FREE Subscription - For more information  CLICK HERE

 

 

Back To Reviews page

Shari Puorto - Real

Self Release

Time-43:29

www.ShariPuorto.com

This is the latest in a long line of gritty-voiced tough-girl R&B belters that have crossed my path. She has the necessary pipes for the job, but this is the kind of music that doesn’t stick in your “craw”. Music scene veteran Barry Goldberg serves as co- producer here with Shari, along with providing his keyboard skills as well. He has gathered a group of first-class musicians to supply very able backing for the songs. Shari has her moments, but I think more songs from outside writers would have helped. Some tunes with more melody and substance.

The lead-off song “Love Fever” gives the first glimpse of her vocal skills, but the song itself is just a “throwaway”. “All I Want Is You” is more like it, incorporating tough-girl swagger along with Goldberg’s bluesy electric piano and Nick Kirgo’s slinky slide guitar. A pop singer-songwriter’s take on Cajun music livens up “Breakfast On Sunday”, where Nick Kirgo’s slide sounds “accordion-like”, ala slide genius Sonny Landreth. What’s a tough-girl vocalist without a tough-girl anthem of her very own? That’s what she gives us in the guitar-driven “Rock Me Right”, a song that could easily suit any singer of this ilk. She offers up more of the same sentiment in “Don’t Mess With Me”…It overflows with tough-girl clichés, but the roughness is bolstered by “rough and ready” guitar goodness. “Who’s Gonna Put Out The Fire?” is a slow-burning (no pun intended), simmering slab of Memphis-style soul. The shuffle rhythm, along with Goldberg’s New Orleans style piano playing on “Show Me What You Got” is a nice change of pace. “I Wish I Knew” gives a sincere “tug on the heartstrings” as a memorial to one of Shari’s troubled friends that took his own life. If this song doesn’t get to you, seek help.

An ok experience here if this is your type of music. The production values and musicianship are up to “snuff”. Female singers of this type tend to be “a dime a dozen”. All the basics are here, they just need to be framed in better song structures. There should be some semblance of a “hook”, something to make the tune stay in your mind.

Reviewer Greg “Bluesdog” Szalony hails from the New Jersey Delta.

To submit a review or interview please contact:

For more information please contact:

(Formerly IllinoisBlues.com)

Home  |  Contact  |  Submit Your Blues News - Advertise with Blues Blast Magazine
 
 Copyright - Blues Blast Magazine
2010    Design by: Moxi Dawg Design