Music Review: Sweet Angel - Another Man's Meat On My Plate - Page 2

Judging by her first recording, Another Man's Meat On My Plate, that's not the case with Sweet Angel. Not only does she apparently have musical talent to spare, she's got the strength of personality and character needed to make that talent come alive when she performs. There are plenty of people who can sing, and there are plenty of people who can play musical instruments, but there are very few people who have that extra quality that  compels every eye in the house to focus on them when they walk on stage and begin to play.

Listening to the way Sweet Angel delivers her material on disc, it's easy to see her on stage. You've heard of performers who make each person in their live audience feel as if songs are sung to them personally; that's rare enough, yet Sweet Angel somehow manages to accomplish that on disc. Perhaps it's her choice of material, or that she is without affectation and you just know that what you hear is what you get. Maybe it's her matter-of-fact delivery that makes her sound like she's someone you could just as easily sit and talk with as watch on stage.

Whatever it is, she breaks down that invisible barrier between audience and performer that is so key to making heartfelt music like soul or R&B come to life. So it doesn't matter if she's singing slow and soft as on "Easy Loving You," or laying it on the line for some ex in the hard driving title track "Another Man's Meat On My Plate." (I just have to say I don't think I've heard a better song, with better lyrics or title for a woman to sing in a long time than this track. It was written by a man, Sweet Angel's husband/producer Mike Dobbins, making that notion that even better.)

There are a lot of performers that you might acknowledge for great voices or extraordinary musicianship, but their music and songs are forgettable. To my mind that means the person has cared more about themselves than the song that they perform. That's not the case with Sweet Angel; she's putting all her energies into selling the song and not only does it make the material all the more powerful, in the end it makes her more memorable.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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