You know what they say about the family that plays together. But what about the family that sings doo-wop together? It seems they not only stay together; they also end up on Daptone Records. At least, that’s where you’ll find Sha La Das, the Staten Island outfit that includes patriarch Bill Schlada and sons Will, Paul and Carmine, who mastered their craft in the traditional way — sitting on the family’s front stoop. You might have heard them singing backup on the late, great Charles Bradley‘s Victim of Love. Now you can hear them on their own, harmonizing tenderly and flawlessly over the sweet old-school soul and twangy R&B grooves that have long been Daptone‘s signature sound — and creating a sound that will appeal to everyone from young hipsters to old greasers and even Beach Boys and Mothers of Invention fans. Bonus points: The disc even has a Christmas song.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “I wanted to take the Sha La Das outside of the doo wop genre,” says producer Thomas Brenneck. “To take the whole vocabulary of doo-wop harmony and reapply it to soul — so you get super soulful harmonies along the lines of The Manhattans and The Moments.” From the opening atmospheric guitar strum of Open My Eyes via a walk along the Coney Island boardwalk catching the last glimpse of sunlight at dusk of Carnival to the sublime crescendo of harmonies of Love in the Wind, each song evokes a deeply personal yet universal yearning that none of us can escape. Quite simply every song yields magic.”
TRY & BUY:
