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Born 80 Years Ago #OnThisDay: Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul (LISTEN)

Born 80 Years Ago #OnThisDay: Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 25, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today we celebrate the one and only Aretha Franklin, who was born 80 years ago #OnThisDay.

Franklin, whose voice was rightfully declared a natural resource by her home state of Michigan in 1985 is the focus of our Daily Drop podcast as GBN takes a brief look at her legacy through career highlights and offers sources to learn even more about the Queen of Soul.

Based on entries in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022, you can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 25th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

“Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin was born on this day 80 years ago and offered a heavenly blend of gospel, R&B, blues, jazz, rock and pop (and even classical!) that this Earth may never see again. A piano prodigy from childhood, this Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer wrote and performed classics such as “Think”:

[Excerpt from “Think”]

“Dr. Feelgood”:

[Excerpt from “Dr. Feelgood”]

“Day Dreaming”:

[Excerpt from “Day Dreaming”]

“Spirit in the Dark”:

[Excerpt from “Spirit in the Dark”]

and “Call Me”:

[Excerpt from “Call Me”]

Franklin also used her musical genius to turn cover songs into signature masterpieces such as “I Say a Little Prayer” – first recorded and released by Dionne Warwick:

[Excerpt from “Say a Little Prayer”]

“Until You Come Back to Me” – originally recorded by Stevie Wonder, though Aretha released her version first:

[Excerpt from “Until You Come Back to Me”]

And, the mother of all covers and remakes, ever, originally written, recorded and released by Otis Redding… “Respect”:

[Excerpt from “Respect”]

https://youtu.be/6S1_skidDFI

 

Additionally, Aretha Franklin’s 1972 Amazing Grace double album remains the best-selling live gospel music recording of all time, and her rendition of the title track to this day remains superlative:

[Excerpt from “Amazing Grace”]

Aretha continued to define and redefine singing and the sound of music in the 1980s and 1990s with songs like “Jump to It”:

[Excerpt from “Jump to It”]

“Freeway of Love”:

[Excerpt from “Freeway of Love”]

“I Knew You Were Waiting For Me” with George Michael:

[Excerpt from “I Knew You Were Waiting For Me”]

The anthemic “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” with Annie Lennox:

[Excerpt from “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves”]

and her 1998 collaboration with Lauryn Hill, “A Rose Is Still A Rose.”

[Excerpt from “A Rose Is Still A Rose”]

That same year, Franklin made Grammy Awards show history and received a standing ovation when she filled in last-minute for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti by singing the operatic aria “Nessun Dorma”:

[Excerpt from “Nessun Dorma’]

Still going strong in the 21st century, in 2014 at the age of 72, Aretha scored a #1 hit on the U.S. Dance Charts with her remake of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”:

[Excerpt from “Rolling In The Deep”]

All hail, now and forever, the Queen.

To learn more about Aretha Franklin, read her 1999 autobiography Aretha: From These Roots, Respect: The Life and Times of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz, The Queen Next Door: Aretha Franklin, An Intimate Portrait by Linda Solomon, watch the must-see musical documentary Amazing Grace on DVD or currently streaming on Hulu [see my review here], the 2021 limited series Genius: Aretha starring Cynthia Erivo also now on Hulu or the 2021 feature film Respect starring Jennifer Hudson.

You can also check out a few Aretha Franklin playlists curated by me, one of the biggest Aretha Franklin stans around, on Spotify and Apple Music.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing, and available at workman.com, Amazon,Bookshop and other online retailers.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of songs performed by Aretha Franklin are permitted under Fair Use.

If you like our Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon,Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You could give us a positive rating or review, share your favorite episodes on social media, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

20th Century Global Superstar, Activist and Spy Josephine Baker’s Cheeky Quote on Getting Ahead From Behind (LISTEN)

20th Century Global Superstar, Activist and Spy Josephine Baker’s Cheeky Quote on Getting Ahead From Behind (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 23, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

We celebrate the iconic, internationally famous entertainer Josephine Baker in today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast with some history along with her humorously clever quote regarding her ticket to fame, fortune and freedom in her adopted homeland of France, and around the world.

