Ndidi O’s latest album titled Simple Songs for Complicated Times is a soulful uplifting listen with a powerful message about the life choices women sometimes have to make. The thematic song cycle deals with the women of the world who choose their own course to life instead of settling for domestic tranquility. Heady subject matter indeed but in Ndidi O’s delicate phrasing and raw emotional power you listen more intently to what she is saying. The album was recorded at Steve Dawson’s Henhouse Studio in Nashville with Dawson adding his signature guitar and pedal steel playing to the record along with the rhythm section of Sam Howard (bass) and Gary Craig (drums) and Chris Gestrin (keyboards). Khari McClelland, Dawn Pemberton and Keri Latimer add backing vocals. Highlights from Simple Songs for Complicated Times include the swampy Gospel groove of “Get Gone” about leaving behind toxic people, the steady and sultry “Ode to Death”, the soulful “Light On”, the funky and percussive “So Glad”, the bluesy kiss off “Don’t Come Back”, the gentle ballad “In May”, “Too Late” about being middle age in a culture that only values the young and the gritty tale of a single mom “Working Girl’.
Black Hen Music
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