by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Step down into the basement of Boomtown and you can’t help but feel cocooned in a warm urban cool. Within that cocoon, Tony White aka T76, has developed his R&B style for five years. This past Saturday, he released Street Love, his first CD, to an expectant crowd.
Other acts opened for T76, including Key of G, which had added spoken word poet Fabielle as a back-up singer. Key of G generally performs the 2nd and 4th Saturday at Boomtown. Also on stage strolled the Twin Towers, two incredibly tall, dark and sexy black brothers. They mentioned that they were changing their name to Gabor, a smart move, since about a dozen other artists share the name and because they will forever be associated with 9/11 (even if it wasn’t their intention).
But the crowd was really waiting for the moment when T76 took the stage. The girl sitting next to me told me that she had had Tony White as a choir teacher, and the entire right side of the room wasn’t shy about requesting songs. It’s great to know that Jacksonville has some great, original homegrown R&B supported by locals. He laid some smooth songs on the crowd, with excellent vocals, back-up, drums and keyboard. Tony himself manned the dual keyboards with talent and verve.
Two other talents on stage with Tony were B DVine (aka Kimberly Foster) and B Grant, who mostly handled the back-up singing. The sexy B Dvine also fronted the vocals on the smooth and sentimental ‘Honey Dripper Lady,’ which is the first cut on the CD. B Grant, who also has his own CD out, provided superb deep bass vocals.
My favorite of the songs T76 performed was ‘Church,’ a song Tony wrote while on the plane to Miami. It’s a fun, jazzy, soulful send up of the music industry in which he uses church as a metaphor for the industry. He catches you from the beginning with lines like “the black and white keys on the track, they my deacons/ ‘cause no matter what we get along.” It’s got a catchy chorus too, that tends to stay with you: “If the Church ain’t growin, the people ain’t tithin’/tell me what we’re preaching for/ If the industry’s for sinners, nobody’s being saved/ tell me what we’re reaching for.”
When Tony asked how many of the crowd were old school fans, he started singing ‘Constantly Dreaming’ and the fans enthusiastically provided the back-up vocals. He seemed happy to have released his CD after 5 years, telling the audience that there were “a lot of prayers, sweat and tears in this project.” He gave creds to God, saying that his success was due to putting God at the head of the project. You can listen to T76’s music on www.myspace.com/tonyt76white. His CD’s will be available at Boomtown for purchase.
For a taste of Jacksonville’s R&B scene, check out Soul Release Saturdays at Boomtown. The 1st & 3rd Saturdays of the month features nationally known spoken word artists, open mic poetry and R&B music and the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month features live soul artists, jazz, funk and R&B from local underground artists. Cover for the poetry night is $5 artists, $7 general artists and cover for the live music night is $12 each.
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