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Michelle David & the True-tones - (English
By Edoardo Fassio
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The appearance of Michelle David & The Truetones in Turin for Eurovision 2022 opened the eyes of many to a reality already established in the Netherlands and other European countries. Started as a project to explore the origins of soul and rhythm & blues, in a few years it has become a real band, now with a new name (will it be the definitive one?), six albums cut since 2015, the nomination for an Edison (the Dutch Grammy), the invitation to perform for the King and Queen of the Netherlands and their show at the opening day of Eurovision 2022, on the occasion of the symbolic take over from Rotterdam, the city that hosted it the previous year. It all began after the European tours of Michelle David, a singer born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and raised in New York. David was no stranger to performing, having sung in churches, theaters and musicals all of her life. She had graced the stages of the Old Continent since 1992, but her career took off when she met the Lefties Soul Connection, a Dutch band dedicated to a serious revival of instrumental soul music of yesteryear, from Booker T. & the MGs and the Meters to more recent artists such as the Roots and Soulive. The discovery was mutual: the European musicians were thrilled to add an authentic soulful voice to the band, so far mainly instrumental; the American vocalist found a new, steady audience for her talents. Thus, Michelle David & The Gospel Sessions was born, the denomination pointing to the spiritual roots of the music, the classic gospel sounds of the Soul Stirrers, the Zion Travelers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Shirley Ann Lee, virtual sacred counterpart of the “profane” blues-cum-rhythm.
On record and in concert, the group stays true to tradition, while its repertoire and arrangements keep the door open by incorporating traits of calypso, traditional Caribbean and Brazilian music, and even sub-Saharan Gnawa melodies, also dealing with styles still loved by the retro in-crowd such as Northern soul, boogaloo and Afro-beat.
The current line-up includes founders Onno Smit and Paul Willemsen, both guitarists and multiinstrumentalists straight from the Lefties, and drummer Bas Bouma. They now call themselves Michelle David & The True-tones, but the change does not have them deviate from their original intent, which remains essentially Rhythm-and-Gospel. The lady and the boys are still looking for the balance between tradition and commercial appeal, also pursued in the latest album Truth and Soul, where alongside the severe “Yes I Know” and “Wait”, a contemporary deep soul, is placed the seductive sweet soul ballad “Trust” and the disruptive “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”, a disguised rendition of Spencer Davis Group’s “Keep On Running”.
