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(2014) Frazey Ford - Indian Ocean
Wikipedia:
Frazey Ford is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was a founding member of The Be Good Tanyas. Her solo debut Obadiah was released on Nettwerk on July 20, 2010.
Ford cites Rhythm and Blues singers Ann Peebles, Roberta Flack, and Donny Hathaway as influences, and this is evident in Obadiah. Jenny Charlesworth of The Georgia Straight wrote that a few of the songs "swing with a mellow neo-soul beat enlivened by buttery vocals". Ford also credits her free spirited parents (her father was an American draft dodger who moved to Canada), and being a mother as strong influences on her songwriting.
Obadiah takes its name from Ford's middle name "Obadiah". When she was born, her parents asked her brothers to choose her middle name; they decided to name her after their pet cat Obadiah that had recently run away.
Ford was raised in the Kootenays in Southeastern British Columbia, and Toronto. She currently resides in Vancouver.
Review:
The second solo long-player from the Canadian folk-pop songstress and former Be Good Tanya, Indian Ocean finds Frazey Ford enlisting the help of the legendary Hi Rhythm Section, who were Al Green’s not-so-secret weapons and the prime architects of the Memphis soul sound during the Stax era, and kicking out a warm, breezy, and not surprisingly soulful set of R&B-kissed country-pop confections that sound as timeless as they do of a particular era. Falling somewhere between Cat Power, Carole King, and Linda Ronstadt, Ford’s sophomore outing dials back on some of the on the nose, soul-pop contrivances of 2010’s Obadiah, which while solid and surprising enough at the time, at this point sounds more like an abandoned set of blueprints for what would eventually become Indian Ocean. The songs and performances are altogether more confident, due in large part to the near constant presence of some talented guests, most notably the aforementioned sibling soul alchemists Charles Hodges (organ), Leroy Hodges (bass), and Teenie Hodges (guitar), the latter of whom passed away during the recording of the album, and standout cuts like the world weary “September Fields,” the bluesy and evocative “Runnin’,” the gospel-tinged “Season After Season,” and the epic and elegiac title track bring with them a patina of pure, tube-driven, smoky goodness that surrounds the listener in a cloud of nostalgia that yields no obvious compass points. Indian Ocean is sad, sweet, and warm as an August afternoon, and while its charms may feel old-fashioned and better suited to vinyl, the hardships it details are undeniably contemporary, and their conclusions oddly comforting.
Rating 7/10
Tracklist:
01 September Fields
02 Runnin'
03 You're Not Free
04 Done
05 Three Golden Trees
06 You Got Religion
07 Season After Season
08 Natural Law
09 Weather Pattern
10 Indian Ocean
11 Track11
Summary:
Country: Canada
Genre: Americana, Soul
Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~624-855 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
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