Music – Chá Pelé

I first heard this song in 2016 while I was in a True Blood watching binge.

At the end of Season 7 episode 6 – “Karma” – just before the credits began the rolling, you as the audience are introduced to the first few chords of this song and immediately I was entranced and could not stop listening.

The introduction is a beautiful combination of lots of different instruments, before you hear the soulful lyrics of Lady (which is a duo of Terri Walker and Nicole Wray) singing the first line “Ain’t no body worthier than you.”

This song has a lovely blend of jazzy tones mixed with RnB to create a unique almost nostalgic sound and nod to a previous era. It is a soulful rendition of the age old tale, what goes around comes around.

As soon as I heard it, I had to download and listen to it on repeat several times over. Once I find a song that I like, I tend to go through stages of playing it on repeat ??. I decided that I wanted to do an acoustic version to really pay homage to the original.

I was taking singing lessons in 2016/2017, my amazing vocal coach introduced me to a talented guitarist, Afrix, who was able to provide the acoustic backing track for me.

This video was recorded in 2018 where we had a gathering of a small group of women who were interested in finding out more about healthy living as well as a musical interlude!!

I received some amazing feedback which I felt so humbled by,I have only performed this song twice, once in an open mic night and the performance in this video. I will definitely be adding this to my portfolio for when I can start doing acoustic performances out and about…watch this space!!

I hope you enjoy ??❤️??

Original Karma – Lady

In Secondary School as part of my music class I was introduced to ‘Round Midnight – Composition by Cootie Williams and Thelonious Monk.

I instantly became connected to the soul and emotions in the lyrics. Adding the piano accompaniment just added another level, it was full of blues and even more soul.

When I finally listened to the Jazz version, I knew I had just experienced something I had not felt before. I finally understood the meaning of ‘feeling the blues’!

Due to the music taste of my step family as well, I started to to hear more from the like of Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, Miles Davies & Etta James etc. So much so, we had three cats called Mingus, Billie & Sisqo – you can guess which cat I named!!

Fast forward 15 years, during my vocal lessons, I was trying to find a song that was full of emotion with beautiful lyrics that I could gift as a wedding present. I remembered At Last, and wanted to be able to perform this if I could, so I rewrote some of the lyrics to reflect this.

Etta James has a voice that is full of raw emotion and has the ability to emote these feelings directly into your soul through her music. I hoped my version would also be able to provide similar levels of emotions.

Please watch on YouTube to see my version.

I hope you like it ❤️??