Marc Stone
03-10-2008, 12:52 PM
Hi T-Heads, here is the official announcement of our specal first weekend shows at Old Point: SUPER SOUL LEGEND BETTY HARRIS with Marc Stone's 10 piece all-star band. Very special guests tba.
Betty is one of the originators of Deep Soul and Funk (the Meters were backing her in the studio before they were the Meters). She is the bomb, no ifs ands or buts. She broke the Top 10 in 1963 with her heart-rending version of Cry To Me (with Dee Dee Warwick and Cissy Houston on bg vocals) and helped write the book on New Orleans soul and funk recording for Allen Toussaint's Sansu label from 1965-69. Tix on sale soon at www.marcstonemusic.com. Here is an excerpt of a review of Betty's show at Old Point Nov. 9th (her first full concert ever in NOLA):
Betty Harris, on the list of the greatest soul singers of all time, gave a knock down, drag-out-all-the-emotion performance at New Orleans’ Old Point Bar on St. Algiers Point. Some of the city’s finest back-up musicians were there to support her in the person of Marc Stone’s Band, and the 200 plus audience that crammed into the funky little West Bank neighborhood bar was knocked flat by a performance that happens once in a lifetime.
Marc Stone had put heart and soul into bringing Harris down from Atlanta to return to the city where she cut many of her original records for Allen Toussaint’s Sansu label in the 1960s. Intuition (Evidence Records), produced by Jon Tiven, is Harris’s first release since she defined the term “funk” with the explosive “There’s a Break in the Road”.
Harris still knows her stuff, the band delivered, and the audience knew it.
The past aside, Harris was in absolutely unbelievable voice as she played it all out over the Algiers’ levee. I would suspect people heard her across the river at New Orleans’ City Center. This was no small feat with a horn section that only the Big Easy could deliver. The audio engineer commented that even without a monitor Harris was able to bring it home because R&B singers of her day worked without a net all of the time. Hurricane Betty Harris did not disappoint, and the guys were blowing hard to keep up.
Harris was all elegance and soul, diamond ring catching the lights as she worked the crowd to their knees, begging for more.
Only 200 people saw Harris at Old Point, so listeners probably won’t be disappointed with her Nashville-backed CD, Intuition. But, it is unfortunate that the Nashville band sounds flat and uninspired compared to New Orleans’ best. It would be fun to hear a recording with Stone’s band, a band that knows what soul is all about and is able to meld perfectly with the performer and support the emotion.
Betty is one of the originators of Deep Soul and Funk (the Meters were backing her in the studio before they were the Meters). She is the bomb, no ifs ands or buts. She broke the Top 10 in 1963 with her heart-rending version of Cry To Me (with Dee Dee Warwick and Cissy Houston on bg vocals) and helped write the book on New Orleans soul and funk recording for Allen Toussaint's Sansu label from 1965-69. Tix on sale soon at www.marcstonemusic.com. Here is an excerpt of a review of Betty's show at Old Point Nov. 9th (her first full concert ever in NOLA):
Betty Harris, on the list of the greatest soul singers of all time, gave a knock down, drag-out-all-the-emotion performance at New Orleans’ Old Point Bar on St. Algiers Point. Some of the city’s finest back-up musicians were there to support her in the person of Marc Stone’s Band, and the 200 plus audience that crammed into the funky little West Bank neighborhood bar was knocked flat by a performance that happens once in a lifetime.
Marc Stone had put heart and soul into bringing Harris down from Atlanta to return to the city where she cut many of her original records for Allen Toussaint’s Sansu label in the 1960s. Intuition (Evidence Records), produced by Jon Tiven, is Harris’s first release since she defined the term “funk” with the explosive “There’s a Break in the Road”.
Harris still knows her stuff, the band delivered, and the audience knew it.
The past aside, Harris was in absolutely unbelievable voice as she played it all out over the Algiers’ levee. I would suspect people heard her across the river at New Orleans’ City Center. This was no small feat with a horn section that only the Big Easy could deliver. The audio engineer commented that even without a monitor Harris was able to bring it home because R&B singers of her day worked without a net all of the time. Hurricane Betty Harris did not disappoint, and the guys were blowing hard to keep up.
Harris was all elegance and soul, diamond ring catching the lights as she worked the crowd to their knees, begging for more.
Only 200 people saw Harris at Old Point, so listeners probably won’t be disappointed with her Nashville-backed CD, Intuition. But, it is unfortunate that the Nashville band sounds flat and uninspired compared to New Orleans’ best. It would be fun to hear a recording with Stone’s band, a band that knows what soul is all about and is able to meld perfectly with the performer and support the emotion.