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"I'll Be Down In A Minute" JCenae Southern Soul Awards Best Ballad
January 23, 2024:
 Best Southern Soul Ballad:
"I may not be the finest of your ladies / And I've got a little stomach from these babies..."
"Real Real Woman" ----- J'Cenae
Listen to J'Cenae singing "Real Real Woman" on YouTube.
Buy J'Cenae's "Real Real Woman" single at Apple.
See Daddy B. Nice's Best of 2023 Southern Soul Awards.
See the chart.
Listen to J'Cenae singing "I'll Be Down In A Minute" on YouTube.
May 1, 2022: Daddy B. Nice's Profile
You can look at J'Cenae's "I'll Be Down In A Minute" as an homage to "Woman To Woman" by Shirley Brown, of whom I once wrote, "She has the jaw-dropping technical skills of the best urban R&B singers including the late, great Whitney Houston". Touring in a limited way until the onset of the pandemic, Shirley Brown has not returned to the southern soul circuit and in today's new wave of southern soul appears astonishingly forgotten. I doubt J'Cenae (her real name is Jacqueline Cenae Williams) will ever accomplish Brown's dazzling vocal pirouettes. Nor does she possess Brown's arsenal of vocal and performance techniques---at least not yet---but J'Cenae has the power, timbre and emotional clarity to make you recall Shirley Brown, and if those similarities don't strike you, the "Woman To Woman"-like voice-over that begins J'Cenae's triumphant southern soul ballad, "I'll Be Down In A Minute" will hit you over the head.
This song made onlookers gasp when it hit one million views (unheard-of for a female artist). Then it hit three million views. Currently, it has posted eight million YouTube views, and the comments from grateful fans tell the story. They all rejoice to hear "real music" again.
"I'll Be Down In A Minute" is also a reclamation of old-school ground: the ambience and themes that Shirley and Peggy Scott-Adams and Denise LaSalle used to luxuriate in. I write frequently about contemporary southern soul's hybrid borders with hiphop, with zydeco and even funk (to add Travis's "Sexy Man") . Well... "I'll Be Down In A Minute" straddles the territory between southern soul and urban R&B, another frontier where musical reinforcements are sorely needed.
Nothing was given to Jackie Williams (aka J'Cenae). She was born and raised in Rolling Fork, Mississippi and attended Alcorn State University in nearby Lorman. Church-singing led to collegiate groups, which led to back-up stints with southern soul artists including the legendary Marvin Sease and the aforementioned Travis. J'Cenae released her first single (which went nowhere) in 2016, then in 2018 met St. Louis's Wendell Brown aka Wendell B. Touring with "The Boss" was the turning point in Williams' career. The "smooth" Smoothway sound proved the perfect catalyst in unlocking her talent, and the single "I'll Be Down In A Minute" was released shortly after.
An indisputably solid follow-up single, "I Ain't No Side Piece Lover," appeared a year later, proving "I'll Be Down In A Minute" wasn't a fluke. With such lines as, "You see I want to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving and Christmas and ring in the New Year with my babe" and the straightforward summation "I wanna be somebody's wife," "No Side Piece Lover" was very likely the finest expression since Pokey's "My Sidepiece" hit the air waves of a woman's overriding desire to be monogamous.
With the passing of another year the much-praised debut album Decency appeared. In addition to "I'll Be Down In A Minute," the set offered J'Cenae's popular 2021 single, "I Ain't No Sidepiece Lover" and the title cut, "Decency". Wendell B appears on two other tracks, "I Don't Ever Wanna Break Up" and a powerful tribute to motherhood, "You Ain't Gotta Cry No More". Another tune begging to be released as a single is the lovingly produced, "Ain't Nobody" (not a Chaka Khan cover). This is a masterful album by a singer who has surpassed all expectations in a difficult marketplace for female southern soul performers.
Looking ahead... Wendell B's "smooth" sound (the instrumental tracks that distinguish his work from "Just Don't Understand You" through last year's award-winning Real Talk)---fits J'Cenae like a glove. It will be interesting to see if the Mississippi songstress will branch out into the hybrid mix of hiphop and southern-soul Wendell Brown has experimented with for years and more or less perfected with Real Talk's "Get'cha Head Right".
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For the latest updates, reviews and YouTube song links, scroll down to the "Tidbits" section. To automatically link to J'Cenae's charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other citations on the website, go to "J'Cenae" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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--Daddy B. Nice
About JCenae Southern Soul Awards Best Ballad
From J'Cenae's Official Biography:
Jacqueline Cenae Williams a.k.a. (J’Cenae), was born February 6, 1986 to Murindia and the late Clanater Williams in Rolling Fork, MS. J’Cenae began singing at her local church and also competed in talent shows, and pageants. In 2004 she auditioned for the local American Idol and won a spot to audition in New Orleans, LA and in Denver, Colorado in 2005. Her ability lead her to a music scholarship at Alcorn State University, where she performed with ASU Gospel Choir, ASU Concert Choir and Singers With A Purpose (S.W.A.P). Once leaving Alcorn around 2008, she began singing background for Blues singer Nathaniel Kimble and Chris Ivy.
