Everyone processes loss differently. When a box full of tapes made by her father in the final months before his death – when she was just ten – were made known to her recently, Jayda Guy could’ve reasonably chosen to leave them un listened to, worried that only a ghost could haunt them.
Instead she chose to absorb the contents, which proved to be a fascinating oral history of a man who’d been viciously bullied at school, got drafted into the army and went to Vietnam and then caught up in the 1968 race riots which blighted America’s cities. Moving north to British Columbia, he met the singer’s mother.
Guy Sr.’s voice can often be heard punctuating tracks on the album to which he gives his name. Although the lyrics partially reference a number of the events captured on the tapes, the music is a frothy cocktail of house, soul and R&B, with Blue Lights, Lonely Back In O and Circle Back Around all danceable and thinkable in equal measure. Everybody deals with stuff in different ways. Guy feels like it’s the best set of outcomes all round.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 