Mo Muscle
2005
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down!
About This Album
The '90s and early- to mid-'00s saw the arrival of some impressive female soul singers, including Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, India Arie, Syleena Johnson, and Jill Scott. But those artists are not soul singers in the old-school sense; they are neo-soul/urban contemporary vocalists with a strong hip-hop influence. In order to hear artists who still specialize in soul music in the classic '60s and '70s sense, listeners need to look elsewhere -- and one place to look is the blues circuit, which is where you will find Monica Parker, (aka Sista Monica). The big-voiced Midwesterner isn't strictly an R&B singer, although R&B is certainly a major part of what she does. Parker, like many people on the blues circuit, has one foot in electric Chicago blues and the other in '60s and '70s style R&B -- and she does both things equally well on Can't Keep a Good Woman Down. Her approach is best described as Koko Taylor by way of Etta James (as opposed to Etta Jones), Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples; if someone asks whether Parker is a blues singer or an R&B singer, the answer should be "both" (and she has gospel credentials as well).
Track List (try tracks 1,3,8 and 9)

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