In 2010 she began traveling with the legendary Marvin Sease. After his passing she began concentrating on her own music career. She continued to sing background for artist such as Vick Allen, Lacee, and Nellie Tiger Travis. In 2016 J’Cenae released a single entitled Good Stuff. J’Cenae has performed at numerous of venues with her band. She has performed in MS, LA, AL, AR, TX, AND at a number of Blues Festivals and Casino’s. She has also performed on shows with Tucker, Avail Hollywood, Dave Mack, Pokey, Bobby Rush, Grady Champion, Sweet Angel, Karen Wolf, Magic One, Rhomey and Calvin Richardson just to name a few.
In 2018, J’Cenae’s career started to flourish, when National recording artist Windell B took her under his wing. They began appearing on shows together, and in 2019, recordedher hit new single “I’ll Be down in a Minute” featuring The Boss Windell B. This single was released in 2020 and is now being played throughout the United States and Africa. J’Cenae has been nominated for a Jackson Music Award (Best Engineered track) “I’ll be down in a minute.
Tidbits
1.April 23, 2022:J'Cenae On YouTube
Listen to J'Cenae singing "I'll Be Down In A Minute" on YouTube.
Listen to J'Cenae singing "I Ain't No Sidepiece Lover" on YouTube.
Listen to J'Cenae singing tunes live in concert in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
Listen to J'Cenae singing "I'll Be Down In A Minute" live on YouTube.
Listen to J'Cenae singing "Ain't Nobody" on YouTube.
Listen to J'Cenae singing "You Ain't Gotta Cry No More" on YouTube.
2.
January 1, 2022: NEW ALBUM ALERT!Buy J'Cenae's new DECENCY album at Apple.
DECENCY TRACK LIST: 1
You Ain't Gotta Cry No More feat. Wendell B
2
I'll Be Down in a Minute feat. Wendell B
3
On the Avenue (feat. Kami Hooligann)
4
You Don't Want a Good Woman
5
Decency
6
I Ain't No Side Piece Lover
7
You Bout To Make A Girl Work (feat. Kami Hooligann)
8
Aint Nobody
9
I Don't Ever Wanna Break Up (feat. Wendell B)
10
I Just Wanna Thank You
Daddy B. Nice notes: J'Cenae was discovered by Wendell B and this new album was produced and published by the "Boss" himself, Wendell Brown. In 2019 the pair teamed up (J'Cenae on lead vocal, Wendell on background vocal) on J'Cenae's southern-soul, gate-crashing debut, "I'll Be Down In A Minute". In two years the song has achieved "classic" status, amassing five million views on YouTube. J'Cenae (Jacqueline Cenae Williams of Rolling Fork, Mississippi) toured for a time with Marvin Sease and has one other album, GOOD STUFF (2016), to her credit, but DECENCY is on a whole 'nother level. In addition to "I'll Be Down In A Minute," the set offers J'Cenae's popular 2021 single, "I Ain't No Sidepiece Lover" and the title cut, "Decency," which has accrued 180,000 YouTube views in less than two months. Wendell B appears on two other tracks, "I Dont Ever Wanna Break Up" and a powerful tribute to motherhood, "You Aint Gotta Cry No More". Another tune begging to be released as a single is the lovingly produced, "Ain't Nobody" (not a Chaka Khan cover). This is a masterful album by a singer who has surpassed all expectations in a difficult marketplace for female southern soul performers.
Buy J'Cenae's new DECENCY album at Amazon.
Listen to all the tracks from J'Cenae's new DECENCY album on YouTube.
Listen to J'Cenae's new DECENCY album on Spotify.
Honorary "B" Side
"I Ain't No Sidepiece Lover"
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I'll Be Down In A Minute
CD: I'll Be Down in a Minute (Single)
Label: Wendell Brown
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I Ain't No Sidepiece Lover
CD: I Ain't No Side Piece Lover (Single)
Label: Wendell Brown
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You Ain't Gotta Cry No More
CD: Decency
Label: Wendell Brown
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Ain't Nobody
CD: Decency
Label: Wendell Brown
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I Don't Ever Wanna Break Up (feat. Wendell B)
CD: Decency
Label: Wendell Brown
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On The Avenue (feat. Kami Hooligan)
CD: Decency
Label: Wendell Brown
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