"Sugaa Shack"
Nelson Curry
January 21, 2024:
1."Got My Whiskey"-----Nelson Curry
Nelson Curry's new album, EVOLUTION OF SOUL, comes eleven years after North Augusta, South Carolina's Klass Band Brotherhood (formerly Le Klass) blew up southern soul radio with "Sugaa Shack" from their 2011 "Out Of The Shadows Of Soul CD. Curry parted with the band (including his brother Allen) shortly after their second album "We Call The Shots In Soul," which included another classic hit single, "Dance Floor". And although Nelson has enjoyed a successful solo career, including winning Daddy B. Nice's Best Male Vocalist of 2018 for "Same Hotel," like Tre' Williams after leaving The Revelations he has never regained the live-band heights he experienced with Klass's national Blues Is Alright touring after "Sugaa Shack".
Few things are sweeter than Nelson Curry double-tracking his vocals in harmony. Take "Same Hotel (Yayo Swing Mix)," from Curry's new album, It's Time For Soul. Now this is a song you can appreciate, and if you're reasonably limber, it's a song you can't not dance to. I love Big Yayo the performer, but I miss Chris Mabry the producer. His "Yayo Swing Mix" is the work of a genius, transforming an already great tune into a song for the ages. "Same Hotel" gained Curry "Best Male Vocalist of 2018" (scroll down this page for an excerpt). The track anchors a collection brimming with Nelson Curry releases from the last few years, including "Love On Me," "Kitty Kandy," "Roll With Me" and "Dance Floor (Remix)". These are thrilling tracks, making this a sterling set. Nelson is one of the best solo vocalists at picking quality material, and when he discovers something with staying power, he's not averse to replaying it and remixing it, as well he should. In fact, the only prime cut from recent years missing from this collection is Nelson's finest collaboration with frequent partner and southern soul-loving hip-hopper Joe Nice, "Party Starter (Michael Jordan)". Also contained on this disc is a new Curry single---solid, but not quite as inspired as the singles already listed---titled "It's Time".
I Want You"----Vick Allen
--Daddy B. Nice
About Nelson Curry
August 13, 2013: Originally posted in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
KLASS BAND BROTHERHOOD: We Call The Shots In Soul (Neo Blues Music/Music Access/MP3 Only). Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.
Like musical "lifer" and fellow Georgian Theodis Ealey with "Stand Up In It," Nelson Curry and the Klass Band Brotherhood came out of nowhere, as far as the Southern Soul circuit was concerned, with their hit single "Sugaa Shack" two years ago. The Brotherhood had honed their chops as a party band (called Le Klass in those days) on the Carolina "beach" circuit, which caters to white audiences demanding all-live instruments and no synthesizers.
Based in Augusta, Georgia (Curry's actually from North Augusta, just across the state border in South Carolina), they might as well have been headquartered in Alaska. And yet, after "Sugar Shack" hit the Delta in 2011--one of the purest, mid-tempo, "sweet-spot" singles to grace Southern Soul music in ages--the Klass Band Brotherhood was thrust into the "national" spotlight on the Blues Is Alright Tour two years running.
Immediate acceptance. That's how good they were.
Now the band--Nelson Curry on lead vocals and overall production, Wayne Bowman on keyboards, Curtis Knight on bass guitar, Allen Curry on keyboards, Derrick Thomas on electronic pads (percussion) and Paisley Gordon on lead guitar--is back with their second CD, We Call The Shots In Soul, and the new disc is a keeper.
Three of the songs (well, actually four, "Good Love," the first single, was released and cited here earlier in the year) have already charted on Daddy B. Nice's Top Ten "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles Reviews:
Daddy B. Nice's Top Ten "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles Review for. . .
JULY 2013
1. "My Baby's Love"------------Klass Band Brotherhood
Uncommonly deep and majestic, this is a brave new sound for Nelson Curry and the Klass Brotherhood, more like one might expect from the other great all-live-instruments band to arrive with Klass on the scene a couple of years ago, The Revelations featuring Tre' Williams (the latter unfortunately disbanded).
