Amber Pocket Soul Vol. 1: six funky soul songs of small welcomes
Amber Pocket Soul Vol. 1 is thirty minutes of mellow vintage funky soul for an easy evening. It sits at 94 BPM with a subtle sixteenth-note swing: a round syncopated fingerstyle bass, dry compact drums with ghost notes, warm Rhodes chords, muted rhythm guitar and a little organ. An intimate, grainy male soul voice sings every song in relaxed conversational phrases, with a close, warm band sound around him.
We wrote six songs about small neighborhood acts of welcome, one each for welcome, connection, self-respect, repair, playfulness and belonging. A note under a sugar bowl says the soup is warm: "Come on in before it’s cold." Two neighbors share quarters at a laundromat after nine. A man shakes the dust from his good blue shirt and wears it home for no one's approval. A spare button waits folded in paper in an old coat pocket. Someone comes up the front walk laughing with a paper bag of peaches, and a screen door on a loose brass spring swings back to every hand. In the first song a guarded man learns from the one who waited up for him: "Some things are safe because they stay."
The picture is a set of original still paintings in gouache and oil pastel, amber lamplight with tobacco brown, faded coral and indigo, each chapter with its own adult cast and place. The sung words sit low in the frame in large cream letters, with a live waveform along the bottom.
Put it on for cooking, a slow Sunday or the walk home, and let the groove keep you company.
