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• Friday, December 14, 2007 06:23 AM

  Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

  I like Amy Winehouse, but at the end of the day, the thing I like best about her record is that hard, retro-soul sound that came from her backing band, Brooklyn's own Dap Kings. I doubt that her music would have been as interesting if she sang over standard-issue contemporary R&B tracks. But real horn charts? Real funky drumming? That stuff still has the power to knock me on my ass - decades after it became "passe," as James Hannaham said.

  Bottom line, Amy Winehouse has talent, but if you wanna hear the real thing check out Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - they're the real deal. I went to their record release at the Apollo earlier this year and it easily one of the best shows I've seen all year. So if you're dying to see Amy WInehouse, you can get your analog soul fix from Sharon Jones - she's touring right now and early next year.

  Oh yeah, and if the Dap Kings "lived through" the 70s as Hannaham claimed, it was as children, since Gabe Roth and company are basically a bunch of late 30-something hipsters, and not an original, old school soul outfit like Hannaham seems to imply - which makes their fluency in the idiom all the more amazing.

  —BabyGrumpus Read BabyGrumpus's other letters
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