Gina Brown - G's Spot (2013)

Gina Brown is an indie soul singer who works in and around New Orleans. Her show business entry point was as a radio announcer and from there she graduated to singing ads and jingles; encouraged, she took to the road as a performer and, as her web site shows, she certainly has no difficulty in finding work through the Southern states. Hardly surprising, Gina has a warm, husky, emotive soul voice with lots of appeal.

She cites her main influences as Ann Nesby, Roberta Flack, Regina Belle and Etta James. Surprisingly she omits Gladys Knight from the list ‘cos to this reviewer’s ears that’s who she sounds most like. Indeed the best cut on ‘G’s Spot’ is a cover of an old Gladys Knight tune – the dramatic ballad ‘Here I Am Again’ (the original was on Ms Knight’s 1973 Motown LP ‘All I Need Is Time’). Gina makes a great job of it and given the budgetary restrictions of indie soul, the production is full on. The set boasts a few other decent ballads (‘Everytime’ and ‘Show My Gratitude’) but the other main points of interest are a clutch of old school, brassy soul rollers of the type that used to come off the Malaco production line…. try the wonderfully titled ‘I’m A Lady – Not A Whoochie Mama’ or ‘Tell Somebody’ to hear what I mean.

Elsewhere, ‘Can’t Stop’ is an OK blues-based soul groove while ‘G Slide’ is a throwaway dance number that probably sounds better live than on CD. Some of the cuts come with second remixes and if you like raw, indie, Southern soul you could do worse than investigate here.