Charles Bradley

Soul man Charles Bradley is making his way to Australia at the tail-end of summer to lay some Brooklyn soul vibes on music lovers across the country!

A member of the Dunham Records family (an offshoot of Daptone Records, home to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings), Charles Bradley has been backed by Soul supergroups The Bullets and The Menahan Street Band, whose Make The Road By Walking was famously sampled in Jay Z’s Roc Boys. His unique brand of Soul music is of course highlighted by his exceptionally gravelly voice; the sometimes-pained words truly conveying a life well lived, just as soul music should be sung.

His January 2011 album No Time For Dreamers received full support from community radio stations PBS, RRR, RTR and 2SER due to its precise arrangements and classic songwriting. For Bradley the album is the culmination of a lifetime of paying dues, having nomadically laboured for decades at various day jobs from Maine to Alaska – singing and performing in his spare time – before re-settling in his hometown Brooklyn and eventually finding a musical home at Dunham. In his distinctively rough-hewn timbre one hears the unmistakable voice of experience – each note and gruff inflection a reflection of his extended, sometimes rocky, personal path. It’s only fitting that No Time For Dreaming’s producer Tommy Brenneck (who, in addition to being Menahan Street Band-leader, is a member of The Dap-Kings and The Budos Band) would recognize in Bradley a kindred musical spirit – a singer whose performances exude both raw power and poignant beauty.

More recently Charles Bradley was heard on Spin Magazine’s Nevermind tribute album Newermind, covering Nirvana’s classic Stay Away is a brooding style, completely removed from the original, stylistically but with a whole new slant on the raw power of the track.

Look out for Charles Bradley as he brings the classic soul sounds to a city near you, Summer 2012.