The Return of Leela James
by Mark Anthony Neal
Leela James’ latest recording, Let’s Do it Again, begins with a rendition of Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman” and closes with the title track, a remake of The Staple Singers’ classic. Betty Wright and Mavis Staples are defining examples of a generation of black women singers whose sass and soulfulness stood out as one of the few forms of public gravitas for black women in popular culture in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Much of that musical legacy has been appropriated by watered-down (white) sirens like Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone, who would likely admit to the influences of Wright and Staples on their careers. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of those who have purchased music by Winehouse and Stone have never heard of Wright or Staples, let alone James whose stellar, if uneven 2005 debut A Change is Gonna Come, fell largely on deaf ears. In the marketplace of popular desire, James—as an actual black woman singer of throwback soul—will never be as exotic as her white peers. Instead, she lets the music speak for her, and Let’s Do It Again, a collection of 11 classic soul and R&B songs, says more about James’ stature as a modern soul singer than any amount of record sales could.
Read the Full Essay @ The Root
by Mark Anthony Neal
Leela James’ latest recording, Let’s Do it Again, begins with a rendition of Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman” and closes with the title track, a remake of The Staple Singers’ classic. Betty Wright and Mavis Staples are defining examples of a generation of black women singers whose sass and soulfulness stood out as one of the few forms of public gravitas for black women in popular culture in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Much of that musical legacy has been appropriated by watered-down (white) sirens like Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone, who would likely admit to the influences of Wright and Staples on their careers. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of those who have purchased music by Winehouse and Stone have never heard of Wright or Staples, let alone James whose stellar, if uneven 2005 debut A Change is Gonna Come, fell largely on deaf ears. In the marketplace of popular desire, James—as an actual black woman singer of throwback soul—will never be as exotic as her white peers. Instead, she lets the music speak for her, and Let’s Do It Again, a collection of 11 classic soul and R&B songs, says more about James’ stature as a modern soul singer than any amount of record sales could.
Read the Full Essay @ The Root
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