Pop Matters
November 23, 2005

Toshi Reagon, by all accounts, lives and breathes music. The daughter of two Freedom Singers from the civil rights movement, she grew up in DC surrounded by the harmony of her mom’s a cappella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock. Since 1990, she has been releasing her own music—an ecstatic blend of every American style there is—to small but knowing audiences.

Ms. Reagon is a classic “talent deserving wider recognition”—not just a hipster’s oddball taste. It’s a safe bet that she’ll never be a superstar as she shows zero interest in bending herself to fashion, glamour or trend, but her talent is as accessible as it is huge. Boasting a voice that can be either confessional or soul-shout broad and a bona fide songwriting talent, Toshi Reagon is a treasure waiting to be found.

Have You Heard is a title likely meant to echo a fan’s pitch to a friend. Have you heard Toshi Reagon? And that fan is likely to add that, really, you haven’t heard her until you heard her live. This new album seeks to create live groove in the studio, using members of Ms. Reagon’s band (Big Lovely) and few if any studio frills beyond some soulful backing vocal tracks. As a result, this disc comes from a working band as much as a solo artist—a group that knows how it locks together under the vision of a remarkable leader.

It’s worth mentioning that this disc was produced by Craig Street, the signature-sound wizard behind much brilliant work by Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright, Chris Whitley, and k.d. lang. Here, however, Mr. Street’s funky-folk “sound”—a crisp and layered blend of acoustic string instruments, jazz harmony, and roots-rock directness—is subordinate to the artist’s strong personality. Put another way—Ms. Reagon’s eclectic vision is well complimented by Mr. Street’s sheen of smart, keen Americana. The voices, mandolin, scratch-happy guitars, subtle organ and lightly funky percussion come from the past the way The Band did on Big Pink but also come pleasantly from nowhere—music so fresh that you need to listen to it right away so the flavors remain strong.

Though Ms. Reagon’s triumphant voice is a strong through-line, Have You Heard divides easily between introspective folk songs and funky rockers of various stripes. “Have You Heard” starts things with gospel-driven groove, a tambourine driving forward a blues-rock version of faith: “I got chills in my eyes from lookin’ above / I am sure it’s a sign of the Lord /...Did you breathe the silky air, the breath of life / I am sure it’s a sign of the Lord.” The spirit of Sweet Honey in the Rock is there from the start, but it’s updated by soul-music harmonies and the strummed acoustic groove of sixties rock. The very next track, “22 Hours”, flips the coin neatly over: a secular song of love/sex that drops Ms. Reagon’s voice lower and darker, with layers of Prince-ly harmonies and a greasy funk topped off with wailing harmonica on the tag. “Didn’t I Tell You” is a snap-to-it bassline-driven come on that gives Ms. Reagon bragging rights as a successor to Aretha. When she sings “didn’t I, didn’t I, didn’t I” and lets a series of “baby- baby, ooooh”s leak out of her well of desire—all made more dangerous by Glenn Patscha’s insinuating organ—you become a fan straight away.

Ms. Reagon’s softer side is equally believable. “You” is a wounded confessional that whispers over a picked guitar pattern but slowly builds thanks to quiet vocal harmonies and an atmosphere of keyboard sounds that remind us that Mr. Street is also associated with MeShell Ndegeocello. On “Dream”, the quiet pattern is closer to acoustic blues, but the gentle bed of wordless vocals eventually turns into Sweet Honey-ish off-kilter harmony. The most surprising quiet song, however, is the one cover, “Heartbreak Hotel”. Ms. Reagon transforms the familiar melody by abstracting it into a slyer bent-note blues sung over the most minimal of acoustic accompaniments. The use of background vocals to repeat “So lonesome I could die” takes just enough of the Elvis-swagger out of the tune and puts it directly in Toshi’s sweet spot: wounded optimism. Has anyone ever sung more convincingly from the bottom of the heap or sounded more like her hope alone could lift her up? Sure—Billie Holiday, Gladys Knight. That’s the kind of vocal company Toshi Reagon keeps on this record.

But the best tracks may be those that go straight at a more grooving vein of musical gold. “Ooh Wee” is straight funk, goosed by Patcha’s wah-ed clavinet and piano and featuring an array of background vocals so hot that they actually give the song its name. “Soul ’n’ Deep” is an electric-guitar track with staccato vocals that sounds like the best thing, say, Sheryl Crow, has ever done—pop bright but layered in soulful vocal tracks that echo and bounce through the mix seductively. “Building Blues” is even better. Ms. Reagon’s first syllable and first line—“Ehhhhh-aahhhh-I, see the sun go down” is a symphony in one measure. The funk-blues groove is chasm-deep, with Mr. Street’s production creating just the right frayed sound as the vocals gorgeously split into harmony on the chorus: “Baby, won’t you please stare outside this window with me / We gots to stay high to see.”

