Carly Harvey Kamama

November 10, 2024

Carly Harvey

Kamama

Do Good Records

Carly Harvey is an Afro-Indigenous Blues musician based out of Washington, D.C. “Kamama” her debut album combines Blues,Jazz, Soul, and Indigenous American styles, with it’s roots in the minor pentatonic melodies of Native lullabies, flute music, and rhythms of the shuffle, heard in stomp dance songs. Carly is the originator of the “Native Scat”, a fusion of traditional Jazz Scat with Native vocables. In addition to performing as a solo act, Carly is a three-time DC Blues Society Battle of the Bands winner and was proclaimed DC’s Queen of the Blues in 2016. Carly has been nominated 7 times for the Washington area Wammie award and won for Best Artist. The album is co-produced by Carly and Mark Williams.

All songs are written and performed by Carly. The opener “Native Scat” highlights her unique sound with WALKING EAGLE on guitar, and the rhythm section of bassist Mike Tony Echols; percussionist Coleman Williams; and drummer Deren Blessman. “Mean Old Woman” features Joe Louis Walker on lead guitar while Jonathan Sloane plays rhythm guitar, Blessman drums, and the horn section of Danny Davis, Mario D’Ambrosio, and Ben Ford; the background vocal is by Dana Nearing. On “Misery” Carly sings “but you made a fool of me”. “She Ain’t Me” features a vocal as Carly croons “I don’t want to seem that I’m hard on you, but what am I supposed to do, she ain’t me”; Echols plays some great bass, as Kevin Cerovich replaces horn player Ford. “Please Do That To Me” features Doug Woolverton on saxophone, with Sloane on guitar as Carly sexily sings “oh, baby, I said please do that to me…with your hands on my neck…please do that to me”. “Let Me Go” follows.

“Take Your Love” includes Daniel Clarke, keyboards; Sloane with some great guitar; Blessman on drums; and the fabulous horns “I don’t need your love anymore”. “Kamama” the title track includes some more native scat with a backing vocal and hand drums from WALKING EAGLE. “Human Too” features Annika Chambers, background and harmony vocal, with Dave Keller on guitar; “why did you have to leave your home, but still you had to go…what would you do if it happens to you”.

“Worth Waiting For”, “baby, she’s worth waiting for…cause when you were good to me…it was alright…know the pain, morning, noon and night”; with Wes Lanich, keyboards; Sloane on guitar; and the rhythm section of Echols and Blessman. The closer “Native Scat Reprise” once again features WALKING EAGLE.

“Carly is grace, confidence, originality, and the right amount of sexy swagger…she commands the stage with her voice and presence and draws you in intensely…then she seems to end each song with an infectious smile of pure gratitude that beams so brightly into the audience”. “Kamama” is a great album debut from Carly Henry as she definitively has something wonderous to sing about.

Richard Ludmerer

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