The Right Now's Pop-Soul Revolution

Picture this: Members of the Chicago based musical group The Right Now hijack Mr. Peabody's way-back machine and return to 1969. There they begin to study soul and rhythm and blues artists, like Issac Hayes, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Hot Buttered Soul and The Staple Singers.  The Right Now stay and study for four years, infiltrating Stax recording sessions and hiring on as session musicians.  After the completion of their studies, they return in the way-back machine to the present day where they blend what they have learned with modern pop-rock influences and modern soul and rythm and blues.  If you can imagine this picture, then you have an inkling of what the self-produced CD Carry Me Home is like-music that is both hauntingly retro and solidly present-day.

Lead vocalist Stefanie Berecz has a healthy set of pipes that can wail with inflection (You Will Know, Doing Nothing, I'll Get Down) add a plaintive mournfulness (Better Way To Live, I Could Really Hold On, Carry Me Home) or a soulful sweetness (Nobody, The One You Love).  If Stefanie's beautiful voice is the first thing you hear as you listen to Carry Me Home, the very next thing will be the tight perfection of the band.  Vocal assists come from Brendan O'Connell (guitar and keyboards) and Chris Corsale (guitar).  Greg Nergaard lays down a solid bass line on all tracks and no Stax influenced soul or rhythm and blues group would be complete without a horn section provided by Johnathan Edwards (baritone sax) and Jim Schram (tenor sax).  Let's not forget the consistent beat from drummer John Smillie.

Carry Me Home is tight throughout, blending slower and mid-tempo numbers with faster more up-beat offerings in just the right combination.  You never feel that you are getting too heavy a dose of one style or type because the metronome continues to shift from track to track.  Nobody truly highlights Stefanie's voice followed by a great mid-tempo rocker You Will Know which features Brendan's keyboards (a nice Hammond organ sound) and the horn section that really swings here.  There's great sax work to be heard on I Could Really Hold On and the guitars provide both rhythm and texture in a more prominent role on Before I Know Your Name.  Doing Nothing and I'll Get Down are perhaps some of my favorites here-if there can be favorites in such a great collection.  Here, Stefanie sounds like Aretha Franklin or Diana Ross and you can almost picture the band swinging and swaying as they lay down a really solid back drop.

You can find more information on The Right Now from their MySpace page including a schedule of upcoming live performances and you can purchase Carry Me Home digitally from both i-Tunes and Amie Street.  In addition, you can purchase the physical CD, T-Shirts a 45 single and other memorabilia from their Storenvy store front.  The Right Now have found a successful blend of retro and modern sounds that should please a wide demographic.  They deserve to be heard.  Check out The Right Now, right now!