Have You Heard keeps you high just listening, and it keeps you wondering how this kind of neo-soul, neo-rock still sells so few copies. But, of course, this stuff is aimed at adults, hyped on NPR rather than TRL, and we adults -- we don’t buy music in bulk any more, right?

Do yourself (and Toshi Reagon, and—really—all of us) a favor: buy a few copies and whip them out at your favorite holiday gathering this year. “Have you heard Toshi Reagon?” you can ask, making you the hippest person under the mistletoe. And with Toshi rather than Perry Como on the hi-fi, you’ll digest your turkey better.

—Will Layman

Curve Magazine
December 2005

Over the past decade, the Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, guitarist and drummer has evolved from simply being recognized as the talented, out lesbian daughter of Sweet Honey in the Rock’s Bernice Johnson Reagon, to being Lenny Kravitz’s protegé (she opened for him on his first world tour), to being respected as a funk-rocking headlining performer in her own right who brings the house down every time. Now, on Ani DiFranco’s high-profile Righteous Babe imprint, this sixth full-length release showcases her in all her glory. From the spirit-soaring gospel-folk opener “Have You Heard” and funky numbers like “Didn’t I Tell You” and “Ooh Wee,” to her aching blues rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” and the tender acoustic ballad “You,” she was the perfect accompaniment for that ever-rocky transition from feminist utopia to depressing reality - aka, the long drive home from the festival - and damn, was I glad that hers was one of the few discs I grabbed on my way out the door while evacuating the hurricane.

OUT Magazine
December 2005

“I got chills in my eyes from the lookin’ above ? I am sure it’s a sign of the Lord!” sings the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based troubadour on the opening track. Chills down the spine is the sort of reaction one often gets from hearing this funky old soul and out lesbian’s powerful voice on her modern folk-rock spirituals, whether she’s working a hushed come-on or belting out a rousing call to arms. Reagon’s legendary live shows over the past 15 years have won her a cult following. Capturing the fervor, funk, and fun of a Toshi show is no small feat ? but she’s getting closer with each release. On her second Craig Street-produced album, Reagon gets stinking-funky on “Soul-N-Deep,” let’s the sexual tension build and burn on “22 Hours,” and gives Elvis’s “Heartbreak Hotel” a quietly powerful acoustic blues renovation.

—Ray Rogers

SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER - SEATTLE, WA
Tuesday, October 11, 2005

This Week’s Hot CD: Toshi Reagon’s Have You Heard?, (Righteous Babe Records)

On her sixth album, the first for Righteous Babe Records, Toshi Reagon gives acoustic folk-blues a vitality that had been missing since the heyday of Odetta and Richie Havens.

Like Odetta, she draws inspiration from various sources to create a personal tapestry that expresses the inexhaustible mystery of the human soul.

Whether heating an R&B riff to the verge of a Motown meltdown ( “Didn’t I Tell You”) or stretching out on a low-down bass line (“Building Blues”), Reagon brings contemporary soul to blues-based balladry. “Have You Heard” is unique in that it captures the immediacy of a live performance in a recording session.

The arrangements, having grown organically out of Reagon’s vocals and guitar, are free of that canned, over-dubbed sound that compromises so much of modern folk music. Not so here. This is 100 percent pure with no additives.

—Bill White
GRADE: A

WASHINGTON POST - WASHINGTON, DC
Friday, October 14, 2005

Though now recording for Ani DiFranco’s label and working with producer Craig Street, best known for his alliance with Cassandra Wilson, Toshi Reagon hasn’t significantly altered her sound. She’s still making music that resounds with spirituality, rhythm and the blues.

And still mixing it up. “Have You Heard,” Reagon’s sixth release, has her moving from rousing gospel-flavored refrains (the album’s title track) and churning soul grooves (“Didn’t I Tell You”) to tender reflections (“You“), political laments (“Down to the Water”) and a vintage rock cover (“Heartbreak Hotel”). The Elvis sighting occurs at the album’s close, when Reagon finds herself quietly singing the blues “down at the end of lonely street.”

