Reviewed by Harry Kaplan
At the risk of sounding like an elitist asshole, there are times when you eat food and drink wine together that the flavors are elevated to a level that had has never been experienced. Similar also to any flavor profiles put together that create something that is incredible and completely out of this world. That is the experience I had when I heard Brigitte DeMeyer and Will Kimbrough singing together on Mockingbird Soul. Their voices mix together to create something that is unimaginable and incredible. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Brigitte and Will should equal two together but they equal maybe a four or a five. Something so sublime and heavenly, I have never heard anything quite like it. It gave me goose bumps listening to Mockingbird Soul.
Although they have been performing together for 6 years or so, this is their first official release together. What took you so long? That doesn’t matter anymore, they finally went ahead and did it. And thank goodness they did. Although the official releases date isn’t until January 27, 2017, this will clearly be one of the top albums of next year. I don’t know a lot of things but that I can say for certain. This album has all of the elements of a classic; superb writing, great instrumentation, and singing that takes Mockingbird Soul to another level. Talking about the instrumentation. It is almost sparse with acoustic guitars, upright bass, and some light drums. The perfect accompaniments to DeMeyer’s and Kimbrough’s heavenly voices.
So let’s talk about the sum of the parts. Will Kimbrough started his musical career as a founding member of Will And The Bushmen, a popular college band in the eighties. He went on to form the band Bis-quits. Kimbrough is also an esteemed producer, producing albums by the likes of Rodney Crowell, Todd Snider, among others. Brigitte DeMeyer grew up in Southern California and has released six solo albums since 2001.
This collection of 12 songs are musical bliss from DeMeyer and Kimbrough. All 12 numbers are sparse with instrumentation. But that adds to the beauty of these songs and puts more of the focus on their voices. Everything (Track1) is a perfect example. This is a perfect duet where DeMeyer and Kimbrough sing the words of this love song in unison. The voices melding together like fine silk. This song can make a grown man cry as I can testify to. Mockingbird Soul (Track 5) starts off like an old blues number from the 30s or 40s with some nice slide guitar work which transitions nicely into DeMeyer’s sultry voice. Any fan of good music will want this in their collection. It is a must have.