Paul McCartney once said “writing a good pop song isn’t easy,” but these days with home recording equipment, pre programmed beats and auto tune available, recording is easier than ever. So, huge credit must be given to Vanguard records for pairing Daphne Willis and her excellent girl-power pop songs with producer Tim Lauer and world class studio musicians for her sophomore release Because I Can, instead of taking the easy route because they could.
Recorded in her new home of Nashville, and mainly at The Metal Room with owner and session ace Shannon Forest on drums, joined by Tony Lucido on bass and guitarist Mike Payne, Willis and her songs are allowed to blossom to their full potential with real emotional depth and power as only real musicians can create. Superb horns, percussion, keys and backing vocals are sweetly layered throughout giving the album a glossy sophistication.
To quote the CD’s final track “Slow Burn”: “sometimes a slow burn is what it takes to make it last.” This album does exactly that from start to finish. Beginning with funky “Shake It Off,” and the moody “One By One,” Willis takes the listener inside the self empowerment internal dialogue of a young woman coming of age in a complicated world. All along the way she is pumping herself up to “Spit It Out” and “Do What You Want,” as the rocking tracks proclaim. Even in the lowest moment of the torch ballad “Sad,” you feel Willis is writing a treatise on the power of positive thinking delivered by her smokey alto and swinging melodic phrasing. Two guest appearances give the CD pleasant side trips, with Trevor Hall rapping on “Circumstances,” and Megan McCormick on “Weatherman,” a duet co-written with Willis featuring McCormick’s’ fiery guitar on a groovy love song that leaves you begging for more.
The album reaches its peak with “I Want To,” a rocker right out of the Toto and Journey 80’s playbook, without the Glee fakery , giving us the perfect title “Because I Can,” served up hot on a bed of real screaming guitars, real pounding drums, real wailing horns and real soaring vocals. Why? Because they could!
Daphne Willis – Because I Can –Vanguard Records
Originally Published in Innocent Words July 2011
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