Markey Blue Ric Latina Project – Blue Eyed Soul
SoulOSound Records SOSR105
12 songs – 46 minutes
Need a break from all of the stress of the real world? The honey-voiced Markey Blue and guitarist Ric Latina have a treat for you. Based in Nashville where they’re partners in life as well as on stage, the husband/wife team have assembled dozens of their closest friends to deliver this deeply romantic, 12-tune chill pill.
Markey – a former stand-up comic and Las Vegas showgirl – and Ric – a Rhode Island-born picker who’s worked with several superstars across the blues and country spectrum – have been producing music that’s filled the airwaves and soundtracks of hit TV shows on several networks and full-length feature movies, too, since forming a partnership several years ago. And they outdo themselves here, delivering an intimately romantic, laid-back set of blues-soaked R&B that’ll have you cuddling with your sweetie all night long.
It’s a star-studded affair that includes appearances from legendary Stax and Blues Brothers guitarist Steve Cropper, sax player Dana Robbins and backing vocals from multiple BMA winner Shaun Murphy and Lauren Anderson, too.
Ric handles all six-string duties here with Randy Coleman, Sean O’Brian Smith, Truman Virden, John Marcus, Anthony Joiner and Jake Willemain on drums and Dion Clay, David Northrop, Alphonso Wesby, Marcus Finnie, Tim Smith and David “Smitty” Smith on bass. Mark T. Jordan, James Sonnentag, Shannon Wickline and Chris Tuttle hold down keys along with Markey, who sits in on two cuts. Rounding out the lineup are horns from Chris West, Jim Williamson, Miqui Gutierrez and Scott Ducaj with Vickie Carrico, Anna White and Tracey Palfalvi lending their voices, too.
Latina’s silky-smooth solo to open “Crazy Without You” sets the mood perfectly before Markey’s rich soprano echoes the emotion of being separated from the one man she adores. But even without him, she still feels him watching over her whenever she’s blue. It’s driven home by Ric’s stellar, single-note fretwork, which shines like a jewel on everything that follows.
A slow shuffle drives the sweet “Raining Down on Me (Ooh Lat Da Da).” The singer’s at the end of a love affair, but she remains upbeat, believing she’s better off this way because there’s no use looking back at the way things used to be.
“So Much” opens with a light and beautiful vocal refrain before Markey expresses her deep love for the guy who picks her up when she’s down or reaching out at night by phone when she’s alone. The tempo picks up and Cropper sits in on “Baby I’m Cryin’,” which finds the singer in the depths of despair after her lover leaves without saying a word as he goes searching for a better place. One listen will leave you yearning to take the lady in your arms and give her a comforting hug.
Fortunately, the mood brightens as “Yes I Do” finds the singer “wanting to make you my baby…seeing you, me together…always and forever” after seeing him for the first time. The pace quickens and the subject darkens again in “Set My Heart Free” as Markey begs for release from a controlling guy as she complains she isn’t a puppet dancing on his strings before the deep-blue “When I Close My Eyes,” which finds memories of her man and visions of him fill her mind every time she does, keeping her from saying goodbye. The theme continues in “Can’t Let You Go” before the singer comes to terms with the separation – and the lonely, lonely game they’ve been playing with one another – in “Me Missing You.”
The upbeat “Come On” changes everything as Markey’s now soaring high, taking it to the top and feeling like the sun’s shine bright as she states it’s her lucky day. It flows into the celebration of a relationship, “With You,” before the languorous “What Am I Gonna Do” brings things to a sweet close despite the singer speculating about how she’ll handle things if and when she and her man separate for the final time.
Bittersweet, sure, but a pleaser on all counts.
