aaamusic | On 28, May 2013

Minneapolis based Chastity Brown is a classy and diverse American singer-songwriter who successfully merges the R&B sounds of the music capitals Memphis and Nashville.

Her fourth studio album Back -Road Highways, released on 15^th July, 2013 in the UK, is the first with her new label Creative and Dreams Music Network. It was recorded in Tennessee.

House Been Burnin is a hot, timeless blues song about fear and loss, sung with great intensity and sensitivity. Solely, a bitter sweet and haunting bluegrass ballad, echoes and smoulders into a hot southern night. Gospel, calypso and country are blended to create the bouncy fun of After You and in Chastity’s Leroy her sexy, smoky and sensuous voice is hypnotic. The soul searching Could’ve Been a Sunday has a feeling of grittiness and melancholy.

In Chastity Brown’s roots influenced music her laid back jazzy tunes are helped by rich, poetic and beautiful lyrics. Bass, guitar, banjo, organ, harmonica and percussion wrap themselves around her raw edged and sultry vocals. These are intelligent and emotional songs about joy, love, pain, guilt, desire and hunger that combine to create a fine, original and imaginative album.

★★★★★

Anthony Weightman