Shae Fiol

"You must have heard of Shae Fiol already, if not, give her a listen. She has a very charming, gaelic voice and she can play guitar beautifully. She is a power house live and her debut album Catch A Ride is an eclectic blend of soul and folk. I liked it a lot, not to mention the lady tore down SOB’s at a Sol Village show months back.” - Ann Marie Collymore
http://soulafrodisiac.wordpress.com/2009/09/


- Ann Marie Collymore - soulafrodisiac

Portland Oregon, native who now calls NYC home has been on the live music scene in the Big Apple for a while. This marks the debut offering from the singer/songwriter/guitarist. Upon a first play it initially reminded me of the free-flowing pop, latin infused stuff Matt Bianco, Basia and Swing Out Sister used to put out in ’80’s. Throw in some folk and reggae touches and you have a easy on the ear collection that defies categorization.

Certainly having the likes of Stuart Mathewman (member of Sade and producer of Maxwell, Sweetback etc) and Rockwilder chipping in with production chores doesn’t hurt. In fact, it is the Mathewman produced, mellow, melodic “Lonely, Lovely” that provides my favorite cut on the album. Rockwilder, for his part is unrecognizable from his hip-hop guise on subtle, brassy reggae/house pop affair, “King”.

Elsewhere songs such as percussive, earnest pop of “Macon St. Love”, the latin infused “Let Down” the light, breezy title track and the feel good, catchy “It’s Not Easy” with Shae’s light, tuneful vocals out front provide a nostalgic look at era when artists and their record labels didn’t insist on sounding like everyone else.
http://soulmusic.com/cdreviews.html - By Jeff Lorez Copyright (c) 2009 by Soul Music.com

I am a YouTube junkie. Certifiably addicted to the website. I'm just glad the Internet wasn't available to the public in the 1980s. Because if it was, I'd still be living in my mother's house looking at old Earth, Wind & Fire videos and watching Saturday Night Live clips. Since I'm all grown up, I'm disciplined enough to pull myself away from YouTube long enough to get some work done. As a matter of fact, YouTube videos often come in handy when I have to review work by an artist with whom I am unfamiliar.

Shae Fiol is such an artist. Often people post videos of artists such as Fiol performing live in concert. The audio might not be the best and the visuals sometimes give amateurish a good name. However, when the video is decent, these YouTube postings are a way to learn if these performers sound as good live as they do in the studio.

By the time I got around to checking out the many videos that fans have posted of the Portland, Oregon native, I had listened to Catch a Ride long enough to realize that the singer, guitarist and songwriter sounds pretty good on the record. However, YouTube still had something to teach me about Fiol.

There was a video of Fiol playing an acoustic guitar version of "Let Down," one of the standout songs on this very good record, while standing on a street corner in Bed-Stuy (Fiol has since relocated to New York). You can hear cars with radios blaring and buses that stopped long enough to drop off and pick up passengers before driving off. The viewer hears it all, and so - I must assume - does Fiol. However, she does not betray the slightest bit of distraction, and after a while I was toning the noise pollution out and focusing solely on Fiol's vocals, lyricism and musicianship.
On Catch a Ride, there are no buses and cars with sound systems blaring to stand between Shae Fiol and her audience. The first thing that listeners will notice is that Catch at Ride is an incredibly balanced record. There is a nice mix of mid-tempo tunes such as the aforementioned "Let Down," and the sensual "Embrace." Back to back ballads, pensive "A Woman's Presence" and jazzy "Lonely, Lovely," are followed by the socially relevant up-tempo song "It's Not Easy."
By time the listener gets to the electronica-funk jam "King," it becomes clear that Shae Fiol is not your average singer/songwriter with a guitar. She is an artist who is equally adept at making her listeners lean in close to listen to her pained lyrics on "A Woman's Presence," and have them dancing in their seats while listening to "King." And that is quite a combination.
http://www.soultracks.com/shae-fiol-catch-a-ride-review - Howard Dukes

Hey SoulTrackers, the time has come! After a month of receiving nominations from you and having 2,000 soul music artists and industry people narrow the choices down, we finally have named our finalists for the 2009 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards, the world's most popular awards celebrating independent soul music! There were so many quality artists it was a tough job, but our committee narrowed it down to seven finalists in each category.
And between October 23 and November 8th, SoulTrackers will be voting for this year's winners. If you are on our email list, you'll receive your personal ballot by email on October 23. If you're not on our list, sign up at the top left hand corner of this page and you'll receive a ballot by email. Only one ballot is allowed per email address.
This year's SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards will be broadcast on December 7th at 8:00 p.m., hosted by our good friend Jodine Dorce of Jodine's Corner. Stay tuned and we'll tell you all of the places you'll be able to hear the awards show.
And this year's awards will have a special purpose. This year we have adopted Detroit's Cornerstone Schools, a series of three urban schools that have become a national model for how to education our children. 95% of Cornerstone students graduate from high school and each student begins musical training in third grade. So for each ballot cast in this year's Awards voting, SoulTracks will donate $1.00 to Cornerstone Schools. So every person who takes the time to vote among the deserving artists will also be helping a young student's education.
Here are this year's Awards finalists (all categories are for independent artists only, except for the Major Label Album of the Year):

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Chester Gregory
Darien
Jesse Boykins III
Kimberly Nichole
Melinda Doolittle
Shae Fiol
The Revelations feat. Tre Williams

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Calvin Richardson - Facts of Life: The Soul of Bobby Womack
Darien - If These Walls Could Talk
Eric Roberson - Music Fan First
Foreign Exchange - Leave It All Behind
Leela James - Let's Do It Again
Maysa - Metamorphosis
Various Artists - Silky Soul Music: An All-Star Tribute to Frankie Beverly/Maze

SONG OF THE YEAR

Calvin Richardson - Woman's Got To Have It
Eric Roberson - The Power That Kisses Hold
Eric Roberson & Lalah Hathaway - Dealing
Foreign Exchange - Daykeeper
Leela James - Baby I'm Scared of You
Maysa - Grateful
Tortured Soul - Did You Miss Me?

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Ali Ollie Woodson
Calvin Richardson
Darien
Eric Roberson
Rahsaan Patterson
Russell Taylor
Ty Causey

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Choklate
Leela James
Maysa
Oleta Adams
Syleena Johnson
Wayna
Yahzarah

MAJOR LABEL ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Anthony Hamilton - The Point of It All
Chrisette Michele - Epiphany
Ledisi - Turn Me Loose
Mary Mary - The Sound
Maxwell - BLACKsummers'night
Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
Will Downing - Classique
.
Posted October 18th, 2009 by administrator
- Soul Tracks

I love being turned on to new music and being introduced to Shae Fiol has been a true pleasure. Shae Fiol is a composer, arranger, guitarist, lyricist, song-writer, and vocalist, and her music transcends the industry’s confines to any particular genre. Her new album, Catch a Ride, is available now and the highlight is "Shae's lovely voice -- bringing genuine depth to the tunes." Here's Lonely Lovely which was produced by Stuart Matthewman of Sade, Maxwell, and Sweetback acclaim. It's a lovely guitar led track with all the percussive accoutrements you're used to from Matthewman! Check out the video below of her remixing God is Real live onstage with India.Arie


Shae Fiol - Lonely Lovely

POSTED BY DJ RAHDU
http://bamalovesoul.blogspot.com/2009/08/shae-fiol-lonely-lovely.html - Bama Love Soul