Michelle Willson might not be trying to become the next Big Mama
\nThornton of the blues\/jazz world. All she seems to want to do is to
\ncontinue to sing the music that she loves and have as much fun with
\nit as she can.<\/p>\n
Her latest offering,
\nTryin’ To Make A Little Love<\/i>, is proof that she is doing
\nexactly what she wants to and has mastery of her domain, even if it
\nneeds another coat of polish or two.<\/p>\n
If you pick this album up hoping to hear just a blues album or
\njust a jazz album, chances are you’ll be disappointed. Willson
\nwon’t allow herself to be penned into just one style, and hops from
\none (“Ay La Bas”, “Half Past The Blues”) to the other (“Life Rolls
\nOn”, “Corazon de Hielo”) almost effortlessly. If, however, you pick
\nup this album with no expectations, then you’re in for a treat.<\/p>\n
There are a few times where it feels like Willson isn’t putting
\nenough emotion into what she’s singing, especially on the title
\ntrack – not a good first impression, seeing it leads off the disc.
\nBut things quickly change for the better, as heard on cuts like “I
\nWould Rather Do Without It,” “Responsibility” and “Guess You Didn’t
\nLove Me Enough”.<\/p>\n
What is surprising about
\nTryin’ To Make A Little Love<\/i> is that Willson co-wrote only a
\nfew of the 13 songs on the album; I would have expected her to have
\nhad more of a say in the songwriting. However, she does choose
\nselections from a worthy bunch of songwriters, including Joan
\nOsborne, Dan Penn, Doc Pomus, Johnny Otis and Mac “Dr. John”
\nRebennack.<\/p>\n
Especially interesting to me was the track “Corazon de Hielo,”
\nwhich adds a Latin flavor to the music and just enough spice to
\nliven up the album. Even if you don’t know Spanish, this track is a
\ncharmer.<\/p>\n
The only real negatives about this album are that it may
\ndisappoint the blues purists out there, and it does take a little
\ntime to really get into this album. It wasn’t until the third
\nlisten that I really started to find a lot on
\nTryin’ To Make A Little Love<\/i> to appreciate – but it was
\nworth the time and effort.<\/p>\n
Willson might soon be hailed as one of the next great blues
\nbelters out there, and
\nTryin’ To Make A Little Love<\/i>, even with its small flaws, is
\ndefinitely a resume booster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7371],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38922","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-michelle-willson","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38922"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}