NEW RELEASES: EMMA DONOVAN & THE PUTBACKS - DAWN; GC CAMERON; DAWN PEMBERTON – SAY SOMETHIN’

EMMA DONOVAN & THE PUTBACKS - DAWN

Richly soulful vocals and gritty funk backdrops from singer Emma Donovan and the funky Putbacks band – an great little set from the Australian funk scene! We had a pretty good idea of how strong the Putbacks are, thanks to stellar couple of singles – but their stylistic breadth comes into full display here, in backing an excellent singer. Emma is an indigenous Australian with a voice that can pull off gritty psych funk jams and more gentle, if still nicely raw soul with equal skill – and as the primary songwriter here, she shows us just how strong she his as both a singer and songwriter. Strong work all around! Includes "Black Woman", "My Goodness", "Dawn", "Mother", "Daddy", "Keep Me In Your Reach", "Come Back To Me", "Voodoo" and "Over Under Away". ~ Dusty Groove

GC CAMERON

Strong work from GC Cameron – really making a bold mark here on his own – working in a smooth, rich, masculine style that's a bit like some of the best early 70s material from Eddie Kendricks! Arrangements are by James Carmichael, Paul Riser, Wade Marcus, Gene Page, and other smooth soul talents – and GC's got this edgey vocal approach that strikes out from the backings very strongly, with a hip dope sound on the best cuts, almost in a blacksploitation soundtrack mode – with a sharper edge than on his previous group recordings. Titles include a great version of "If I Ever Lose This Heaven", plus the cuts "Me & My Life", "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday", "Strong Love", "Share Your Life", "Truly Blue", and "Don't Want To Give It Up". ~ Dusty Groove

DAWN PEMBERTON – SAY SOMETHIN’

A great Canadian soul singer – and one that we'd rank right up there with the contemporary best from the American underground! Dawn Pemberton's got a great approach here – sliding into the record in a very personal, subtle way (without any sort of "intro" track either – thank you!) – and things really open up wonderfully as the whole thing rolls along, with one of the most well-conceived, well-executed soul debuts we've heard in years! Dawn can get funky, but isn't a funk singer at all – and she can hit mellow modes, but never spends too much time on ballads – and instead has this way of coming out with proud, righteous energy you might never have expected from a soul singer north of the border. Fender Rhodes sets the tone on most tracks, but the album's also got much richer instrumentation than the usual beats-n-Rhodes sort of set – given Dawn's richer conception of a song. Titles include "Freedom Time", "Say Somethin", "Deeper", "Inside & Out", "What I Got", "Hello Love", and a nice cover of "I Can't Go For That".  ~ Dusty Groove