YES, I CAN HEAR YOU KNOCKING

Let me start by saying that the version of "Wild Horses" below, by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings is one of the best interpretations of a Stones song that I've ever heard, in any genre or era. A bold statement, I know, but listen to the whole thing. Not just a few bars, the whole thing. It builds and builds. It's epic. Really. It smokes.

As many of you probably know, the UK music magazine Mojo comes with a themed CD every month, with varying results I think you'd agree. But this month they did a bang up job of rounding up current soul acts to do covers of songs from the Stones' Sticky Fingers. The concept CD, titled Sticky Soul Fingers, is good enough that it's worth the price of the magazine (about ten bucks in the U.S.). While it's all current acts, with one of two exceptions they're all in the traditional soul vein, and it serves as an excellent overview of todays old school soul torch bearers. Believe me, if I was able to find more selections floating around, every cut on the compilation would be down there. (You can get snippets and a complete list of artists at Mojo's Sound Cloud here.) This sucker is in the running for the best album I've heard all year. That good.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - Wild Horses mp3 at The Mad Makerel
Joe Black Lewis & the Honeybears - Sway mp3 at The Mad Makerel

Sticky Soul Fingers - Snippets of cuts at Mojo's Sound Cloud From Alice Russell, The Bamboos, Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens, the Sugarman 3, Aloe Blacc and Joel Van Dijk, Ren Harvieu, Anthony Joseph & the Spasm Band, Lee Fields and, of course, Sharon Jones and Black Joe Lewis.

GARAGE SOUL, IF YOU MUST

I'd seen their name a lot and never stopped long enough to give them a listen, or read their bio. As a matter of fact, I practically went out of my way to ignore them. Credit Aquarium Drunkard for pulling my head out of my ass. They were gushing about the Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears live show, in a way that informed music fiends rarely do. I bit, and as I read further, I learned that Joe Lewis worked at a pawn shop, decided he wanted to give music a try, took a guitar off the wall and started playing. Just like that. To better the story, he didn't spend years toiling over technique, he just got out there and did it, basically learning how to play onstage. That "Fuck it, I'm doing this" attitude is the sort of thing that I lap up.

I've seen their music called garage soul, and I guess that's about as close as you could come to describing them. Like a rag tag version of the Dap Kings, with an encyclopedia of soul that's missing a few pages. The music is stylistically all over the place, but remains in the soul/blues idiom, albeit loosely. There's definitely some Stax, and Motown going on, but there's also some Canned Heat, Black Keys, and 70s guitar boogie. Some really familiar sounds on some of these, intentional or not. "Booty City" has parts that sound like Edwin Starr's "Twenty Five Miles," and "Gunpowder" has bits of the Bar-Kays' "Soul Finger" (links below for comparison). Call it what you want, I stopped trying.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - You Been Lyin' mp3 at Popdose
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Booty City at Aquarium Drunkard
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Get Yo Shit mp3 (via Mediafire) at Tone Agents
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Gunpowder mp3 at Speed of Dark
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Bitch, I Love You mp3 at Stranger Dance
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Boogie mp3 at Blackout Musique
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Big Booty Woman mp3 at Blackout Musique
Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears - Sugarfoot mp3 at WOXY
Related:
Edwin Starr - Twenty Five Miles mp3 at Mr. Suave
The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu