real soul'. (PdK)more
