| Muddy Magnolias — Broken People (Oct 14, 2016) |
Muddy Magnolias — Broken People (Oct 14, 2016) 
°√° In a rapid gear shift, Nashville R&B sextet Muddy Magnolias suddenly turned the Den into a country soul revue. Led by dual vocalists Jessy Wilson and Kallie North, rounded out by a backing band that sounds like a cross between Widespread Panic and the Dap~Kings, Muddy Magnolias are a funky hybrid of traditional soul and countrified rock. Jessy Wilson has the soul of Mavis Staples and the range of Nina Simone, while Kallie North brings her Mississippi roots to the forefront with a sweet, honeyed texture. While the delivery may go down smooth, North has the verve and passion of Joplin, with a bit of her mischievousness, playfully darting her tongue out to the crowd before rocking her head to the beat. Bravo ladies!
°√° Duo’s new song, heavy on funk and soul, asks, “Do you go to bed hungry?” “Kallie and I have been so inspired by how artists like Bill Withers wrote about the times they were in,” Wilson tells Rolling Stone Country. “That’s what we set out to do when we wrote ‘Broken People.’ The one thing all of humanity has in common is brokenness. We’re all just out here trying to find our way.” Broken People, the debut album from the duo who garnered early acclaim while performing as an unsigned act at 2014’s CMA Music Fest, forged their eclectic sound through their individual experience, with North’s roots in southeast Texas and the Mississippi Delta, and Wilson born and raised in Brooklyn. From their first experience of writing together, they didn’t give much thought to the melding of their unique influences, finding their songwriting blend as natural and unaffected as their sweet, powerful harmony singing.
°√° Produced by Rick Beato, with additional production by Mario Marchetti and Butch Walker, the 11 tracks on Broken People were recorded in Atlanta and Nashville in late spring 2016. One of the album’s many highlights is the soaring “Leave It to the Sky,” the closing track that features John Legend on piano and vocals.
© Muddy Magnolias, the duo of Kallie North and Jessy Wilson, have released the new socially conscious song Broken People. Photo credit: Josh Telles
Location: Nashville, TN
Genre: Alternative, Pop
Album release: Oct 14, 2016
Record Label: Third Generation Records, LLC
Duration: 45:08
Tracks:
01. Broken People 3:46
02. Brother, What Happened? 4:34
03. Got It Goin’ On 4:15
04. Why Don’t You Stay? 4:33
05. Take Me Home 3:51
06. Shine On! 4:27
07. It Ain’t Easy 4:12
08. I Need a Man 4:01
09. Devil’s Teeth 3:30
10. Train 3:51
11. Leave It to the Sky (feat. John Legend) 3:58
℗ 2016 Third Generation Records, LLC
Description:
°√° Roots~rock uplift is the mission for Muddy Magnolias, the Nashville~based duo of the singers and songwriters Jessy Wilson, from Brooklyn, and Kallie North, from Texas. Their debut album, “Broken People,” merges soul and country on a shared foundation of gospel and blues. The women harmonize and take turns pushing one another as they sing about trouble and hope, love and compassion — both personal and public~spirited — as the songs build up until they all but demand singalongs. Third Generation. 
© CREDIT: Erik Voake
Review
ANN POWERS, October 6, 20167:00 AM ET
°√° When Beyoncé included the country–dipped song “Daddy Lessons” on Lemonade, some seemed surprised — which was weird. Queen Bey is from Houston, where (as in most of the South) the word “country” is sometimes thrown around as an insult meaning “unsophisticated.” And her song, with its street~corner beat and hot guitar, reminded listeners that rootsy music has its own kind of elegance. More obviously, “Daddy Issues” joins a songwriting lineage that, since at least the turn of the 1970s, links country’s close narrative eye with the warmth and urgency of soul and the maverick tendencies of rock. This line stretches across racial lines to include Destiny’s Child (who covered Lionel Richie’s pure country “Sail On” on its debut album), hard~to~categorize hitmakers like Joan Osborne and John Mayer, and black bohemes like Jill Scott and John Legend. Now, a powerful new collaboration joins it: Nashville’s Muddy Magnolias.
°√° Jessy Wilson, the Brooklyn~born half of this meridian~crossing duo, once sang backup with Legend, among other R&B stars, and the star appears as a guest artist and guiding presence on Muddy Magnolias’ Broken People. Like Legend, Wilson and her partner Kallie North believe that music should uplift and heal the spirit while retaining some cool sophistication. Broken People is peppered with exhortations to let love remedy the problems that shatter souls and communities, and it’s infused with a spiritualized grandeur that also links Muddy Magnolias to Alicia Keys and, from another angle, Sarah McLachlan. (The achingly lovely “Train” could become the millennial “Angel.”) But there are also alluring love songs like “Why Don’t You Stay?” and playful numbers, like “Devil’s Teeth,” designed to get people dancing in a field. °√° (Muddy Magnolias’ name was made through tours with festival favorites like the Zac Brown Band and Gary Clark Jr.) North and Wilson lean their vocal styles toward each other in a blend that isn’t seamless, but rather mutually respectful: Trading runs and sharing high notes, they stand for a musical — and, by implication, personal — interconnection that keeps each player’s home truths on equal footing with the other’s.
