PRESS 6

MOJO Music Magazine
September, 2005
Album reviews – FOUR STARS ****
Skintalk (Blackfeet Productions)
Fabulous old school-style album.

Martha Redbone seamlessly combines the explosive lung-power of Chaka Khan with the sensual earthiness of Etta James to produce a sound that is allusive and yet uniquely individual. Although Redbone’s roots are in funk– she did background vocals on George Clinton’s Mothership Reunion project– Skintalk is a supremely soulful second album, which evokes the spirit of ‘70s R&B with its sinewy organic retro grooves. Together with co-write/producer Aaron Whitby, this Brooklyn-based singer with Native American ancestry had fashioned a remarkable record that distils the soulful essence of acts like Rufus, Earth, Wind & Fire and sly & the Family Stone but never sounds derivative or dated. The songs range from shimmering mid-tempo soul grooves (including the wonderfully uplifting Children of Love) to rock-tinged funk and bittersweet ballads. A gem of a record. -Charles Waring

Blues & Soul
Martha Redbone: Blackfeet Productions
Skintalk

Occasionally - once in a blue moon, if you're lucky - an album comes along out of nowhere that starts by giving you goosebumps and ends by knocking you completely off your feet. This is one such album. In terms of quality and soulfulness, it eclipses everything else I've heard this year. Review Not even the much-vaunted John Legend or Leela James come close. It's that good. Really. This is the second album from Martha Redbone, a singer/songwriter of Native American descent, whose debut was 2002's "Home Of The Brave." By all accounts, Redbone has made a quantum leap forward with this sophomore CD, which sounds like a great lost album from the 1970s. Don't get me wrong, it's not old hat - although there are palpable echoes of Rufus, EW&F and Sly & The Family Stone, there's nothing stale or derivative about Redbone's allusive brand of organic neo-soul. It's fresh and exciting. The key song is "Children Of Love," which opens with native American tribal chanting before morphing into a mid-tempo soul groove that recalls EW&F's "That's The Way Of The World." Almost as good is the sweetly soulful "Future Street" boasting a highly infectious chorus. Also listen out for the plaintive "Hard Livin'," "Stick Wit Me" and the gorgeous shimmering ballad, "Atlas." Together with her main collaborator, keyboard player, Aaron Whitby, Redbone has crafted some thoughtful, intelligent songs that use mythic imagery to touch on racial and socio-political issues as well as themes of love and life. A stunning album (This should be stocked at specialist retailers but if you have trouble locating it, log on to www.martharedbone.com).
(CW) *****

The Voice
Gimmie Some Skin!
By Davina Morris

Martha Redbone embraces her two sides – African and Native American – in her latest soulful release
Throughout much of Martha Redbone’s childhood, her mixed heritage provoked racist jibes from her peers and left her feeling somewhat isolated. But as she got older and wiser the singer learnt that being a product of a Native American mother and black father was a heritage to embrace and celebrate.

Gearing up to release her aptly titled album Skintalk, the Brooklyn-born singer explains why she chose to give her independently released album that title.

The Voice “So often, people take other people at face value and in doing so, the first thing we tend to see is the colour of people’s skin. We just have to look at the aftermath of the war in Iraq to see how much racial profiling that sparked. My brother, like myself, is part-black and part-Native American. But he has quite Arabic features and as a result he is racially-profiled all the time. Skin colour tends to define so many things and giving my album that title just acknowledges that fact.”

CORRECTNESS
Still, in an age where political correctness seems to be at an all-time high and discussing race-related issues seems almost taboo, some may argue that making your race your selling point is somewhat inappropriate.
But Redbone doesn’t buy into that notion. She believes that people should be free to celebrate their heritage and in fact, she took on the name Redbone as a means of acknowledging her mixed ancestry.

“Redbone was a nickname given to me when I was a kid, but it’s actually a derogatory word used to describe people of mixed ancestry. As a kid, I really hated that name and I was really offended by it. But as I grew up, I began to ask myself why I was so offended by that term when I loved the two people who created me. So instead of being made to feel ashamed of being two different races, I decided that I should embrace where I’m from because that is who I am.”

She continued: “Years ago, many schools almost discouraged Native Americans to continue using their language and instead encouraged us to basically assimilate with white people. At one time, many Native Americans were taken off the reservations and put in boarding schools where they were given English names, which were supposed to be ‘more civilised.’

“They weren’t allowed to use their own language and if they did, they’d be beaten. As a result, many Native Americans lost their language because of society’s push to get people to almost forget their heritage and become ‘more American.’ But today’s generation of Native Americans, myself included, are keen to learn about and embrace their history and I think that’s important.”

