As seen in Soul Express

It took almost five years for us to hear new music from Shirley, but finally Unleashed (MCD7535; www.malaco.com) is here. It starts with a serene and rather mellow ballad called Upside Down, which, however, vocally grows into a passionate eruption. The song was written and produced by Frederick Knight, but unfortunately his second contribution, an almost funky beater called Let Me Relax You, isn’t on a par of that opener but, on the contrary, sounds rather dull.

Vick Allen did a lot of producing for this set, and the first song is his and Omar Cunningham’s I Don’t Wanna Leave, a slow swayer with powerful singing again. The mid-tempo If You Can’t Hit It Right (co-written by Tonya Youngblood Polk) is more mediocre and ominous. Vick also wrote and produced together with Shirley two songs, a poppy mid-tempo stepper titled You Should’a Know Better and a poignant and impressive deepie named Why, which is dedicated to the ones we’ve lost.

I’m afraid that the late Charles Richard Cason’s and Zuri’s two repetitive jams (Clean House and I Wish You Didn’t Love Me So Good) leave me cold. They simply are too “hip-hop” and contemporary for Shirley’s emotive and established old-school style.

On A Sample of my Love, a mid-tempo beater with an irresistible groove, and (You Promised Me Heaven, But) You Gave Me Hell, a bluesy slowie, it says that “initial tracks and lead vocals recorded at Ecko Sound Studios in Memphis, TN.” The writers of those two songs are John Ward, Raymond Moore and Larry Chambers. Malaco’s Vice president, Wolf Stephenson: “John Ward runs the Ecko studios in Memphis, and he has written a lot of songs for us in the past. He used to be a signed writer to Malaco Music for years. He submitted five songs, and Shirley chose those two. John Ward: “I sent those songs to Shirley, because I knew she was cutting her new CD. At first they were going to record them at Malaco and I assumed they would redo the tracks. But Shirley liked the feel I had on the tracks and was afraid they would lose the feel, if they recut them, so she asked if she could use my tracks. They decided to just come here and cut the vocals, since Wolf Stephenson was coming through town anyway on his way back from Nashville to Jackson. So that’s how we ended up doing the vocals and basic tracks here. After the vocals were cut, we sent the tracks with her vocals down to Malaco for more overdubs and mixing. I was glad that Shirley did the songs and thought she did a great job on them.”

The last three tracks, produced by Wolf Stephenson, were cut at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in 2003, and they feature real instruments. Wolf: “Those three tracks were recorded at the same time as Shirley’s previous album (Woman Enough), and we did not use those songs. Since then I went back and listened to them and decided to put them on the album.”

The first of those tracks is a hurting ballad called When I Hear Your Name. Written by Rue Davis and Harrison Calloway, it’s another big-voiced performance from Shirley. “When we were getting ready to do that album, I told Rue Davis that we needed some songs for Shirley. He had a few ideas, and I asked him to finish them with her in mind. Rue Davis is the one, who comes up with the idea, lyrics and such, and Harrison Calloway wrote the music part of the song.”

Shirley is determined on Luther Lackey’s beat ballad named You Ain’t Gone Get No More of My Love and gives advice on another Luther’s tune, the softer Watch What You Tell Your Friends. Wolf: “Luther has written other songs for us. He’s a local guy, a writer and a singer, and he has a lot of ideas for songs. He writes songs all the time.”

“We released the single, the lead-off song, Upside Down, and that’s a ballad, but also some of the uptempo songs are getting action. Several radio stations are picking them up.”

Recently Wolf has spent a lot of time in the studio. “We just signed a new artist that we’re really excited about. She was, I think, a runner-up in last year’s America’s Got Talent show, Queen Emily (www.queenemily.org). We were able to sign her, and we just finished the tracks last week. Hopefully we have the product to come out in August.”

If you like Shirley’s music and if you only have time, you could read my 3-part Shirley Brown story at www.soulexpress.net/shirleybrown.htm.