sjatdkThe fabulously soulful Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings just played at NPR’s SXSW showcase, and are streaming their new album ‘I Learned The Hard Way’ for free through the NPR website. These guys knock Amy Winehouse into a cocked hat, and have a richness and fidelity of sound that has come straight from the seventies. For the purists among you, there’s an LP available from their record label’s online store here. Here’s why they think you should buy their album:

Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios, this record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha as a fixture in the canon of soul music. From the lushPhilly-Soul fanfare that ushers in “The Game Gets Old” at the top of the record, to the stripped down Sam Cooke-style“Mama Don’t Like My Man” at the tail, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the “Daptone Sound” at its finest.