It’s based on the Wednesday, March 23 entry in “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today we offer a quote from internationally famous singer and dancer Josephine Baker:

“My face and my rump were famous! I could honestly say that I’d been blessed with an intelligent derriere. Most people’s were only good to sit on.”

Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, after stints in vaudeville and musical revues like Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along, Josephine Baker immigrated to France in the 1920s to find freedom and grow her talents into the pinnacle of singing, dancing, acting and comedic entertainment that brought her fortune and fame.

Known for her iconic “Banana Dance” in the Folies Bergere, Baker became a global sensation.

She was a member of the French Resistance during World War Two,  spied on the Nazis for her adopted homeland, spoke out for civil rights, worked with the NAACP, spoke at the March on Washington, and adopted 12 children from all races, countries and religions, calling them her Rainbow Tribe.

Baker passed in 1975 and in 2021, she became the first Black woman inducted into France’s National Panthéon.There is so much more to learn more about Bakers’ life and work, but you can start by reading 2018’s Josephine Baker’s Last Dance by Sherry Jones, 2001’s Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart by one of her sons, Jean-Claude Baker, watch Baker’s movies, Princess Tam Tam, Siren of the Tropics and Zou Zou, which can be found in the Josephine Baker DVD Collection, the recently restored film from 1940 called The French Way, and there’s also 1991’s The Josephine Baker Story, an HBO movie starring Lynn Whitfield, also available on DVD.

The main documentary I found on her is 2018’s Josephine Baker: The Story of An Awakening, produced by Terranoa, which can currently be found in some PBS local listings.

There’s also the BBC Wales’ 2006 documentary Josephine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, currently posted on YouTube.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional music includes “J’ai Deux Amours” performed by Josephine Baker and employed under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

GBN’s Daily Drop (bonus): Celebrating Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rock and Roll Innovator Born On This Day in 1915 (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 20, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is a bonus episode about rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe who was born #OnThisDay in 1915, for Sunday, March 20 and based on the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 format:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a bonus daily drop of Good Black News for Sunday, March 20th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

When gospel and R&B guitar sensation Sister Rosetta Tharpe reportedly said, “Can’t no man play like me,” she might not have had a clue how many would actually try.

Little Richard cited Tharpe as one of his major influences, and Chuck Berry once said his career was “one long Rosetta Tharpe impression.”

Born on this day in 1915, Arkansas native Tharpe’s 1930s and 1940s recordings of “Rock Me”:

[Excerpt of “Rock Me”]

 “Strange Things Happening Every Day”:

[Excerpt of “Strange Things Happening Every Day”]

“I Want A Tall Skinny Papa”:

[Excerpt of “I Want A Tall Skinny Papa”]

and the classic “Didn’t It Rain”:

[Excerpt of “Didn’t It Rain”]

These songs melded gospel, jazz and Rhythm and Blues into what was soon and would forever be called rock n roll. In 2018, Tharpe was finally and rightfully inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her musicianship and influence.

To learn more about Tharpe, read the 2008 biography Shout, Sister, Shout: The Untold Story of Rock-And-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe by Gayle Wald, watch the 2011 documentary The Godmother of Rock and Roll – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Gibson Guitars-produced short documentary Shout, Sister, Shout: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, as well as performance clips of her available on YouTube.

This February, Gibson Guitars also debuted the Rosetta Tharpe Collection of merchandise in tribute to her, including a miniature replica of the iconic 1961 Les Paul she used to play.

Links to these sources and more are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a bonus daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of songs by Rosetta Tharpe permitted under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

[Photo: Tony Evans/Getty]

(paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Calypso” – a Collection in Celebration of Artist and Activist Harry Belafonte’s 95th Birthday (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Calypso” – a Collection in Celebration of Artist and Activist Harry Belafonte’s 95th Birthday (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on March 7, 2022

words by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson); art and music by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

This week’s Music Monday share is in tribute to the one and only Harry Belafonte, who turned 95 on March 1st. We celebrate the renowned singer, actor and activist by sharing refreshed and updated list of Calypso music, a genre that Belafonte popularized worldwide with his recordings (his Calypso album from 1956 became the first by a solo performer to sell a million copies) and contributions to the style.

