Soul music, when done correctly, will touch you right down to your… ahem… soul. Anyone can repurpose the Soul and R&B formulas and create something that vaguely resembles the sound of Soul, but it isn’t Soul if it doesn’t have the heart or the passion to affect the emotions of the listener. For the music to really mean something, everything has to be ‘right’: the singer, the song, the arrangement, the production, the band dynamics, etc. However, one must not confuse ‘right’ with ‘perfect’ – they are two different things. Soul music has to have ‘feel’, which doesn’t always come from perfection. For a song to have the right ‘feel’, it has to contain a certain amount of magic… and that magic comes from the human soul.

Bloomington, Indiana’s Durand Jones & The Indications is a band that understands Soul music from the inside out. The group also knows that Soul is not one dimensional – it can be funky like James Brown’s “Sex Machine”, as sweetly sad as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “Ooo Baby Baby”, and as passionately joyful as The Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”. While Durand is the focal point of that band, drummer Aaron Frazer is more than just the man that provides The Indications’ backbeat. Frazer is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist loaded with talent… and a whole lot of Soul. Since not all of Frazer’s musical ideas could fit on albums by his main band, the only way for him to get them out was to record them on his own… and the world is now a better place because of it.

2021’s INTRODUCING ANDY FRAZER is a soul-stirring collection of songs that are driven by Frazer’s falsetto vocals, which adds an extra emotional layer to the music featured on the album. Produced by Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), the album blends a modern Neo-Soul sound with lovingly constructed songs that delve the depths of emotion while also having a whole lot of fun. While the album initially hits you in the heart and soul, your entire body will fall prey to the music in no time at all. Tracks like “Over You”, “Bad News”, “You Don’t Wanna Be My Baby”, “Can’t Leave It Alone”, “Have Mercy”, and “Love Is” travel down different soulful avenues and are loaded with a passion for real Soul music and emotional connection. This is an album that will stay with you long after the final note fades into the ether. And it will inspire you to hit the ‘play’ button over and over again…