Volton Wright New 4-Star Album Review!
Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's Album Reviews.
VOLTON WRIGHT: Love Games
Four Stars **** Distinguished Effort. Should please old fans and gain new.
Buy Volton Wright's new LOVE GAMES album at Apple.
LOVE GAMES Track List:
1. Love Games Intro
2. Love Games
3. Real Thang (feat. B. Pureese)
4. Lost And Found (feat. Sir Charles Jones)
5. She's A Good Woman
6. Take Care Of Home
7. Southern Soul Southside (feat. Bigg Sacc)
8. Don't Get Down Like That
9. Just A Man
10. Maneater
11. Pick It Up (feat. P2K & Slack)
Love Games (Volton Wright's third and newest LP) finds a deep and authoritatively-voiced announcer intoning, "JBE presents the smooth vocals of Volton Wright." It's an interesting opening and one which I think is more apropos than the artist and his team may realize. First, it's an accurate observation. Volton's vocals are "smooth," and in southern soul music, at least, smooth implies a tendency towards mainstream (I'm tempted to use the adjective "polite") R&B as opposed to the wilder, rougher, more humorous or raucous tendencies to be found in southern soul vocals.
Second, "smooth vocals" focuses on what I believe to be the major issue when assessing Volton's music. Does the audience readily recognize Volton Wright's vocals in the way, for instance, it knows the vocals of Theodis or Jeter or Latimore or Sir Charles? Another way of putting it: Has Volton recorded a song (like "Stand Up In It," like "Black Horse," like "Let's Straighten It Out," like "It's Friday") which the audience immediately relates to as a Volton Wright vocal? I don't think so. Naturally, this is the quandary of every aspiring performer, but I believe Volton to be one of the most talented aspirants in southern soul. So I was most interested to see if LOVE GAMES contained that magical, hot-button tune that will define and endear Volton to the fans for posterity (aka "make him a star").
In Volton's case the process is complicated even more by his natural humility and propensity to share the spotlight with guest artists. Who can forget
"Southern Soul Girl" feat. T.K. Soul, arguably his most popular song, with over one million YouTube views? Or how he defers the lead vocal in
"Supa Woman," a deliriously catchy tune featuring J.D. and Jeter Jones (also from his impressive debut disc), to the youthful J.D. who despite his anonymity and amateurism has an instantly recognizable vocal identity and steals the show? A process, I might add, that is repeated in
Love Games when Volton cedes the lead vocal to P2K in the estimable
"Pick It Up"
Love Games the album is a mixture of previously recorded material (for example, the superb, cradle-rocking melody of
"Lost And Found" with a cameo remix by Sir Charles Jones) and surprising new projects like
"Southern Soul Southside," possibly Wright's most southern-soulish undertaking yet, with the assistance of rapper Bigg Sacc.
"Love Games," the title tune, is especially impressive, a worthy composition with majestic choruses and a fine Wright vocal. Another previously-released single,
"Just A Man," comes closest to what I believe is Volton Wright's best vocal identity---a charismatic mix of personality, texture and timbre pleasantly recreated (for much different purposes) in the new tune
"Maneater". Other worthy tracks include "Real Thang" (featuring B. Pureese) and "She's A Good Woman".
I dwell on Volton's vocal identity because every singer can sing in a multitude of ways and/or styles. Although variety is to be desired, vocal recognition---usually accomplished via a hit single---takes precedence. Even in the absence of a hit single, vocal personality is what we associate with the singer and why we love the artist. Wright's vocal style in
"Take Care Of Home" represents Volton's yellow brick road to acceptance and stardom. The more generic R&B style Volton adopts in
Don't Get Down Like That" is a dead end path. And indiscriminate sampling of vocal styles is something to be avoided. There is plenty of evidence in LOVE GAMES that with the right character, intensity and self-awareness Volton Wright can become a southern soul star. Until he scores that elusive hit single, however, the focus needs to be on forging and marketing a more coherent, creative and consistent vocal sound.
---Daddy B. Nice.
Listen to all the tracks on Volton Wright's new LOVE GAMES album on YouTube.
Buy Volton Wright's new Love Games album at Apple.
Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Volton Wright.
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Originally published in Daddy B. Nice's Album Reviews.
October 15, 2022: NEW ALBUM ALERT!
Buy Volton Wright's new LOVE ME RIGHT CD at Apple.
LOVE ME RIGHT TRACK LIST:
1
VW Intro
2
Love Me Right
3
Beautiful
4
Dancing With You
5
Lost & Found
6
She Was Right There (feat. Jeter Jones & R&B Pooh)
7
Slow It Down
8
That Feeling
9
Special Kind Of Love (feat. Jeter Jones & R&B Pooh)
10
Don't Go
11
Be The One
12
Pit
13
God Bless The Day
Daddy B. Nice notes:
Volton Wright's pandemic-era album LOVE ON YOU (scroll down this page) was an impressive southern soul debut, all the more so because it kicked off with three hit-single-caliber tunes: "Southern Soul Girl" (feat. T.K. Soul), "Super Woman" (feat. J.D. & Jeter Jones) and "Circles".
"Super Woman's" instrumental track, for example, harked back to Michael Jackson's
"Human Nature," with similar romantic ambience.