HERITAGE
Learning about that side of her heritage was perhaps that much harder for Redbone growing up in Brooklyn, where Native American culture was far from prevalent. On the contrary, black culture was dominant and was therefore, unsurprisingly, where she drew her musical influences from.

“I just call my music soul music. That’s the music that I know and love_— it’s the music that I connect to. I was raised in Brooklyn and growing up there, you really weren’t around too many people of Native American ancestry. For me growing up, that side of my heritage was only prevalent through my mother when I was in my home. But at other times, I was immersed in black culture. My father sang in church, I was rooted in soul music — I’m a simple black girl from Brooklyn who just happens to have an Indian mother.”

Sadly, Redbone’s father, who she describes as “my six foot three, chocolate-skinned dad,” died in 2001. But she remembers her father with nothing but love. “One of the fondest memories I have of him was him singing while my songwriting partner Alan Whitby was playing the piano. My dad was very ill at that time but he completely came to life when he was singing. That was a really beautiful moment. And though he’s gone, I feel like he’s with me everyday.”

Now, Redbone — who also lived in London on and off for about five years in the mid-90s — is excited about her album’s UK release and a set of shows she’ll perform at London’s Jazz Café in March.

“I’m glad that people here are digging my music. I enjoy making my music independently because that gives me the freedom and control to make the music of my choice. So knowing that people appreciate what I do is a great feeling. I can’t wait to get back to London to perform in March. Having lived here before, it pretty much feels like my second home.”

Skintalk is out on February 27 through Dome Records
Published: 02 February 2006
Issue: 1203

THE WORD
March 2006
By Simon Barnett

The Word There’s much debate about what makes “true” soul music. If it’s a great band, neat songs and a voice whose tone says more than the lyrics ever could while deftly spinning some awe-inspiring vocal gymnastics, then Martha Redbone delivers the truth in bundles. If Angie or Joss Stone, Alicia Keys or Prince at his most soulful are your cup of tea then you’ll like this,

Martha’s second album is less polished than it’s highly regarded predecessor, but the grit is welcome. 2002’s Home of the Brave won best debut at the Native American Music Awards (the Nammys) but Martha’s half Native American and half African American heritage is more prominently on display this album. Medicine Man and Children of Love are two genuinely innovative songs, incorporating indigenous chants from Dennis Banks, the founder of the American Indian Movement, to great effect. Apart from those there are some classy old-school soul moments penned by Redbone and her British partner Aaron Whitby. Talk About It is a hook-laden, mid-tempo gem, the Byrdsy guitar on Mama is a welcome surprise, the jazz-tinged God Created Woman stomps along sweetly and From Now On is a happy-go-lucky belter on Al Green lines. Overall it’s an uplifting, warm and inviting slab of truth.

Performing Songwriter
November 2005

TOP 12 DIY PICKS:
Martha Redbone
Skintalk

Part Neville Brothers, part Aretha Franklin and part tribal pow-wow, Martha Redbone makes the most of her mixed African and Native American roots on Skintalk. You’ll go from a funky jam to a laid back R&B groove into totemic chanting without skipping a beat.

Opener “Hard Livin’” discusses the trials of modern life. Heavy percussion and ripping electric guitar accent the chorus as Redbone explains that despite everything “I’m glad to be alive”. “Talk About It” is slower and bluesy, allowing Redbone’s voice to dive deep into sultry lows and then float effortlessly into powerful highs. “Stick Wit Me” features a driving drum beat and funked-out electric guitars, while “Children of Love” adds Native American chanting and drumming to the mix.

On Skintalk, Redbone follows in the footsteps of recent Grammy winners Ozomatli, proving that distinct influences can come together and make relevant and thoroughly enjoyable music.

Echoes
March 2006
Skin She's In

MARTHA REDBONE LOVES THE FREEDOM THAT BEING AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST AFFORDS HER – AND GIVES PROPS TO FIVE OF HER FAVOUTITE FELLOW INDIE ACTS INTO THE BARGAIN. CHRIS WELLS GET THE LATTES IN AHEAD OF HER DEBUT LONDON SHOW.

Skin She's In Martha’s British fans have been emailing her, Having found and bought her albums, Home of the Brave and Skintalk, through CDBaby.com, they’ve been letting her know just how much they love what she’s doing. And Martha, bless her, has been mailing them back: she wanted to tell everyone about her upcoming Jazz Café show on March 2. Even though CDBaby advised her against it.

“They told me I’d be spamming their customers, dammit!” she says with mock horror “But I went and did it anyway, just as a one-off you understand – after all, they did e-mail me first. And y’know what? They all mailed me back. Every last one of them. That means so much to artists like me.”

