Kathy Brown
The name Kathy Brown may not be familiar to all. Unless, that is, you like your soulful house music, in which case she is a shining star up there with the best vocalists of our time, singing (and, most often,writing/arranging) songs that prove very much the truth as once written by Berthold Auerbach:
“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Indubitably! I open here then not from the start, but on the pulse of now, with the release in October 2013 of Not This Time under the King Street Sounds umbrella. Written by Kathy Brown and Atsushi Asada, together here with producer Namy, we are given an affirmation of ascendence to cut ties with a ‘bad un’ and to move on up. I can’t express how much I loved this upon the very first listen, and I knew immediately it would become a much-treasured tune, both for the musicality and the message. It also has – as you will hear momentarily – one of the best vocal hooks ever.
It was the Original Mix I first heard, but at present I’m unable to find that on youtube. Now with most tracks that get released I’m able to choose my personal favourite as ‘my’ definitive mix; not when it comes to the divine Ms.Brown – there are always several. What I present to you now then is the Director’s Cut Classic Mix (aka the legendary Frankie Knuckles, who’d been wanting to work on one of her tracks for quite some time, and the acclaimed Eric Kupper).