Americana: Rock Your Soul

VINYL FORMAT. If you were inclined to put a location as the source of our Americana – Rock Your Soul: Blue Eyed Soul and Sounds from the Land of the Free compilation – although the music here largely originates from other parts of the great union – it would be California. With its vast, open-plan landscape, and one season (summer) per year, it typifies the expansive style of songwriting that is contained in this compilation. There's arguably something in the climate that dictates much of our musical terrain, whether it be the sweaty, loose-hipped funk of New Orleans or the frenetic and frosty four-on-the-top of Detroit's Motown. American songs are born out of an optimism that is probably piped in the water. I'd wager most of the acts we've compiled here shared a love of Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young), as indeed, would any self-respecting music lover. This cadre of musicians, while clearly influenced by some African-American music, were the first generation not to be fixated solely by the music of black America. This was a flowering of something more general, less clearly defined, as hazy as a Los Angeles daybreak. What is notable about the music is that while it undoubtedly is influenced by R&B, there are country, jazz, funk, rock and disco tinges to many of the songs.