Louisiana Soul Man by Dalton Reed

I was listening to Ross's iPod on shuffle a little while ago and I heard a song that I just loved. I looked to see who the artist was and it was Dalton Reed. The song was so good that I thought to myself, "The rest of this CD is probably as good or better than this song." Thus I put this CD in my listening rotation. I was disappointed to find out that the rest of the CD was not as good as this one song.

Dalton Reed is a soul, and rhythm and blues singer from Louisiana. All of this could actually be gathered just from reading the title of the CD. Duh! This CD is a set of "almost new songs" written by other people including Delbert McClinton, Dr. John, and Otis Redding. Dalton Reed's voice reminds me of Luther Vandross. It is as smooth as silk and as big as the room it's in. I like his voice, he could sing to me anytime. The songs and music that accompany the voice however are very dated. The CD was released in 1992 and it sure seems like it. I don't know how to describe why this CD sounds like the 90s but it is similar to that Taj Mahal CD I reviewed a couple of months ago. The band's groove is one I heard before, maybe from some old Luther Vandross or Billy Ocean album. There are a few blues songs on the CD that are ok and a song that has Louisiana roots so it isn't as bad as I am making it out to be. As a whole thought, it just wasn't working for me.

My favorite songs are "Read Me My Rights" and "Chained and Bound." The former song was the song I heard on Ross's iPod. I love the words of the song and I like the song's groove.
"The sun is shinin'
But you don't you know it's rainin' in my heart...
Before you do me wrong tonight
Baby, baby, read me my rights "
It has more of an old fashioned Motown beat than it does a tired 90s beat, like some of the other songs on the CD. The latter song is an old Otis Redding song and he does a great rendition of it. In that song he totally belts it out. Just like an Otis Redding song should be sung.

I don't know why Ross bought this CD. It was probably because of "Read Me My Rights." When I went back to look at his iPod and see how much of this CD he had on it, that was the only song on it. That told me a lot. He probably bought it after hearing that one song somewhere (KBEM or KFAI) and then felt the same way I did once he heard the rest of the CD, like he'd been jacked. I am not keeping a CD for one song. If you don't know me by now, there it is. I don't believe that you should keep a CD for one song. That is why we have CD burners in our computer to burn that one song you like then you can get rid of the CD. So if anyone wants this CD they are welcome to it. Just let me know.

[Just as an aside, check out the little player I added to the bottom of this post. It has the first song I talked about and you can just listen to it straight away. Thanks Mark B. for your help! By the way, if you ever want to send Mark B. fan mail, he will accept it. I can hook you up. Also if anyone else ever wants to comment on my posts, they can. He won't feel threatened by it.]

Read Me My Rights - Dalton Ree...