Casey Hensley

When I first cued this one up, before reading anything about them I heard a stunning blast of horn driven R&B with a singer whose voice and style suggested one of the classic era singers - sassy, loud and downright dirty in all the best ways.
Well she may have the style, she certainly has the voice and chops, but she is right in the here and now.

Casey Hensley has been around the scene for a couple of years, dabbling in acting, production and backing vocals before forming her own band and this is her second album. She was mentored by the late, great Candy Kayne and you can clearly hear the influence in her music but she has a voice all her own and wrote all of the tracks on this album so clearly has skills in that direction too.

The nine tracks on the album cover a wide range of music from soul to swing, rock & roll, R&B and she brings a big and brassy voice to all of it but she seems to have real depth and warmth as she shows on the tearjerker ‘Don’t Want It To Stop’.
But she is at her best on a number like the title track where her voice really takes on some grit and brassiness or on the bigger band numbers such as ‘What’s A Woman To Do’ that really catch her groove.

Her support band are pretty tasty but really it is all about her vocal prowess and she is a real belter.