Let The Music Play

We need some feel good music and we have that in a body of work that spans 60 years of easy swaying sounds from the good old Isley Brothers. Everything in the news is downright depressing from hurricane disasters to mass shootings followed by threats of nuclear war or the demise of healthcare. Pick any subject and you could probably find something going wrong. Music heals.  The Isley Brothers heal.

You know them because you have heard their song called Shout at every Wedding celebration that gets every drunk who can’t dance out on that dance floor. Or bop and weave to the song called It ‘s Your Thing do what you want to do. Then slow dance to their smooth hit called Between The Sheets or For The Love of You.  You can’t be angry about anything after you hear their stuff. There has to be generations of babies that were conceived while those songs were playing. What other band can you think of that has been on the top of the charts for six decades?

Ron Isley is now over 75 years old and has been performing since childhood. The key to their success is that they were capable to sing it all and they did. From Gospel to R & B to Country Western and Pop Music. Now there are just Ron and his brother Ernie who are the last remaining group members. Throughout the years they played with the best. At one time they asked then an unknown guitar player Jimmy Hendricks to play with the band.  He played and lived with them for 2 years. The brothers noticed and was in awe of Jimmy’s style of playing using his giant hand to play the guitar frets with 4 fingers while using his thumb to play the lowest thickest G string. Every string  moved simultaneously on his guitar. The brothers had an eye for talent.

In 1962 they released the song called Twist & Shout that inspired a whole new way of dancing and one year later their song became a huge hit for the Beatles. Paul McCartney says that if it wasn’t for that song the Beatles would have probably been an unknown band in England. The Isley Brothers helped to promote the career and talent of the famous guitar player Carlos Santana. Carlos brought to us all that fusion of Latin, African and Pop Music to audiences everywhere with his amazing guitar lead riffs. His wife drummer Cindy Blackman Santana proved that women are great spiders at the drums too. Listen to the new album called the Power of Peace where the Isley Brothers and Santana collaborate. This album has lots of great old songs done now with new arrangements that are refreshing. What could be better than the church song called Let There Be Peace on Earth this time set to a Latin beat? It makes you think of the deported families, the earthquake victims in Mexico and the people of Puerto Rico who just love to dance to their rhythms.

This album is truly a family affair with a wife on drums and other wives doing vocals while their famous husbands do what they do best too. Get lost in the music. You will feel better.