It’s impossible to listen to some of the vocal harmonies on the album without detecting Reagon’s family ties to Sweet Honey in the Rock, the magnificent a cappella ensemble co-founded by her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon. That’s particularly true on “Dream,” with its haunting arrangement and evocative lyric (“Jordan river, Jordan river / Can you hear me call / Feel me cross, feel me cross the water”). Another soulful and insinuating highlight is “Building Blues,” which is reminiscent of Street’s Delta-inspired collaborations with Wilson.

Sometimes, though, Reagon simply revels in funk beats, her voice dancing atop Fred Cash’s resonating bass lines. Cash and other members of Reagon’s Big Lovely band are colorfully showcased, but ultimately it’s the singer’s heart that generates the strongest pulse.

—Mike Joyce

VALLEY ADVOCATE - PIONEER VALLEY
November 3, 2005

Lenny Kravitz and Dar Williams are two among the plethora of musicians whose respect Toshi Reagon has earned and returned. She is known as a something of a rock/R&B Cuisinart—taking musical styles and mixing and meshing them to make something uniquely hers, familiar yet new. Her sixth CD, Have You Heard, resembles a live jam session with members of her touring band, BIGLovely—all of the tracks are raw with bare bones arrangements that don’t stray far from her original guitar-and-voice compositions. She is often called “genrebending,” and the turns from R&B balladry to folk storytelling to country-fried rock on this album more than do justice to that term.

—Steve Smith

“Toshi Reagon is fluent in all musical languages” —Daily Pennsylvanian 34th Street Magazine

REPORTER MAG ONLINE
September 30, 2005

The first album I got this year was Toshi Reagon’s debut for Righteous Babe Records, “Have you Heard.” It’s a fusion of folk, blues, gospel, and a little funk...From the opening seconds of the first track, Toshi’s voice is deep and sultry and her guitar work is excellent.

THE ADVOCATE
October 11, 2005

Fierce and gentle: A Kiss fan who covers womyn’s musician Ferron, singer-songwriter-guitarist Toshi Reagon is a curbside collector of disparate sounds, which she fashions into wholly congruous compositions. Her sixth and most recent CD, Have You Heard, continues this tradition with Reagon and longtime bandmates getting lost in deep grooves, belting blues, and infusing idealistic folk songs with a street-savvy wink.

The title track and best cut finds Reagon, 41, under an enchanted, flickering sky. “I got chills in my eyes from lookin’ above,” she calls out, her warm timbre equal parts folk-circuit laureate and Southern preacher.

At the same time, Reagon struts amid the sludgy funk-rock of “Didn’t I Tell You,” a tale of devotion tucked protectively in butch bravado. Elsewhere, Reagon showcases some rumbling migration blues (“Building Blues”), in which Fred Cash’s mercurial bass line haunts while Stephanie McKay harmonizes with Reagon in a cascade of age-old wails.

Reagon, a matter-of-factly out lesbian performer since her first strum, is equally affecting in her hushed moments, as in “You,” a pensive ballad for those feeling hoodwinked by their hearts. Heard reaffirms Reagon as an unpretentious lyricist and master of boiling down labyrinthine emotions.

—Karen Iris Tucker

THE CHART www.chartattack.com
October 4, 2005

Have You Heard bursts at the seams with broad strokes of blues, gospel, soul, folk and rock, all firmly underpinned by Toshi Reagon’s larger-than-life voice and musical presence. Similar to Tracy Chapman or Bonnie Raitt, Reagon injects a worldweariness into her blues laments (“Building Blues”), yet rallies with songs of hope, like on gospel-folk number “Have You Heard.” Reagon’s rich songs are ably supported by her band, BigLovely, who create musical bridges between Reagon’s favourite genres, slipping effortlessly from one to the next.The star moments on this record are the gentle,“Down To The Water” and the soulrock of “Soul-N-Deep.”

—Shannon Whibbs

POST STAR - GLENS FALLS, NY
September 29, 2005

Toshi Reagon is a force of nature. Her latest, Have You Heard, is a testament to funk, gospel and folk.With a voice as strong as it is melodic, she assails listeners through a labor of love and celebration of life.

Have You Heard’s title track opens the album with a booming acoustic presence that will rivet your speakers to the wall. From the moment the vocals kick in, you could swear you were listening to an old-world diva, like a young Billy Hollliday with Aretha’s sustain.

“22 Hours” is a storyteller’s love song.The lyrics read like a dream in color. Combined with Reagon’s fluid vocals, the song is a fitting tribute to its muse.

With her uncanny ability to transcend genre, Toshi Reagon is the new black. Have You Heard is languid, powerful and not to be ignored.

If you dig Toshi Reagon, check out: Tracy Chapman, Ella Fitzgerald.

—CE Skidmore