Soot and Stars
I AM SOOT!
R.I.P. Charles Bradley
I first heard Charles Bradley when he was on a compilation that covered Nirvana songs. Here was a guy just starting his career in his golden years after being a background performer for the greats and doing a Soul cover of an iconic Grunge band. Charles wasn't a gimmick though but that song was a gateway that Soul had the potential to return at anytime with the purity it once had IF it had the right vessel. Charles was that vessel and while there were other murmurs of new life in the genre Charles was the most vital. He brought the feeling of Soul back into Soul. There was no minimalist chill shit here. He was either bursting with a horn blasting funk jam or belting out a ballad that was anything but tender. His ballads were an aching aural canvas. You were either moving externally or internally with Charles Bradley and there was no middle ground. There's so much to post with Charles but my favorite performance was this intimate as intimate gets stripped down performance of Charles giving us a gift. A real story was told through an artist that was as painful and cathartic for him to sing as it was for us to hear. It rarely gets this real. Charles already had me feeling sadness before this day but it was also healing as well. Hopefully this will be the right mix of sadness and healing to take this loss. R.I.P. Charles! <3
Heartaches and Pain