When I asked Nelson Curry if it was really him singing the lead vocal, he said, "On 'Baby's Love' I was trying to imagine if Otis Redding and Jackie Wilson sang together on a track."
Outa-sight keyboards.
Sample/Pre-Order Klass Band Brotherhood singing "My Baby's Love" from their new WE CALL THE SHOTS IN SOUL CD.
…….3. "We Jukin' (Juke Joint)"------------Klass Band Brotherhood
A Klass Band Brotherhood, mid-tempo Southern Soul classic, complete with a sugary Nelson Curry vocal, ingratiatingly restrained organ-style keyboards, and--yes--even a casual whistling phrase reminiscent of "Sugar Shack." From the terrific-sounding new CD from Nelson Curry, Wayne Bowman, Curtis Knight, Allen Curry and Derrick Thomas.
Sample/Pre-Order "We Jukin' At The Juke Joint" on new Klass Band Brotherhood WE CALL THE SHOTS IN SOUL CD.
Daddy B. Nice's Top Ten "Breaking" Southern Soul Singles Review for. . .
AUGUST 2013
4. "Dance Floor"--------Klass Band Brotherhood
Another plum of a single to be plucked from the upcoming Klass Band album. Memorable melody, inspired arrangement, passionate Curry vocal. A remix of "Dance Floor" with Mel Waiters trading vocals with Nelson Curry is also available.
Sample "Dance Floor" on Amazon.
These three near-masterpieces and the first single, "Good Love" (an uptempo jam executed with scathing ferocity) are bolstered by a supporting cast of worthy, second-tier songs. In "Olden Days" Curry just wants to "make it through the rain and the heartache." The melodies in "My Angel and "I'm Back (Soldier Song)" take a little longer to recognize, but once they gel they too become almost addictive. In "Best Day (My Wife)"--(Curry does have a hard time deciding on a single title)--he's intent on "making you my wife," and on "Blues Is Alright" he returns to "Olden Days" nostalgia with lots of references to Southern Soul and its stars.
At times Curry strays so far from the "Sugar Shack" sound--stretching out one way (Waiters-like nostalgia) in "Olden Days" and another Womackian way in "My Angel" and yet another, Staples-style way in "The Blues Is Alright" and still another way in the country-western-sounding "I'm Back (The Soldier)"--you fear the band will lose its focus altogether.
Thematically, though, the songs are all of a fabric, bonded by Curry's love for all things Southern Soul. And the musicianship is some of the best heard in Southern Soul music since the glory days of Malaco/Waldoxy (90's, early 00's).
It's almost impossible to explain to people outside of the chitlin' circuit why the genre disdains live instruments. It's not really disdain, it's the budget. But there was a time when I grew to love the very sound of synthetic rhythm sections, keyboards and horns because I understood the likelihood that the song wrapped in this low-brow production would be real--original, compelling music--as opposed to the formulaic, tiresome, technique-conscious albeit "live-instrument" blues so often heard.
This is close to saying a live band needs to apologize for being "live," which of course is ridiculous, but that in fact is the ironic gap that the Klass Band Brotherhood has traversed--for me, at least. Along with The Revelations featuring Tre' Williams, Klass has succeeded in doing what countless neo-soul aggregations (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, etc.) have failed to do--that is, sound real--not recycled.
And I'm increasingly coming to believe that if Southern Soul can combine the real thing--its authentic grit, passion, and unparalleled singing and songwriting originality--with an increasingly live-instrument sound (something, to tell you the truth, I never seriously imagined before) it could blow the top off popular music. With their tight-knit, audience-seasoned, dues-paying musicianship and Nelson Curry's ambitious musical vision, Klass is poised to do it--and become a major influence and role player in Southern Soul for years to come.
Preview Klass Band "We Call The Shots" mp3 singles on Amazon.
*****
Go to Klass Band Brotherhood official website.
See 2012 Southern Soul Awards: Best Songwriter--Nelson Curry.
Tidbits
Honorary "B" Side
"Dance Floor"
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