Chastity Brown: Back-Road Highways

I love year end best-of lists for two reasons: they validate my taste and they turn me on to albums I have missed.  I was looking at City Pages Best Minnesota Albums of 2012 list the other day and found this Chastity Brown release.  The short review said the right things to suggest this might be something I would like. I ran over to emusic, previewed it and downloaded it.

Wow – what a great tip City Pages.  Chastity has a soulful R&B voice in Americana arrangements. Chastity reminds me of the first time I heard Joan Armatrading or Tracy Chapman.  Women who refused to be musically pigeonholed by their skin color and who have unique and distinctive pipes.  Chastity voice is Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon – neat.

I knew nothing of this artist and embarrassed to find out she has been crafting her critically acclaimed art in my backyard for a half decade.  I guess I need to pull my head out of my ass and check out a local show every once in while.  This is an absolutely mind-blowing album and is immediately on my best-of for 2012.  This is exactly why I read best-of lists!

PS – could a recording artist have a cooler name?  Sounds like a Pam Grier character: bad ass and beautiful – which is exactly what Chastity Brown is.

Check out this sample of Chastity from a recent live performance on the The Current: