Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

One thing about Sharon Jones that's often overlooked: She may be the figurehead of today's retro-soul movement, but she was also there the first time around. Granted, Jones may not have been strutting around big stages the same time that Tina Turner was tearing up "Nutbush City Limits," but Jones...

By Jason Heller

March 11, 2010

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One thing about Sharon Jones that's often overlooked: She may be the figurehead of today's retro-soul movement, but she was also there the first time around. Granted, Jones may not have been strutting around big stages the same time that Tina Turner was tearing up "Nutbush City Limits," but Jones had many stints in small-time soul and funk acts over the decades. She brings that grit and depth to her work with the Dap-Kings, the note-perfect outfit that's helped propel her (as well as Amy Winehouse, who tapped the group as her backing band on Back to Black) to notoriety. Jones and company's new album, aptly titled I Learned the Hard Way, is due out next month. And while Jones has every right to covet the stage at this point in her life, anyone who's attended a Dap-Kings concert will tell you that she makes a habit of dragging audience members on stage to dance with her. Soul, after all, was made to be shared.

Jason Heller is a staff writer at Westword. He's the author of the book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded (Melville House/Penguin Random House), and has contributed to the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR.org. His work has won a Hugo Award and a Colorado Press Association Award.

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