Not only is the refreshed playlist the creation of GBN contributor Marlon West (his original post on calypso can be read here), but he also created the artwork that honors Belafonte as the superhero and champion for civil rights and human rights that he has been for decades (which includes marching on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., funding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, fighting against apartheid, organizing USA for Africa for famine relief and acting as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador) and still is.

Luminaries such as Spike Lee, Alicia Keys, Laurence Fishburne, Whoopi Goldberg and Cornel West turned out to celebrate Belafonte’s milestone last week at The Town Hall Theater in Manhattan for the first Harry Belafonte Social Justice Awards given by Sankofa.org, a social justice organization founded 10 years ago by Belafonte, his daughter Gina Belafonte and the music executive Raoul Roach.

You can celebrate Belafonte by listening to his own words about his life and activism by checking out the unabridged audiobook of his autobiography, My Song: A Memoir:

Also included in today’s post is a conversation with Belafonte from 2012 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. 

Sankofa.org is a social justice organization founded by Harry Belafonte that enlists the support of today’s most celebrated artists and influential individuals in collaboration with grassroots partners to elevate the voices of the disenfranchised and promote justice, peace, and equality.

MUSIC MONDAY: “The Song Is You” – a Tribute Playlist to Legendary Song Stylist Nancy Wilson (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “The Song Is You” – a Tribute Playlist to Legendary Song Stylist Nancy Wilson (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 21, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Hey, it’s Lori, GBN’s Editor-in-Chief, stepping in with this week’s Music Monday share. As yesterday was what would have been song stylist Nancy Wilson’s 85th birthday, I have crafted an 85-song tribute playlist that spans her six decades-long recording career.

A prolific singer who recorded and released 52 albums, three-time Grammy Award winner Wilson was one of the greats who often is not given her just due in popular music history. For a time in the 1960s, Wilson was the second biggest recording artist at Capitol Records – the biggest being the Beatles.

Born on February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, Ohio, Nancy Sue Wilson knew by the time she was four years old she would be a singer. By her teen years she won a talent contest and began performing on a local television program called Skyline Melodies, then became its host.

She soon met jazz saxophonist and bandleader Julius “Cannonball” Adderley, who was impressed with her talent and suggested she move to New York City. The move lead to Wilson landing a recording contract with Capitol and releasing her first single and album in 1960.

The first five songs that kick off this compilation are some of Wilson’s best known recordings, some of which charted on Billboard Magazine’s pop and/or R&B charts: “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” – Pop #11; “Save Your Love For Me” – R&B #11; “Tell Me The Truth” – R&B #22 – others which are considered Nancy Wilson standards.

From Wilson’s rendition of  “Fly Me To The Moon” off her first album, Like in Love, until the playlist’s conclusion, I’ve ordered the songs to play mostly in chronological order, to offer a sense of how Wilson’s music and voice developed from the 1960s on.

Highlights include her recordings with George Shearing and Cannonball Adderley (The Swingin’s Mutual and Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley are two classic Nancy Wilson albums that deserve to be purchased and heard in their entirety), and the live tracks from The Nancy Wilson Show recorded live at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the tracks from one of my personal favorite Nancy Wilson albums, 1971’s But Beautiful, where she is backed brilliantly by the Hank Jones Quartet.

I’d also like to point out Wilson’s superlative cover of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” from her 1970 album Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and the utterly surprising and borderline funky “Tell The Truth” from her 1974 All in Love is Fair LP written by Wilson along with Tennyson Stephens. And YES, the first line is “Bitches taking money and they livin’ well.” Seriously, enjoy.

There are more treasures than I can count in this playlist, especially her later recordings towards the end of her career before she stopped recording such as “When October Goes,” “Peel Me A Grape” and “The Golden Years.”