Wright's new album LOVE ME RIGHT falls short of those auspicious beginnings but does not disappoint, offering even more songs (13 total) with its finest tracks buried within the body of the set. A superb ballad with a delicate melody, a self-contained instrumental track and convincing vocal,
"Lost & Found" proves once again that the best southern soul insinuates rather than overwhelms. With the couplet "I was looking for a woman/ She was right there,"
"She Was Right There" recounts the plaintive regrets of a would-be lover who overlooked the friend who might have been the answer. As they did with Volton's first album, Jeter Jones and R&B Pooh contribute verses and harmonies, making a resounding vocal impression. And finally,
"Don't Go," with a simple, climbing chord progression, plies that modest middle ground of southern soul, alternating a soft, caressing vocal style with aggressive, harder-hitting interludes, lifting this simple but memorable melody to the status of an anthem.
Listen to Volton Wright's new LOVE ME RIGHT CD on YouTube.
Listen to Volton Wright's new LOVE ME RIGHT CD on Spotify.
Buy Volton Wright's new LOVE ME RIGHT CD at Apple.
April 1, 2021:Volton Wright: Love On You: The Album (Jones Boys Entertainment): Four Stars **** Distinguished debut by a new Southern Soul artist.
New southern soul recording artist Volton Wright has scored a trifecta of hit singles, and they just happen to lead off his new southern soul debut album, Love On You Tha Album---one-two-three---take your pick. They are, in order, "Southern Soul Girl" (featuring T.K. Soul), Super Woman (featuring JD and Jeter Jones) and "Circles". I can't remember a more impressive line-up of tunes leading off an introductory CD in many years.
It could have---and might have---been so different. Volton Wright came to the attention of the southern soul community in 2019 on the ground-breaking sampler,
SLACK: My Music, My Friends: Southern Soul Compilation. He was honored with the lead-off track,
"That Thang," but the first artist from the sampler who capitalized on the platform Slack had provided was not Volton Wright but
R.T. Taylor with his hit single and subsequent album,
"It's A Mule".
Little did we know at the time that Volton Wright's true specialty was melodic ballads, not "That Thang"-type, mid-tempo jams, and
"That Thang" remained the exclusive property of
Katrenia Jefferson, who had recorded her song of the same name years earlier.
Wright's penchant for soulful slow tracks first surfaced in mid-2020 with his homage to the Temptations,
"My Baby". The video featured Volton and his back-up singers, including Jeter Jones, stepping onstage in vintage Temps stage style. Suddenly, for southern soul aficionados, it all fell into place. Volton Wright had a voice perfect for covering old-school soul.
The lovely and effervescent single
"Circles" subsequently surfaced, and the message was clear. A remake of The Friends Of Distinction's
"You Got Me Going In Circles," Wright's "Circles" not only revived the original but if anything surpassed it in immediacy and vocal and instrumental quality.
The revelation of
Love On You: Tha Album is the way Volton Wright has transitioned to originals.
"Southern Soul Girl" showcases Volton and T.K. Soul on one of the most soulful duets of 2021.
See Daddy B. Nice's #1 Southern Soul Single for April 2021. Their harmonies on the chorus are exquisite.
"Super Woman" is as good or better. Featuring an even newer artist (JD) who wasn't on the 2019 Slack sampler, and who scored a #1 Daddy B. Nice single with Jeter Jones in
February 2021 ("Love You Down"), the song traffics on the cryptically-named JD's knack for irrepressible, lilting melodies. Not only that, the chords mimic the famous chord washes of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature," putting it in truly celestial, musical company. JD takes the first verse, Volton the second, and then comes the unexpected treat. Jeter Jones raps! And he's great: he raps the song in his own dogged style, bringing it off with monumental brio. The song is an outright coup of musical accomplishment.
Listen to all the tracks from Volton Wright's new LOVE ON YOU THA ALBUM on YouTube.
Buy Volton Wright's new LOVE ON YOU THA ALBUM at Apple.
See Daddy B. Nice's New Debut Alert.
April 1, 2021: NEW ALBUM ALERT!
Buy Volton Wright's southern soul debut LOVE ON YOU THA ALBUM at Apple.
LOVE ON YOU THA ALBUM TRACK LIST:
1
Southern Soul Girl (feat. TK Soul)
2
Super Woman (feat. JD & Jeter Jones)
3
Circles
4
Last Dance (feat. Jeter Jones)
5
That Thang (feat. Slack)
6
Down for you
7
Sexy Attitude
8
Time for Love
9
Hold the rope
10
God is outtro
Daddy B. Nice notes:
Jeter Jones and producer Ronald "Slack" Jefferson debut one of the new artists originally introduced on Slack's 2019 sampler MY MUSIC MY FRIENDS. Volton Wright eclipses his song from that album ("That Thang") with a trio of new songs that almost made the top three singles on Daddy B. Nice's
Top 10 for April 2021. Two ("Southern Soul Girl" and "Super Woman") maintained the top two positions, with "Circles" making the Top 20. This is an album lovers of vintage soul music will cherish.
See Daddy B. Nice's 4-star CD review.
Listen to Volton Wrights debut album LOVE ON YOU THA ALBUM on Spotify.
Listen to all the tracks from Volton Wright's on YouTube.
--Daddy B. Nice
