Pause for music: Ryan Shaw

Ryan Shaw with a RCA 77DX

These days it's common to see singers do cover albums of Soul and R&B classics. You have Seal’s Soul album, Rod Stewart’s Soulbook, Michael McDonald’s three Motown-inspired albums, and so on. They usually do a pretty good job, like Australia's ex-boy band Human Nature on their 3 Motown tribute albums. But every now and then, comes along somebody who was born to sing Soul and R&B music. Ryan Shaw really impressed me with his vocals and his adequacy to this kind of music. It’s like he could be warped through time travel directly onto the stage of a 60’s show and he would be an instant hit. This is not entirely a cover album, but better yet, an album that offers new songs with that classic soul flavor. (On the Japanese CD, you get two extra a cappella tracks: I Found a Love and I’ll Be Satisfied). This is Ryan Shaw (2007), is definitely a must have for the true Soul fan!