Curtis Harding

Curtis Harding is a vessel through which we have the joyous, glorious sounds of the classic soul of the '60s come gushing to our contemporary music scene with great gusto. Soul is not the only thing that comes through. There is also classic R&B, a bit of psychedelia, some vintage rock, and a whole lot of Sly Stone that comes with it to form a well-rounded, full-on experience of an era. Harding's gift is not that he can channel all the right vibes of a period but that he makes it sound fresh and clear for contemporary audiences. He captures its rich layers, the fat bass, the big drums, the zany brass, the chugga chugga guitar, and the powerful backing vocals in a pitch-perfect way, all handled with due respect as opposed to being treated like an old time sound frozen in amber.