Years ago, while earning a bachelor's degree, I made friends with an interesting guy who majored in Political History and Sociology. He lived up in the foothills of the Siskiyou mountains and ever so often, we'd get together with other class mates to study certain topics of interest in class, kind of like a round table event, but he hosted it at his house and he usually cooked a fabulous meal and we stayed for hours dining on food and enjoying good company while listening to his library collection of boot-leg taped music concerts.
This friend of mine turned me on to Alice Russell, back around 2006, 2007. My junior and senior year of college.
I don't know if any of you have heard of her, but she has got a serious range of voice and while some people might say she sounds like Adele, I say she's not anything like Adele.
For one, the materials/lyrics she works with are more concerned with social issues, rather than personal issues, although she does sing some songs a long those lines.
What I find both fascinating and refreshing about Alice Russell is the wide range of instruments and styles of soul/jazz/blues type of music that she and her band mates use to make albums of music that I feel is not your ordinary type of British Soul.
I like her stuff. I wish I could share the songs I have on a private CD that my friend burned for me, but here is her YouTube Channel, if any of you want to check out her type of music.
Link to her channel at YouTube: ~~~~>>>>>>>
Alice Russell.
Here's a short clip from BBC's coverage of her venue performance for SXSW, back in 2009. Check it out. You might like her.