"Let Me Take You There "
Stephanie McDee #28 The New Generation Southern Soul
See the chart.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "Let Me Take You There" on YouTube.
Like a handful of longtime southern soul artists (Sir Charles Jones, Nellie "Tiger" Travis, T.K. Soul, Ms. Jody), Stephanie McDee continues to reinvent herself. Instead of aging, she appears younger, ever more energetic and vigorous, more happy with life, music and her station in it. She was one of the first singers to enter the new southern soul market at the turn of the century (the Jackie Neal era) with the singles "Monkey Talk" and "Call The Police," fomenting an outspoken, high-energy, even brazen vocal style influenced by Peggy Scott-Adams, Barbara Carr and, of course, her fellow Louisianan Jackie Neal. She wasn't as successful at gaining adherents as Scott-Adams or Neal, perhaps because she didn't record as much as they did, but while Scott-Adams eventually migrated back to gospel, leaving the southern soul scene, and Neal's life was cut short by a homicidal boyfriend, McDee soldiered on, experimenting over the years with southern soul, zydeco (part of her's and Neal's Louisiana culture) and New Orleans-style, Carnival-band, street music.
By the early teens McDee had a breakthrough southern soul single that defined and accentuated her unique style. Accompanied prominently by the late Jackie Neal's cousin Tyree on guitar, "When I Step In The Club" earned Daddy B. Nice's Best Southern Soul Female Vocalist Of The Year honors in 2013. Around the same time Stephanie partnered on a zany and irresistable club jam called "Do Tha Hokey Pokey" with a still-less-known-than-she-was, soon-to-be mega-star (via "My Sidepiece") by the name of Big Pokey Bear.
More years passed as a new generation of southern soul stars led by Tucka and Pokey Bear pushed southern soul's popularity to heights not even imagined in the aughts. McDee's album "Return of The Southern Soul Queen" garnered Daddy B. Nice's
Best CD of The Year (2013) and a steady stream of new singles ("Lion of Judah," "Annie Mae's Cafe," "Boss Queen," "If You Lay You Gone Pay," "It's A Party At The Trailride") marked her progress through the teens like M&M's dropped along the yellow brick road until the Covid era, when Steph shifted into even higher artistic gear with "Walk Like A Boss," "You Doing Me Wrong," "Call The Police Remix" and "Boss Queen: Girl, Get Your Shit Together", aka ""Girl, How You Living?"
Then, in 2022, Stephanie released her best single since "When I Step In The Club," a song called "Let Me Take You There," once again seizing Best Southern Soul Female Vocalist Of The Year (2022) and prompting your Daddy B. Nice to effuse:
McDee has already produced "the first notable cover song of the 2023, "Boy You Got It," a redo of King George's 2022 tune "Girl You Got It," and as I'm writing Steph has just released her new single, "We Love Our Southern Soul," a two-stepping ode to the genre that she's nurtered going on a quarter-century. Ornery, rowdy, funny, indefatigable. In an age of imposters and imitators, Stephanie McDee personifies southern soul.
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For the latest updates (including biography, discography, album sellers, CD reviews and contemporaneous reports) on Stephanie McDee, scroll down this page. To automatically link to Stephanie McDee's charted radio singles, awards, CD's and citations on other pages of the website, go to Stephanie McDee in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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Note: Stephanie McDee also appears on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 21st Century Southern Soul (2000-2020). To read Daddy B Nice's commentary on Stephanie McDee prior to 2023, click here.
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--Daddy B. Nice
About Stephanie McDee #28 The New Generation Southern Soul
Stephanie McDee is the performance name of Stephanie Sanders, born in New Orleans, Louisiana August 9, 1963.
Tidbits
April 16, 2023:
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "Lion Of Judah" on YouTube.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "We Love Our Southern Soul" on YouTube.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "Boy You Got It" on YouTube.
Listen to Pokey Bear & Stephanie McDee singing "Do Tha Hokey Pokey" on YouTube.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "Let Me Take You There" on YouTube.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "Girl, Get Your Shit Together (Girl, How You Living?").
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "Monkey Talk Remix" on YouTube.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "It's A Party At The Trailride" on YouTube.
Listen to Stephanie McDee singing "When I Step In The Club" on YouTube.
Listen to Pokey Bear and Stephanie McDee singing "Do That Pokey" at Club Cheers in Baton Rouge on YouTube.
May 1, 2023:
Honorary "B" Side
"When I Step In The Club"
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