Wilson passed in 2018 but her music deserves and needs to continued to be appreciated and shared for generations to come. To quote GBN music contributor Jeff Meier from his Facebook tribute to Wilson when she passed:

“While she was probably not a jazz purists favorite jazz performer, a pop fan’s favorite pop singer, nor a soul fan’s top soul artist, she was something in the middle, an accurately self-proclaimed ‘song stylist’ who was a true pioneer in African-American ‘supper club’ entertainment, blending the best from the American songbook – pop, jazz, blues, show tunes into one stylish mix.

In the vein of Johnny Mathis and Lena Horne, she was beautiful, elegant, classy – and therefore also the perfect archetype of ‘guest’ to help integrate television in the early ’60s, when she was regularly featured on variety shows like Andy Williams, Hollywood Palace, Danny Kaye, Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett and many more.

She is undoubtedly what Columbia Records was trying to turn Aretha Franklin into before Aretha broke free for Atlantic to become her true self. Good thing, because just as there was only one Aretha, there was also only one Nancy Wilson.”

I hope you enjoy this playlist, and please know we are still working behind the scenes on re-creating and offering our playlists via Apple Music for those who would like a non-Spotify option. As soon as they are ready, I’ll be sure to post and let you know.

2/22/22 UPDATE:

Good Black News is now officially on Apple Music! Going forward, we will offer all MUSIC MONDAY playlists on both platforms. Slowly but surely, we will add the playlists from past Music Mondays on Apple Music as well. Enjoy!

MUSIC MONDAY: “Love Is The Thing” – Valentine’s Day 2022 Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Love Is The Thing” – Valentine’s Day 2022 Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on February 14, 2022

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy 14th of February! It’s your friend and selector, Marlon!

We are halfway through Black History Month. It’s Valentine’s Day! If you are like my kid, it could be your birthday too. And of course, it is Music Monday here at GBN.

I am thrilled to offer this collection of mushy stuff. Here is a full workday wit of music devoted to affairs of the heart. Love is the thing all right here, at Good Black News.

This playlist brings together classics by Aretha, Stevie, Marvin, Sade, and others, along with new voices of artists like Tamia, Mario, and Liza.

There are songs here about new and enduring love. Tracks about the peril and pain of romance, everything in between.

Hope you enjoy this Valentine’s Day offering. See you all next month.

Until such time, stay safe, sane, and kind.

-m-

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

 

MUSIC MONDAY: MLK DAY – The Ultimate Civil Rights Soundtrack (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: MLK DAY – The Ultimate Civil Rights Soundtrack (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on January 17, 2022

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Hello on this MLK Day Monday! Hope this missive finds you all well. I put together this collection of tracks to celebrate this day. I’ve included songs that speak directly to the struggle for Civil Rights.

Some of these tracks were favorite songs of Dr. King’s and other leaders of the movement. While other tracks both classic and new are inspired by their efforts and sacrifice.

I have also included a few excerpts for the great man’s speeches as well. Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Gil Scott-Heron, and Nina Simone are all present. Though so are Common, Steel Pulse, Killer Mike, and others that came in their wake.

Hope you enjoy the collection of soul, jazz, gospel, reggae, and hip-hop track to celebrate the King Holiday.

As always, stay safe sane, and kind. “See” ya soon!

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)
R.I.P. Jazz and R&B Artist, Musician and Producer James Mtume, 76

R.I.P. Jazz and R&B Artist, Musician and Producer James Mtume, 76

By goodblacknews on January 11, 2022

James Mtume, recording artist, musician and one of the most innovative producers of R&B in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away on January 9. He was 76.

Philadelphia native Mtume is perhaps best known for his 1983 hit single “Juicy Fruit” which became even more well known when sampled in 1994 in Notorious B.I.G.’s signature hip hop single “Juicy.”

Mtume began his professional career playing percussion with Miles Davis’ electric band in the 1970s. Multi-instrumentalist Mtume brought his jazz chops to R&B when he later wrote and produced songs for Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Stephanie Mills and others.

To quote from Los Angeles Times:

Described in the artist’s words as “sophistifunk,” Mtume’s sleek yet finely detailed music layered lush, jazz-inspired chord arrangements over uncluttered post-disco grooves that could make slow jams feel like club tracks and make club tracks feel like slow jams.

