This may perhaps be a bit over the top, but I'm going to risk personal embarrassment and submit it for publishing anyway.
PS -- I don't know why it posted like lines of poetry, but I kind of like the way that looks for a blog. Oh well.
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Ben Deignan
Ladies, let me be bluntly honest with you. Ben Deignan is not Mr. Sensitive. Ben Deignan does not want to be your BFF. Ben Deignan does not want to settle down, grow
old together, or watch your grandchildren frolic in the yard. If his self-titled debut album is any
indication, Ben Deignan wants to make you walk funny in the morning. (You know, from all the dancing, because this
is a family newspaper.) This
just-released disk is a hormone-fueled collection of songs about love, loss,
lust, and cheating – generally with him rather than on him – laid down over rhythms
that will slide down your spine like some kind of super-funky-groovy epidural
and make your hips take on a life of their own, and perhaps inspire a girl to grab
the nearest dance partner and move against him/her/it in ways that are
downright shameless.
This talented young man recently played The Loft with his
band, Suburban Soul and never have I found a genre to be so succinctly
described by the name of a band! These white
kids throw a contemporary spin on the classic R&B and soul vibe. They remind me of Jamiroquai with some of
that Georgia sweet tea thrown in for seasoning.
When performing live they do a healthy mix of originals and covers, the
likes of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Rhianna, the Police, Kanye West, and even
Michael Jackson. His performances embody
the feel of a really rockin’ disco party.
He exudes intense energy from the stage and incorporates just enough
loungy cheesiness to the lyrics he is moaning out to the audience in a husky
bedroom voice that you know he is having as much fun up there as you are from your
spot down on the dance floor.
Listening to the disk at home (over and over and over and
over) brings that same vibe right into my living room. A few days ago while listening to the track ‘Sexy
Black Dress’, a gritty, blues-guitar
driven lament over an ex-girlfriend flaunting her new lover in front of him
just for spite, I found myself shakin’ my booty while cooking. Lines like ‘You’ve got a lot of nerve to
think that I’m just gonna sit back – but it’s hard to look you in the eye when you body
looks like that.‘ had me desperately wanting to make sure those onions that I
was chopping knew just exactly what they were missing out on when I left them
for a new man!
A slower offering, ‘Touch’ – a samba-like offering featuring
classical style guitar and latin-flavored percussion – almost weeps with
emotion. The feel on this song almost
reminds me of early Sade. It’s beyond me
how the subject of this song, upon hearing his breathy, angst-and-desire filled
crooning, can keep herself from running right back into his arms, leaving a
trail of clothing behind her. I can
barely keep from twisting my hands in my own hair when I listen to it!
In order to keep from embarrassing myself with further
hormone-fueled confessions, I will refrain from describing other songs such as ‘Shut
Up’, in which he asks the object of his desire if she thinks about him when she
is in the arms of her new man, or ‘He Don’t Have To Know’, where he attempts to
justify an illicit relationship with someone else’s woman. Instead I will let you know that all of these tasty
musical delights can be found on iTunes and that The Man himself will be
hosting a cd release party at The Loft on February 6th. You’d best believe this white girl will be
there, down front and making a dancing fool of myself.