2019 – Lauren Anderson Music
By Phillip Smith; Feb. 15, 2020
Won’t Stay Down, the latest release from Lauren Anderson is a powerful five-track, all-original EP, which wonderfully showcases her soulful vocals and gifted song-writing chops. Anderson’s genre-bending blueprint here is a sweet blend of country, soul, rock, and blues. Providing the instrumentation behind her knock-out voice, is an amazing group of musicians consisting of guitarist Jimi Greene, bassist Hutch, drummer John Rodrigue, and William Adkins on keys.
Anderson beautifully sings breakup song, “Too Little, Too Late” with a delicate finesse. Dripping with emotion, the song features a wonderful organ accompaniment from Adkins. It’s such a lovely song. Hutch and Rodrigue create a cool infectious groove to run through the center of “Won’t Stay Down”. It takes a hold of me fast. Emmanuel Echem and Kiran Gupta add a smooth extra layer to “Cake”, a funky jazz number with an Amy Winehouse vibe. This one is my absolute favorite. Anderson continues to captivate me with “Wild and Free”. With Greene ripping it up on guitar and Adkins hammering the keys, it’s one hell of a rockin’ jam to close this record out with.
Anderson definitely packs a lot of punch into this recording. Won’t Stay Down is definitely a ‘keeper’.
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