Cynthia Layne – Beautiful Soul

Coming direct to you from Indianapolis, IN. springs forth a very talented & wonderful breath of fresh air in the voice of Ms. Cynthia Layne & her forthcoming project “Beautiful Soul”. Produced by Rob Dixon & Reggie Bishop, this album carouses the areas of R&B, Neo-Soul, Jazz & Gospel & displays a unique sound from a bunch of talented musicians in her band…

Track Listing:
~ Be You
~ Kings & Queens
~ Letting You Go
~ Pimp Talk
~ I Can’t Change You
~ Will U Be There
~ All I Need
~ Beautiful Soul
~ Free Yourself
~ Funny
~ Mystery
~ We
~ Two & One
~ Letting You Go
   (extended play)
~ Nina Shouts

Personnel: Reggie Bishop (Keyboards/Synth Bass/Drum Programming/Piano), Rob Dixon (Saxophones/Keyboards), Kenny Phelps (Drums/Percussion), Eugene McGhee (Electric Bass), Joel Kelsey (Acoustic/Elec Bass), Gary Mielke (Elec Bass/Keyboards/Drum Prog.), Sandy Williams (Elec/Acoustic Guitar), Poncho Benton (Elec Guitar), P.J. Majors (Drums), Mike Hatchett (Trumpet), P.J. Yinger (Trumpet), Rich Dole (Trombone) & Nina Rae (Shout Out Girl). 

“Be You” opens into a mid-tempo, slow paced, neo-soul groove in much style as any previous cuts from R&B divas Erykah Badu & Jill Scott; In sequence comes an uplifted jam session, featuring Ms. Layne’s vocal gift in “Kings & Queens”.; Then “Letting You Go”…goes right into another R&B flavored composition, themed for a topic in relationships.

I turned up the volume when “Pimp Talk” slid in. I dug this one! Yes, It’s pretty tight & mellow, with a nice message to the players out there! I’m putting an “*” next to that one…

Then, suddenly comes a jazzy composition in track #5. A much different direction from the 1st 4 tracks. I had to adjust my listening mood from Neo-Soul/R&B sound to a much more laid back, sunday afternoon thought from Ms. Layne in “I Can’t Change You”. The background sax play from Rob Dixon is something to pay attention to, especially when his flavor sticks out on the track!

Then the electronica/house mix came through, with melody, in “Will U Be There”. Here’s a song from another musical genre that Ms. Layne was able to pull off with no problem. It further credits her ability to compose & dabble around different mixes! This track was HOT!

Title track “Beautiful Soul”, “Free Yourself”, & “Funny” returns to the grassroots of Neo-Soul, with a lot of soul & blues related textures. The same also goes with “We”, which also happened to receive my “*” for later playback! And finally, I thought “Nina Shouts” was way too cute! A pretty cool way to end the record by listening to Ms. Nina Rae, Ms. Laynes daughter, give a shout out to the entire crew & all!

I really enjoyed this CD for various reasons. Of course, the project brought out an aspect of a live club setting in the way the music was arranged & produced. Furthermore, It made me wonder what it would sound like to actually see Ms. Layne & her band play live! That’s the way I felt after listening to this piece in its entirety. Something truly different! She left me wondering…..

I like that!

Terrill J. Hanna
The Urban Music Scene