°√° Originally from Texas and relatively new to professional music — she worked as a photographer in Mississippi before giving Nashville songwriting a try — North retains an appealing tinge of rawness in her approach that tempers Wilson’s awe~inspiring, clearly well~honed swagger. Produced by Rick Beato, who’s mostly worked with category~jumping rock artists like Needtobreathe, Parmalee and Trey Anastasio, Broken People avoids the vintage trappings favored by many young soul revivalists in favor of a clean, big, radio~friendly sound. Can this kind of music dodge the EDM beats of the Top 40 to reach a big audience? North and Wilson have the charisma to make that kind of splash. Call Muddy Magnolias rock, soul or even country — these big voices will fill whatever space opens up to them. °√° http://www.npr.org/
Website: http://www.muddymagnolias.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MuddyMagnolias
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muddymagnolias/
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| Muddy Magnolias — Broken People (Oct 14, 2016) |
°√° Duo’s new song, heavy on funk and soul, asks, “Do you go to bed hungry?” “Kallie and I have been so inspired by how artists like Bill Withers wrote about the times they were in,” Wilson tells Rolling Stone Country. “That’s what we set out to do when we wrote ‘Broken People.’ The one thing all of humanity has in common is brokenness. We’re all just out here trying to find our way.” Broken People, the debut album from the duo who garnered early acclaim while performing as an unsigned act at 2014’s CMA Music Fest, forged their eclectic sound through their individual experience, with North’s roots in southeast Texas and the Mississippi Delta, and Wilson born and raised in Brooklyn. From their first experience of writing together, they didn’t give much thought to the melding of their unique influences, finding their songwriting blend as natural and unaffected as their sweet, powerful harmony singing.
°√° Produced by Rick Beato, with additional production by Mario Marchetti and Butch Walker, the 11 tracks on Broken People were recorded in Atlanta and Nashville in late spring 2016. One of the album’s many highlights is the soaring “Leave It to the Sky,” the closing track that features John Legend on piano and vocals.
Location: Nashville, TN
Genre: Alternative, Pop
Album release: Oct 14, 2016
Record Label: Third Generation Records, LLC
Duration: 45:08
Tracks:
01. Broken People 3:46
02. Brother, What Happened? 4:34
03. Got It Goin’ On 4:15
04. Why Don’t You Stay? 4:33
05. Take Me Home 3:51
06. Shine On! 4:27
07. It Ain’t Easy 4:12
08. I Need a Man 4:01
09. Devil’s Teeth 3:30
10. Train 3:51
11. Leave It to the Sky (feat. John Legend) 3:58
℗ 2016 Third Generation Records, LLC
Description:
°√° Roots~rock uplift is the mission for Muddy Magnolias, the Nashville~based duo of the singers and songwriters Jessy Wilson, from Brooklyn, and Kallie North, from Texas. Their debut album, “Broken People,” merges soul and country on a shared foundation of gospel and blues. The women harmonize and take turns pushing one another as they sing about trouble and hope, love and compassion — both personal and public~spirited — as the songs build up until they all but demand singalongs. Third Generation.
Review
ANN POWERS, October 6, 20167:00 AM ET
°√° When Beyoncé included the country–dipped song “Daddy Lessons” on Lemonade, some seemed surprised — which was weird. Queen Bey is from Houston, where (as in most of the South) the word “country” is sometimes thrown around as an insult meaning “unsophisticated.” And her song, with its street~corner beat and hot guitar, reminded listeners that rootsy music has its own kind of elegance. More obviously, “Daddy Issues” joins a songwriting lineage that, since at least the turn of the 1970s, links country’s close narrative eye with the warmth and urgency of soul and the maverick tendencies of rock. This line stretches across racial lines to include Destiny’s Child (who covered Lionel Richie’s pure country “Sail On” on its debut album), hard~to~categorize hitmakers like Joan Osborne and John Mayer, and black bohemes like Jill Scott and John Legend. Now, a powerful new collaboration joins it: Nashville’s Muddy Magnolias.
°√° Jessy Wilson, the Brooklyn~born half of this meridian~crossing duo, once sang backup with Legend, among other R&B stars, and the star appears as a guest artist and guiding presence on Muddy Magnolias’ Broken People. Like Legend, Wilson and her partner Kallie North believe that music should uplift and heal the spirit while retaining some cool sophistication. Broken People is peppered with exhortations to let love remedy the problems that shatter souls and communities, and it’s infused with a spiritualized grandeur that also links Muddy Magnolias to Alicia Keys and, from another angle, Sarah McLachlan. (The achingly lovely “Train” could become the millennial “Angel.”) But there are also alluring love songs like “Why Don’t You Stay?” and playful numbers, like “Devil’s Teeth,” designed to get people dancing in a field. °√° (Muddy Magnolias’ name was made through tours with festival favorites like the Zac Brown Band and Gary Clark Jr.) North and Wilson lean their vocal styles toward each other in a blend that isn’t seamless, but rather mutually respectful: Trading runs and sharing high notes, they stand for a musical — and, by implication, personal — interconnection that keeps each player’s home truths on equal footing with the other’s.
°√° Originally from Texas and relatively new to professional music — she worked as a photographer in Mississippi before giving Nashville songwriting a try — North retains an appealing tinge of rawness in her approach that tempers Wilson’s awe~inspiring, clearly well~honed swagger. Produced by Rick Beato, who’s mostly worked with category~jumping rock artists like Needtobreathe, Parmalee and Trey Anastasio, Broken People avoids the vintage trappings favored by many young soul revivalists in favor of a clean, big, radio~friendly sound. Can this kind of music dodge the EDM beats of the Top 40 to reach a big audience? North and Wilson have the charisma to make that kind of splash. Call Muddy Magnolias rock, soul or even country — these big voices will fill whatever space opens up to them. °√° http://www.npr.org/
Website: http://www.muddymagnolias.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MuddyMagnolias
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muddymagnolias/
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