David Rodenburg
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada | INDIE
Music
Press
SOUL MISSION: EAR CANDY FOR THE BAR
Colin Hunter
Hngh! Hey! Uh-huh!
That's what this album needs: non-verbal grunts and exclamations.
An album with as much funky grooviness as Soul Mission's debut disc demands some random James Brown-isms scattered throughout.
Clearly the band members are loyal devotees to the Godfather of Soul, what with all the retro-fuelled horn solos, wah-wah guitar licks and lyrics that are all essentially about making whoopie.
Perhaps front man Dave Rodenburg wanted to distinguish himself somehow from James Brown, hence the absence of punctuative blurts of "yow" and "hit me!"
Otherwise, the album is unabashedly derivative of Brown and other legends of R & B (George Clinton and Al Green spring to mind within the opening moments of the album).
It's not exactly the most daring or cerebral genre of music, but it's great ear candy when heard live at some bar on a summer night -- which is exactly how the members of Soul Mission prefer to be heard.
Soul Mission is the resident Wednesday night jam band at the Still (or rather Bobby O'Brien's, as the downtown Kitchener drinkery has been rechristened) and their sole mission is to get people dancing.
It helps that the band's guitarist is Shawn Kellerman, a blues virtuoso who can shred a solo like nobody's business. Unfortunately, the structured songs on the Soul Mission CD don't allow Kellerman much opportunity to flex his improvisational muscles, but he's mind-blowing live.
Lyrically, there's not much on this album to stimulate the grey matter. Behold:
"I wanna get next to you,
"Feel your body move.
"Hope you want it, too.
"That's where I've always wanted to groove."
As poetry goes, more eloquent verses can be found on public bathroom walls. But this album is about swinging grooves, which it has in surplus.
The music is gussied up even further by appearances from an army of guest musicians, including standouts like Ray Podhornik on trumpet, Charity Brown on vocals, the Detroit Women providing backup voices and Mike Deyman, who takes the album on a couple of unexpected hip-hop tangents.
It's a groovin' funkadelic effort that earns two enthusiastic grunts of approval: "Hngh! Yow!"
chunter@therecord.com
Are you in a local band with a new CD release? To have it considered for a review, please drop it off at The Record's reception to the attention of Colin Hunter, or mail it to his attention c/o The Record, 160 King St. E., Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 4E5.
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Discography
First album released on Real Shiny Records (www.realshinyrecords.com). Find us at:
www.thesoulmission.com
Photos
Bio
We're on a mission. A mission to bring the almost forgotten power of live horns back into an uncompromising, fantastically hot groove.
The Soul Mission loves blues, funk, jazz and rap. From B. B. King to US3, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to John Coltrane, the Naked Truth draws its influences from one source - gut shaking great music. The band members are:
David Rodenburg:
David's played with some of the biggest names in the industry including the Billy Preston, The Temptations, Del Shannon, Sam Moore and the Fifth Dimension. One of Canada's best kept sax secrets, you've got to hear him to believe him.
Shawn Kellerman:
"He's spectacular…Shawn plays with the authority of someone who's been playing for a really, really long time." - Colin Linden. Guitar wizard Shawn Kellerman is poised to join the innercircle of musicians who define modern blues. Traditional forms are reinterpreted — a not-so-subtle union of past and present delivered with ferocious authenticity.
Jim Boudreau: A diverse range of artists has employed Jim for his creativity and dynamic talent. Artists such as blues legends Mel Brown and Snooky Pryor, the original soul man Sam Moore, Peter Noone of Hermans Hermits, The Mamas and the Papas, and Canadian country music stars Chris Cummings, Beverley Mahood, Jamie Warren and George Fox.
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