{Lady will be perfoming on Wednesday April 17th at the Troubadour in West Hollywood along with Lee Fields & the Expressions and LA’s very own Jungle Fire. If all goes well, they’ll also be our guests on next week’s Melting Pot on KPFK!}
In a year that already boasts a half-dozen fantastic retro-soul releases, Truth & Soul’s Lady represents the most interesting and unexpected of the bunch. Composed of the duo Nicole Wray and Terri Walker backed by the Truth & Soul house musicians, Lady certainly sounds at home with labelmate Lee Fields and other retro-soulsters such as Sharon Jones, Nicole Willis. What really stands apart is both the fact of having twin lead vocalists and the way these vocalists sing. In many instances retro-styled bands will attempt to fairly accurately recreate the sounds of 1960s & 1970s. Certanly the backing music from the T&S crew hits on some recongizable singposts of sound, particularly from early 1970s Hi Records, but Wray and Walker’s style, phrasing and attitude don’t quite have that same feel. They sound decidedly a part of contemporary R&B style. For some purists that might be an issue, personally I think it’s their greatest strength as it gives the sound of Lady something that many other bands simply don’t have. There’s a certain edge to the sweetness here and a distinctiveness of sound that makes me very excited to hear what will be coming on down the line from these wonderful ladies.
If you don’t get a chance to catch them in action (or need more convincing), you should check out the very slick video for “Get Ready”: