By Jeff Maisey
This year we’ve been touting new songs released by 757 region recording artists on Veer’s Top 10 This Week playlist on Spotify. It’s a great way for people to check out what’s happening across the diverse spectrum of local music and an easy peek into what tunes might be nominated for Song of the Year in the upcoming 2025 Veer Music Awards presentation on Sunday, February 2 at Elevation 27 in Virginia Beach. Nominees will be announced the last week of December
Here are a few noteworthy tracks I hope you’ll seek out:
Sunny Moonshine, “Time”
Off of her delightful 5-track EP “Jupiter,” “Time” is clearly the “hit” deserving radio play. Hypnotically airy in vibe with swirling keyboards and beats straight out the ‘80s electro-pop scene, “Time” is a love letter or sorts where Sunny sings, “I never meant to waste your time/I never want to stop you/I never want to hold you back/I only want to love you.”
Wilk$, “Stay Awhile”
R&B singer Wilke$ released this studio single in November and it’s his best track to date.
Beginning with a chorus of harmonic voice, the track quickly hits its groove with a big beat, horn section, and pop vocal melody reminiscent of the old school R&B greats such as Kool & The Gang, Dazz Band, and more specifically, George Benson’s “Give Me The Night.”
Jae Sinnett, “Frankenstein”
Jazz percussionist Jae Sinnett takes a break from his Zero to 60 Quartet to revisit and reimagine some of his classic rock favorites that made an indelible impression on him as a young musician.
In advance of his newly released “Blur The Line Project” album, Sinnett shared his take on the Edgar Winter Group’s “Frankenstein.”
Winter and his bandmates used the instrumental tune to warm-up during sound checks. It’s working title was the “Two Drum Song” and clocked-in as an 18-minute jam.
At the end of the recording session for the album “They Only Come Out at Night,” with some unexpected additional time remaining in the studio, producer Rick Derringer suggested, “Why don’t we record the ‘Two Drum Song.’”
The band played the song straight through for the recording, with Winter adding extra instruments as overdubs. During the mixing stage, the band through a party in the production room for friends.
Slightly out of their minds, they cut the recording tape of the song in sections and draped it over furniture in the studio.
“It was like a leg here, an arm there,” Winter once told me in an interview.
Derringer spiced some of the tape sections together and it was added to the album as “Frankenstein.”
“A monster was born,” Winter said, with a big laugh.
Though “Free Ride” was expected to be the big hit on the album, “Frankenstein” put the Edgar Winter Group at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1972.
For Sinnett’s version, he and his bandmates digitally recorded their arrangement in sections and then edited them together, unknowingly keeping with the spirit of the original.
Saxophone, organ, guitar largely replace the synthesizers Winter used in the original, but the “Blur the Line” version nicely maintains the same intensity and Sinnett brilliantly nails the drum solo section.
Then Sinnett and crew veer off on an acid jazz tangent, slow the tempo way down with off-tone piano, and then bring it all back to the familiar melody.
Edgar would approve, I think.
The James Henry Morgan Gang, “Walking Each Other Home”
This group of outstanding musicians returns with their back-to-the-1970s vibes for this groovin’ blues/rock, classic sounding original weaving impressions of Santana, Dr. John, Little Feat, and Traffic. Great piano finger-work and guitar licks.
Peppos Jones Band, “Life Notes”
Longtime local musicians Bob Jones and Steve Peppos released this full-length album as a reconnection to the music style they began playing in the mid to late 1960s.
From the first note of retro organ on the opening “Don’t Waste The Dawn” sets the tone with its mix of The Doors meets The Zombies.
Where “Decisions” has a chilled Sade mixed with “Aja”-era Steely Dan vibe, the cosmic “Music in Heaven” recalls the uneasy quivering voice of Neil Young with a bit of George Harrison.
Another highlight on this trip back to the 1970s is “Back to the Bullet.”
Only available on CD at Birdland Music.
