Product Description Martha Redbone's debut album "Home Of The Brave" is a stunning collection of songs that heralds the arrival of a true heavyweight singer/songwriter in the fashion of a Stevie Wonder or a young Prince. Weaving tales of love lost and found ("Say You Love Me", "Someday Well Be Friends" ,"Liar") with reflections on life's struggles ("Vineyard", "Underdog", "Perfect Life") and how we cope in the modern world ("Free", "Sarsaparilla") Martha Redbone finds ways to make us laugh and cry, think and sigh. Her uniquely flexible voice, reminiscent of soul legends Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan one minute and song stylists like Sly Stone or Annie Lennox the next is truly captivating and is perfectly balanced by the warm and human production, that relies as much on great musicianship as it does beats and bleeps, giving this album a highly original sound - both retro cool and ultra modern all at the same time. The depth of intelligence and humanity displayed by Martha is only matched by her wit and energy. This is an album you will listen to time and time again always finding new ideas
and better dance moves! A wondrous achievement. Review "A diagram of the American dream, infused with equal parts folksy guitar strum, Hendrix swagger and Stevie Wonder funk. Superstar." -- Pittsburgh City Paper May 25th 2002"Home of the Brave" weaves hip-hop beats, indigenous percussion and gospel influences into an ingenious aural tapestry." -- Music Connection Magazine March 23rd 2002"If there were any justice this emotional powerhouse of a singer would be up there on the charts." -- All Music Guide Feb 17th 2002"Stunning disc. A sharply drawn, wonderfully human collection of material. A true original...the kind of artist who sets trends." -- Billboard Magazine March 9th 2002"Swells, sweeps and reminds you of the best U2, Marvin Gaye and Al Green...your eyes sparkle, your hips move.." -- Dayton Impact Weekly May 16th 2002An innovative blend of funk-tinged rock, R&B and pop that points to a pure music-making philosophy: -- Savoy Magazine July 2001Martha may be our next torchbearer of genuine rhythm & blues. She's the real deal. -- GodsOfMusic.com October 2001She's sure got pipes and her blend of funk and soul is polished to a brilliant shine. -- The New Yorker November 1999 About the Artist Every once in a while, you meet a woman of inimitable style. The kind of woman for whom clothes are less a statement than an artist's palette. The kind of woman whose best accessory is her smile. Martha Redbone is that kind of woman. Every once in a while, you hear a voice you can't forget. It's the angel whispering in your ear at the moment when you are most discouraged. It's the bird's song that flits by you, the moment when you realize that despite all your doubts and cynicism, you've once again fallen in love. It's the throaty, Bacall-like purr that is telling a very dirty, albeit very clever, joke next to you in your favorite bar. Martha Redbone has that kind of a voice. It's not often that you hear music that sounds like it was crafted not in a studio, but at the dinner table. Music that was cooked up at a dinner party where the guests included Sly Stone and Prince, Roberta Flack and Al Green. The kind of party where Joni Mitchell stops in for a cocktail and Minnie Riperton goes straight for the dessert, something sweet. Martha Redbone makes that kind of music: not what soul music was or is, but what it will be. The great intellectual and race man of our time, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, once said that "the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line." In a country like the U.S. , where there is so much focus on black and white, one might say that the problem with Martha Redbone is that she colors outside of the lines. Her caramel colored skin bespeak a multi-racial history, but it's not the one you might expect. Her mother is Native American -- Blackfoot with a little Choctaw thrown in. Her father was black American, with Native ancestry as well. You can hear it in her music, something so rare in a country so young -- heritage, roots that go back for centuries. She took her name from this heritage. "Redbone is a southern term for being black and Indian," Martha explains. "I grew up being teased and about it. Black was beautiful when I was growing up, but where did that leave me? I embrace Redbone now as my own definition of beauty." Martha Redbone grew up in New York and Kentucky. An unlikely combination that you can hear in her flow: the staccato melodies of the city, mixed with the easy, wide-open praise song of a country choir. Once an aspiring Picasso, she studied at New York's prestigious School of Visual Arts. She moved to London, got her heart broken and decided to channel the feelings through music instead of art. An interview with a "vampire" led to an introduction instead -- to Martha's songwriting partner, producer Aaron Whitby. Redbone and Whitby have been a team ever since. A body in motion tends to stay in motion and it's been nonstop ever since. Martha Redbone was mentored by legendary musician, Walter 'Junie' Morrison, who was an original member of the Ohio Players and later, Parliament Funkadelic. Now a sister to the funk, she sang background vocals on the Mothership reunion album with George Clinton. In the immortal words of Tribe Called Quest, can Martha Redbone kick it? Yes, she can and she's got a publishing deal with Warner Chappell to prove it. Her lyrics capture, like fireflies in a jar, the bright moments in life that we're often too busy to notice: "hello, my love, looks like i'm home again. same ol', same ol' working day to day. my life is a book that's somehow missing the last page nothing new happens, nothing new happens... but after work, here comes the happy hour and all i'm dreaming of is seeing you, my favorite picture is slowly coming into view in the clear again. now, you're near again." Martha Redbone decided to title the album after the last line of the national anthem, "land of the free and home of the brave." Brave was a reference to Native Americans. But while the founding fathers called America, 'home of the brave', for more than 200 years, it was anything but. "It's a hard thing to do these days, to follow what you believe in," sh See more
