Carly Harvey Kamama Do Good Records

The first question I have about Kamama (Do Good Records) from Washigton, D.C. blues singer Carly Harvey is, "Why isn't an album this good on one of the major blues labels?" Maybe that recognition will come in time, but for now we should enjoy the music on this very fine collection of 11 tunes.

Harvey mixes blues, soul, jazz, and Indigenous sounds (she has Native American heritage). Most important, this young woman can really, really sing, with a powerful voice that will cause every listener to sit up and listen closely. In addition to her powerful soulful vocals, she occasionally pays tribute to her Native American side by throwing in what she calls "Native Scat," an improvisational fusion of a traditional jazz scat with Native vocables. It works very well.

She introduces us to this form on the opening cut, "Native Scat," with Walking Eagle joining on guitar. That leads into an up-tempo blues, "Mean Old Woman," with plenty of horns backing Harvey, and blues star Joe Louis Walker turns in a hot guitar solo in his lone guest appearance.

Harvey's voice soars and projects plenty of emotion suitable for the title of our next song, a slow blues named "Misery." If by this point you haven't figured out that you are listening to one of the best blues singers around, this number will launch you onto the Carly Harvey bandwagon. Jonathan Sloane lays down a very nice guitar solo while Wes Lanich provides solid keyboard accompaniment. "She Ain't Me" has a steady, rhythmic mid-tempo beat, with shouting vocals from Harvey and strong horn accompaniment. Sloane again shines on guitar.

"Please Do That To Me" is a slow, jazzy blues as Harvey's vocals take on more of a sultry sound, with Doug Woolverton playing extremely tasty muted trumpet and nice piano from Daniel Clarke. Harvey comes in later with very fine scat singing. We get even more emotional vocals on the slow soulful blues, "Let Me Go," with Harvey working in Native scat to complement her soaring blues vocals. Another slow blues with tortured vocals is "Take Your Love," and Sloane again chips in a strong blues guitar solo.

"Kamama" goes completely native over its short 53-second length, with Harvey and Walking Eagle doing the Native scat while the latter provides the rhythm on a hand drum. A very nice change of pace at this point in the album.

Up next is "Human Too," a very powerful song about mistreatment and disrespect of humans with a different skin color. Annika Chambers and Dave Keller both help out on vocals on this incredibly wonderful and emotional song. Lines like "... would it matter more if we looked like you, indigenous people are humans, too. ..." really emphasize the meaning of the song, later adding "... children in cages are humans, too ..." That's intense and really makes us all wonder why.

"Worth Waiting For" is a loud, brassy question to that one-time special someone, with a nice jazzy bass solo from Mike Tony Echols before Harvey scats again and then lets her voice soar through the octaves more so than what seems humanly possible.

Kamama ends like it started, with the return of Walking Eagle, this time playing eerie flute while Harvey scats and plays hand drum.

Maybe by the time that Carly Harvey releases another album, she will already be a more recognizable name among the blues world. She has what it takes to be a star. In the meantime, please add Kamama to your blues library. You will play it over and over again.

 --- Bill Mitchell