(portaltaxi.net/music) – The original lead singer of the Kingsmen, Jack Ely (pronounced e-lee), has released his most recent LP album, a modern gospel record called “Love Is All Around You Now.” The record includes thirty six minutes of spirit-filled music from one of rock ‘n roll’s most influential rockers. “Love Is All Around You Now” is free from all pretense, every lyric penned with obvious earnestness and passion for the underlying meaning and mission. Composed with the complexity and humble intellectuality that characterizes much of the music written in the nineteen-sixties, some of the tracks on “Love Is all Around…” sound like folk anthems not unlike the best of Dylan or Baez, while others sound more like psalms of praise and worship no music listener will be surprised to hear in progressive churches even thirty years from now.
The record is not-at-all without backbone, however, which should not surprise fans of Ely himself, whose fame is largely garnered from the unstoppable, legendary classic rock single, “Louie, Louie,” recorded by his original band, the Kingsmen, in 1963. The record has elements of funk, as in the fourth track, “Since the First Time I Touched His Hem” (an allusion to Biblical miracles worked by Christ when afflicted persons reached out to touch his robe), as well as elements of groove, as in the title track, “Love Is All Around…,” and there are – naturally – elements of low, low-down blues rock, as in “See the Light.”
Content Curator Jerry Doby
Jerry is Executive Editor of The Hype Magazine (http://gethypeonline.com), a member of the Recording Academy (Grammy365), as well as a freelance publicist with more than 10 years experience in the urban music field. He is also a Featured Contributor for Yahoo! Voices (A&E) (http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/jdobypr/) In 2002, Jerry was recognized by the West Coast Hip Hop Hall of Fame for his contributions to the growth and education of independent artists.
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