Shari Puorto - My Obsession

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2015
Time: 44:43
Size: 102,7 MB
Label: Little Lightning Productions
Styles: Blues
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. It's a Damn Shame - 4:08
 2. Home of the Blues - 3:33
 3. Six Months Sober - 2:55
 4. Sugar Daddy - 3:50
 5. My Obsession - 3:56
 6. Old Silo Road - 3:55
 7. Workin' the Room - 2:52
 8. Better Left Unsaid - 3:44
 9. What's the Matter With the World? - 3:20
10. All About You - 3:51
11. Turned to Stone - 4:39
12. When a Man Loves a Woman - 3:54

It is always good to come across an album that, on first listening and all subsequent plays, holds your interest right through from beginning to end, and this certainly qualifies on that score, from the early 70s rock sound of the introduction to the otherwise funky blues of ‘It’s A Damn Shame’ to the closing notes of the oh-so soulful cover of Percy Sledge’s ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ 44 minutes later. Shari is now based in Los Angeles, and although she is probably best categorised as a blues artist, she has that Muscle Shoals approach down pat, with a couple of detours into country too. She is a powerful vocalist and writes some good songs too – all apart from that closing item are her own. Mind you, she does have Barry Goldberg as co-author on eight tracks, and the calibre of musicians helping out on this set includes the likes of keyboards players Barry, Jim Pugh and Mike Finnigan, and guitarists Johnny Lee Schell, Jimmy Vivino and Steve Fister, all highly respected names. This is most definitely Shari’s album though, with her coming over all sexy on ‘Sugar Daddy’, rocking out soul-wise like The Rolling Stones on ‘Six Months Sober’, telling us her vital statistics with a smile on the title track (well, OK, her shoe size) and dipping beautifully into Americana on the moving ‘Old Silo Road’. ‘Working The Room’ is one to get the crowd up on a Saturday night, ‘Better Left Unsaid’ is wistful retro-soul with that Muscle Shoals touch, ‘What’s The Matter With The World’ has a New Orleans tinge, and ‘All About You’ is a controlled, steadily building blues. ‘Turned To Stone’ is a fine country number with a very slight tinge of gospel and beautiful lap steel guitar by Johnny Hawthorn.
All in all, this comes highly recommended! More please, Shari, and on behalf of Flyin' Shoes Review,  I do hope you get the footwear you want.
Norman Darwen (www.bluesrockmusic.com)

My Obsession