Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - I Learned the Hard Way

It's a reminder of the times that the special retro-soul sound that's at the core of New York's special Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings may be best known as the punchy, funked-out horns that graced Amy Winehouse's immensely popular Back to Black album. The fact is that Ms. Jones and band have been at the forefront of the authentic Stax/Motown bluesy funk revival for nearly a decade, releasing three indescribably tight and raw R+B albums that practically drip with honest, hard-working sweat. It's one thing to imitate the classic sounds of the past -- it's entirely another to live in that world, creating fresh new music that remains true to the past while pushing into the future.

Fourth album I Learned the Hard Way (April 6, Dap-Tone) doesn't deviate from the fabulous Dap-Kings menu of Jones' raucous, swaggering vocals and the band's monstrous horn charts. Recorded in its entirety on an old Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth (a Grammy winner for Winehouse's Back In Black) in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, Hard Way again digs into the rich earth of Aretha, Mavis and Tina, fusing Gospel shout blues and warm soul melodies into a solid Memphis-to-Detroit alloy. You can practically hear the needled dropping onto vinyl as the lead-off track "The Game Gets Old" begins a non-stop string of gritty originals, from the sweet Motown harmonies of the title track to the glorious drama of the ballad "If You Call." Recommended.

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"I Learned the Hard Way" (from the album I Learned the Hard Way)

I Learned the Hard Way Sampler