Anthony David’s ‘Red Clay Chronicles’ was one of last year’s strongest indie soul sets and the affable Georgian won many friends during his mini tour here at the back end of 2006. ‘Chronicles’, of course, was Anthony’s debut. His first full LP was this one – ‘3 Chords And The Truth’ which was never released in Europe – indeed even those trying to track it down from the States encountered some problems. Now the Dome people have rectified the situation by giving the gentle 15 tracker a full UK release. The set was originally recorded back in 2004 and in some ways it’s different to last year’s attention grabber. For a start, it’s much gentler (not that ‘Red Clay Chronicles’ was mightily robust). This one has a gentle folk-soul feel to it and it would be easy to make comparisons with Terry Callier and Bill Withers. Like them, David’s style is intimate – almost conversational – an atmosphere boosted by a largely acoustic approach to the instrumentation. The opener, ‘Yes’ is possibly the brightest track (echoes of his pal India Airie) though ‘Spittin’ Game’ has it own bluesy appeal. Interestingly they’re the two tracks that have been chosen to be remixed and fleshed out. ‘Spittin’ Game’ becomes almost funky (echoes of Withers' ‘Use Me’) but I don’t think that the Salah Ananse remix of ‘Yes’ improves on the original. There’s one brand new track too. ‘Miss U’ is loose and lithe and features slinky harmony work from Slick.Thursday 5 February 2009
Anthony David - 3 Chords And The Truth - Dome
Anthony David’s ‘Red Clay Chronicles’ was one of last year’s strongest indie soul sets and the affable Georgian won many friends during his mini tour here at the back end of 2006. ‘Chronicles’, of course, was Anthony’s debut. His first full LP was this one – ‘3 Chords And The Truth’ which was never released in Europe – indeed even those trying to track it down from the States encountered some problems. Now the Dome people have rectified the situation by giving the gentle 15 tracker a full UK release. The set was originally recorded back in 2004 and in some ways it’s different to last year’s attention grabber. For a start, it’s much gentler (not that ‘Red Clay Chronicles’ was mightily robust). This one has a gentle folk-soul feel to it and it would be easy to make comparisons with Terry Callier and Bill Withers. Like them, David’s style is intimate – almost conversational – an atmosphere boosted by a largely acoustic approach to the instrumentation. The opener, ‘Yes’ is possibly the brightest track (echoes of his pal India Airie) though ‘Spittin’ Game’ has it own bluesy appeal. Interestingly they’re the two tracks that have been chosen to be remixed and fleshed out. ‘Spittin’ Game’ becomes almost funky (echoes of Withers' ‘Use Me’) but I don’t think that the Salah Ananse remix of ‘Yes’ improves on the original. There’s one brand new track too. ‘Miss U’ is loose and lithe and features slinky harmony work from Slick.
