I must confess that I've always loved classic Motown. And I just recently (I know, I've been living under a rock) discovered the lovely and talented Joan Osborne. So without further ado:

Thanks for sharing, Raptor  .

I'll have to listen to some of them later. I'm familiar with the song "ain't no sunshine" and I've heard the term/genre Motown used before, but I've never been exactly sure of what makes Motown, Motown  .

Keep in mind that recording in a studio, where you layer the instruments and balance the levels to the desired result, plus get to redo your vocals until you achieve the desired "take"...

v.s. performing live with a live sound system where there is a mix but things still lack the analog tape "warmth" of classic recording...

is comparing apples and oranges.  Plus, the singers used in that film, which was a tribute to The Band,  weren't the ideal selections for the songs they were given (song style, song key, vocal range written for someone else).

This is also why being a cover musician is more difficult than being an original musician.  Originals let you have your sound, with songs that are tailored to you and your style.  Covering music means you have to be able to perform in the styles of many other people (if you're approaching it the traditional way).

As an example, these people in the following videos aren't "the best of the best possible singers to find for the Motown material, within their country", just groups of people in their local areas that decided to work together (with a limited size band covering the orchestra-sized group from records, taking liberties in the arrangement to play to their smaller-sized strengths) to come pretty close doing it live, which is a lot harder than in the studio.











So imagine who could be found for the "ideal remakes" of Motown classic if such an undertaking was done.  Of course they wouldn't be out to take away your or my favorite version from history, but they could do justice to the songs if they had the right production behind them to do the material (for them) properly (not trying to do a range of styles), and not as a live money-making venture they financed out of their own pockets.

I feel the music of Motown and Stax is wonderful and should be celebrated, starting in its classic form.

The master improvisational bassist James Jamerson's sound of flatwound strings (that never ever got changed) on a 62 P bass (The Funk Machine), with Marvin Gaye's various vocal tracks being improvised as well.  Sometimes they just captured moments instead of trying for overly produced parts back in the Motown days.  This is why Jamerson had trouble finding work near the end of his life where studios wanted him to play exact parts that they wrote instead of letting him improvise his way through entire songs (knowing where the chord changes were).



This guy does some very nice covers (accurate reproductions) of the bass where it's just his instrument you hear to the original tracks, Jamerson's original improvised studio bass is removed.  This guy uses a foam muting pad behind his hand to help duplicate the "deadness" of Jamerson's old strings that he insisted on using.

Very nice.  One is a classically trained operatic tenor accompanied by a full orchestra and the other is just a singer with a small acoustic ensemble.  A difference in style perhaps but not in content.  I enjoyed both and hope you did as well.   

Wait .  .  .  you, ". . . grew up in a classical music house. . ." but you hang around here with us.      Seems a bit of a non sequitur.  Its OK - we like you fine in spite of your musical preferences.   

Someone has to keep you people straight. 

I will quietly point out that comparing anybody to one of the Great Tenors is automatically doomed to fail... those dudes are in a class of their own...

I've heard people try and lump Bocelli in with them, and coughed myself silly...

Been listening more and more and I'm really enjoying this bands music.