“Juicy Fruit,” with a stuttering drum-machine beat and a risqué lyric suggesting the pleasures of oral sex, spent eight weeks atop Billboard’s R&B chart (and led, Mtume said, to a legal inquiry from the Wrigley gum company).

Mtume’s survivors include his wife, Kamili; his brother, Jeffrey Forman; two sons, four daughters and six grandchildren.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-01-10/james-mtume-juicy-notorious-big-dies?_amp=true

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/10/1071812297/percussionist-james-mtume-the-beat-behind-juicy-and-later-miles-davis-dies-at-76

MUSIC MONDAY: “Vibes” – a Chill Room Music Playlist (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “Vibes” – a Chill Room Music Playlist (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on January 10, 2022

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Hey, it’s Lori, GBN’s Editor-in-Chief, stepping in with this week’s Music Monday share. It’s a list I created for myself at the beginning of 2021 called “VIBES: Cuts for the ‘Chill’ Room” to help me keep it together after almost a full year of lockdown.

The vaccines were being rolled out, and the pandemic’s end seemed to be in sight. We all just had to chill a little bit longer.

Whelp. Here we are again, another year gone and still struggling with this beast of a global health challenge. So it seems appropriate to turn to my “chill music” playlist once again, and to share it this time, as we collectively grapple with the latest surge:

When I say “chill music,” I’m talking about the kinds of songs you’d hear in the “chill room” of a rave. Back in the 1990s when raves were at their zenith, they were often held in spaces with multiple floors or rooms.

A “chill room” gave partygoers an option to briefly escape the pounding “thumpa thumpa” and the steamy sweat generated on the main dance floor. The music played in there was on the low-key side, but still kept the vibe and pulse of the night going.

Chill room music allowed you to cool down, chillax, maybe even have a conversation with friends or fellow club lovers before going back into the space where the pounding sounds practically replaced the pounding of your own heartbeats.

This playlist features artists from those days such as Soul II Soul, Sade, Jamiroquai, Dimitri in Paris, Blue Six, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Air, Massive Attack and Mr. Fingers, plus artists like Roy Ayers whose earlier 1970s cuts (e.g. “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”) inspired much “chill room”-style music to come.

Contemporary artists Solange, Lucky Daye, Chloe X Halle, Moon Boots, Yasmin Lacey, Drake, Trackademiks, Mr. Day, Esperanza Spalding, Janelle Monae, The Internet, H.E.R., Amber Mark and Thundercat are also represented in this mix.

I personally listen to this one whenever I need to grab a moment of mellow, yet still be focused. I find it a great list to write to, pay bills… to let it be my steady, toned down pulse as I relax, refresh and reset before re-entering the “main floor.”

I hope you can enjoy… and chill.

MUSIC MONDAY: “I’m Still Here” – Tracks to Bolster The Heart and Soul (LISTEN)

MUSIC MONDAY: “I’m Still Here” – Tracks to Bolster The Heart and Soul (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on January 3, 2022

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

Happy first Monday of 2022! Hope this young year has been treating you well so far.

Well, this collection is definitely a group effort. Last week I asked the readers of Good Black News and other friends and family to offer songs that have helped sustain them during these mercurial Covid times. Folks did not disappoint.

I have assembled a playlist of old and new music of many genres to enjoy during this fourth wave of The Vid.

I’M STILL HERE takes its title from a track by the immortal Sharon Jones. It was created for the documentary, Miss Sharon Jones!, about her tenacious battle with cancer. This collection contains songs offered by stalwart GBN music contributor, Jeff Meier, our Editor-in-Chief, Lori Lakin Hutcherson, and many readers and pals from all over.

Eighty-one year old Jazz legend Pharaoh Sanders is in the house with a record released during 2021. There are songs by folks like the emerging artist Yola too.

There are tracks considered by most as enduring classics, and others that will be well worth putting in the effort to “get to know.” Do enjoy more than 9 hours of music to fill your heart and soul. I hope this short missive finds you all safe and well.

Thanks for pitching in and enjoy. And as always, stay safe, sane, and kind. See ya soon.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)