This internet soul age has undoubtedly been a boon to the independent soul artist. Whereas once, when the major labels were looking elsewhere for black music’s cutting edge, virtually all of the unsigned acts would be kicked to the kerb, now they’re able to not only function, but to reach out to potential audiences anywhere on the planet. And Martha Redbone, for one, is extremely grateful for that.

“The mainstream doesn’t hold me down,” she observes. “All that stuff can be floating around at the top of the lake, for sure, but the most beautiful fish are to be found when you swim deeper.

“And a huge portion of that is because of the internet. It’s the modern equivalent of going to the public library and looking at the microfiche. Not many people would have bothered to do that, right? But now everyone goes on the net right at home. That’s cool because people have found us from all over the world, sometimes when they were looking for something else. We get a lot of that ‘cold calling’.”

Best Albums As we’ve documented in these pages before, the Kentucky-born, now NYC resident former Juni Morrison protégé, Redbone almost became a major label star at the end of the nineties, when she was the target of a bidding war provoked by the success of Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation…album. And while mismanagement cost her that particular break, her determination to come back strong with her own band, studio and albums has marked her out as a doyen of the American indie soul scene.

The truth is, of course, that artists like her – and Ledisi, Steve Harvey, Angela Johnson, Rahsaan Patterson, Frank McComb (and almost certainly by now Van Hunt) – are able to do just enough to keep all the balls in the air at the same time; the major player’s stranglehold on the various broadcasting and distribution usually limits what any indie artist can achieve under their own steam. But given any luck at all, the truly talented leftfield soul acts do still have a shot at living an acceptably fulfilling and financially rewarding life at the same time as creating and releasing music that they can feel proud of.

“I don’t even consider the major labels these days,” confirms Martha. “They are always considering me! People do sometimes say I should get a record deal, but I’m already making my music and putting it out, so why would I want to really need one? It’s my journey. And we are finding that we do get a lot of support from people who are really committed to their music. They are passionate about what they like…and they really hate the stuff they are not into.

“The gigs and the CD’s play off each other, but the hardest part is once the music is done and we are not able to get the exposure we would like. To do that right would take more money than we have. But we play out a lot and I think we shine the most during the live shows. I wish we could play for more than 90 mins, is all; I’d like to play for two hours or more, like the Clinton bands did. Maybe we’ll get to that one day.”

News from Indian Country 4/05

Martha Redbone’s Skintalk
Review by Sandra Hale Schulman

Three years ago when soul singin’ skin Martha Redbone released her debut album she said her “heart is going political. I used to just write about love and relationships, but I think my next record will definitely be more political and social oriented, now that I have a bigger platform to teach from. I’m having a lot of mixed feelings now, like what does success really mean to me, is it doing what I really want to do or is it being a number on a chart?”

Those questions have been answered in a sky-high way with her stunning new CD Skintalk. From the gorgeous cover photo of Martha showing both her Native and African American hipster urban roots, to the 14 tracks that glow with a heady brew of soul, R&B, and Native rhythms, Redbone has created music that is truly unique and deeply affecting.
Like her idol, Janice Marie, Redbone walks in both worlds, packing the best of both for her journey.

Opening track Hard Livin’ hits hard with the political punch she previously promised, with lyrics that speak of the grime of the city, the lack of faith in leadership, and just when it couldn’t get any worse her lover leaves her high and dry.
The angry song Mama hurts to the bone, as a young fatherless girl tries to ask her Mama why she’s so bitter about her life. The Mama snaps back, “Your name Oprah? Then leave me alone/ I don’t wanna talk about that/ Why Mama, Why Mama?” This is gritty stuff, carried along by a fade-out with greasy guitar riffs and soaring piano.

Martha The danceable urban beat continues on the track Medicine Man, but the lyrics could just as easily be dropped into any current Native artists song. “Some say he’s from an old time/ Drumbeat in the back of my mind/ Come gather round by the fire for the Medicine Man.”

Atlas cleverly mixes metaphors of a man, who like Atlas, carries the world on his shoulders but is really looking for someone to share the load of life and love with. Love is further in the air on the loping song Future Street, where Redbone takes an adult look at relationships, declaring that “silver bells and wedding rings/ don’t; mean a thing without that feeling.”

The the CD takes an abrupt Native turn on the track Children of Love that opens with pow wow drums and chanting from Dennis Banks and Gyasi Ross that dissolves into a slow funk, with Redbone asking why it’s so hard to learn the lessons of the past an give love when it’s straight from the heart.

Redbone has hit red pay dirt here, with a CD that is sure to take her career to new heights. All the songs were written and produced by Redbone and her partner in crime, Aaron Whitby.

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