Irma Thomas "Simply Grand"

Irma Thomas' new record, Simply Grand contains 14 songs with piano accompaniment by Randy Newman, Norah Jones, John Medeski and Dr John to name a few. She talked about music today in an article in the WSJ. "A lot of music today is not giving the rawness it should. It's losing something with the technicality of it." In reference to vocal-enhancement technology, she called it "a gimmick" She recorded her new record in New Orleans, LA and NY using one day to lay down each track. When asked about the challenges of recording an album in 14 days with just a few hours for a session with each of the above mentioned musicians she elaborated, "when you have two professionals in the studio who are both confident that the other will enhance the other, then all you do is run through it, find the key, verses and bridge." In response to comparing this recording to live performing Irma says "when you walk on stage, you don't have time to technically rip a song apart. You just go out there and sing. That's what you want to capture." Here's a lady who's been doing it for a long time and these are words for musicians to live by. Amen.