• By JOHN WIRT
• Music critic
• Published: Jan 29, 2010

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Lady Antebellum
NEED YOU NOW

Following the breakout success of their self-titled 2008 debut, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood, aka Lady Antebellum, return with new songs sure to build on their already huge popularity. The country trio infuses Need You Now with maximum-impact hooks and choruses, heartfelt performances, seamless male and female duets and harmonies plus plain old fun. It’s a collection that record companies dream of, packed with potential hits.

Title track “Need You Now,” featuring a dramatic chorus, slide guitar, ever-flowing acoustic guitar strumming and poignant vocal interplay, follows country music according to the Traveling Wilburys. Released before this week’s appearance of the full-length CD, “Need You Now” spent five weeks atop Billboard’s country singles chart. Lady Antebellum’s outstanding songs keep coming with the sweet nostalgia of “American Honey,” vivacious Southern fun of “Perfect Day,” rock ’n’ roll-loving “Stars Tonight” and emotion-tinged “Hello World.”

Defining their destiny in spectacular style, Lady Antebellum co-produced and co-wrote most of this new album. It’s a triumph. 

Corinne Bailey Rae
THE SEA

The light pop-R&B sound of Corinne Bailey Rae’s hit, “Put Your Records On,” is mostly absent from The Sea, the British singer’s follow-up to the 2006 CD debut that made her an international star.

The darker, harder The Sea follows the 2008 death of Rae’s saxophonist husband, Jason Rae. Rae often sounds sad, hazy, adrift. Contrary to its title, “Love’s On Its Way” unreels in a haunted minor key. Rae’s grief is obvious in the softly rendered “I Would Like To Call It Beauty.” But other songs are upbeat, especially “Paris Nights/New York Mornings” and the driving “Paper Dolls.” In The Sea, mostly recorded in Manchester, England, and Rae’s home in Leeds, faster, louder songs tend to be bass- and drums-heavy, overwhelming to the point that the star gets sidelined in her own project. On the other hand, Rae achieves Jeff Buckley grace in “I’d Do It All Again” and Robert Plant-Led Zeppelin dreaminess in “Are You Here.” “Feels Like The First Time” weaves a seductive R&B groove complemented by Philly soul-style strings. And the simple completion of The Sea is a victory for a star on the rebound.

David Sanborn
ONLY EVERYTHING

David Sanborn’s second recording inspired by Ray Charles, his musical inspiration, and Charles’ celebrated sidemen, saxophonists Hank Crawford and David “Fathead” Newman, cultivates the blues roots of soul and jazz.

Sanborn opens with the record’s most extroverted piece, a swinging, big-band soul number that was Crawford’s signature piece, “The Peeper,” the sound of which is unmistakably true to Ray Charles. Sanborn interprets another soul-band swing tune with “Hard Times,” which Newman featured on his first solo album. Special guest James Taylor sings for Sanborn’s rendition of Charles’ classic, “Hallelujah, I Love Her So,” and husky-toned British neo-soul singer Joss Stone does a respectable job with Louis Jordan’s pre-rock ’n’ roll hit, “Let the Good Times Roll.” But organist Joey DeFrancesco is Sanborn’s most important collaborator for Only Everything. His Hammond B-3 solos define the record’s soul-blues-jazz milieu nearly as much as Sanborn’s sax.

Various artists
THE NEW JAZZ DIVAS

This National Public Radio-linked disc gathers recordings by 13 contemporary female singers for an overview of jazz singing today. Inevitably, the artists of decades past hover over the collection as various contemporary singers and their selections recall the brassy voices, understated voices, sly voices and stunning voices of classic vocalists Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and the still-active Barbra Streisand. A question of what music actually qualifies as jazz arises, too, but that’s a query for another day.

The New Jazz Divas includes famous singer-pianist Diana Krall weaving humid Peggy Lee atmosphere in Tom Waits’ “Temptation,” rising star Esperanza Spalding scatting through her Brazilian-based original, “I Adore You,” Catherine Russell evoking Bessie Smith’s blues with “Kitchen Man” and Ledisi’s strong jazz-meets-R&B take on “Round Midnight.”