Sharon Jones
Lady Sings the Rhythm and Blues
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings return with their most anticipated album yet

By Jeff Niesel

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings emerged in 2002 with Dap-Dippin with the Dap-Kings, an album of old-fashioned soul and R&B that hearkened back to an earlier age. Thanks to a dynamic live show, the band proved to have some staying power, too, and 2005’s Naturally and 2007’s 100 Days, 100Nights further solidified their position. Now, with I Learned the Hard Way, an album about broken hearts (“The Game Gets Old”) and bad luck (“Money”), the band has delivered its most polished effort to date. Produced by Bosco Mann and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records House of Soul studios, the album features the same kind of soul grooves and funky horn arrangements that you might hear on old James Brown or Stevie Wonder albums.

This album is your most anticipated yet. What has it been like doing all the legwork leading up to its release?
Man, it’s been crazy to the point that I was screaming at my management and crying on the phone. I would tell them, “When you see an empty day is open, leave it open!” I’m not like that, but everything is happening. I’m just concerned about my voice. I love doing interviews. When I say I can’t do it, I can’t do it. I’m not one of these divas running around. When someone wants to write about me, that’s helping me and I’m helpful and thankful. I didn’t even go to church yesterday because I couldn’t talk. I got in Saturday morning at 3:30 from a gig in Vermont, which was fun, but it was one we didn’t have to do. The crowd enjoyed it, but it was so far and so cold. It would have been better for me to rest but I can’t take that back. And people were there and they did enjoy it. I’m very appreciative of everything.

The opening tune, “The Game Gets Old,” and its follow-up number, “I Learned the Hard Way,” both come off as break-up songs. Is this a break-up album?
I didn’t even pay attention to that. I just write different stuff. I’ve done interviews where people are telling me that I poured my heart out in some song. I let them finish and then I say, “Sorry but I didn’t write it.” The guys in the band wrote it. Maybe it was something in their heart or it could have been a relationship I had. Like that song, “How do I Let a Good Man Down?” If I have a good man, I’m not letting him down. That was my guitar player who wrote that. The refrain made it sound nice and poppy and happy. Different guys in the band write different songs. The song I wrote didn’t make the album. It was called “Ain’t no Chimney in the Projects.” That’s what I wrote one night at 3 o’clock in the morning.

The album has such a great, old school sound. What did you do to achieve that?
With this album, the difference is that you hear a lot of horns and different violins. There’s a lot of background. That’s what we went for. Being our own label, Daptone, we could just go in there and record. We had 20 something songs and we had to pick 12. I told Gabriel [Roth] that “whatever you put on there, I trust you.” We’ve been out for 14 years, but it’s a little more than that. Everyone says, “You’ve been blowing up so fast.” I’m like, “Baby. This is my fourth album.” People ask us, “What made you so different and unique?.” We didn’t change. When we started there was no Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. They heard of us. I’m sure they were influenced by Motown and Smokey but they heard us and they had enough money to come and get us. And Michael Bublé did the same doggone thing. 

The Dap-Kings have backed you for years. What do they bring to the table?
Oh man, I keep saying it. I have been on the road and we’ve seen thousands of bands. Out of those, most of them are fighting and don’t want to sit next to each other. Some of them don’t even stay in the same hotels. I got one of the best bands in the world and that’s why so many people have come and tried to get them. Not only are they great musicians. They live the life because they go around collecting that stuff. Homer [Steinweiss] just had a birthday and turned 28 and I met him when he was 16. He’s been playing those drums all this time. They live and play that. That’s why they have the Budos Band and stuff like that. Everything they do has that soul and funk and R&B sound. One the road, they’re respectful and they have lives at home. They’re not on the road getting into trouble, running around with women. There’s none of that stuff. They do their job and go on home. It’s not about going out and partying. Late night, you’ll find those guys playing cards or poker. That’s their party.

You evoke the soul music of an earlier era but at the same time you have your own musical identity. Talk about maintaining that balance.
I keep telling people that I’m not retro. Retro to me is those 19 or 20 somethings that sing soul. These young ones don’t have to go and listen to Tina and stuff. They can listen to me and the Dap-Kings. We’re old school to them now. That’s just me. When I was trying to get contemporary that was in the ’80s. They told me I didn’t have the look. I would have been spoiled trying to sound like Whitney. I sang all those songs in my wedding band. They used to say everything that Whitney can do, Sharon can do. I was doing Aretha and even Michael Jackson. I was killing it. 

I read that you were originally a background singer for the Soul Providers when they discovered you had quite a voice on a tune called “Switchblade,” which was originally written for a man. Is that a true story?
Yeah. I went in there just to sing “switchblaadddde.” Then Gabriel was like, talk some stuff. I talked a whole bunch of junk. I started going off. I was like “I told you I’d cut you.” I was just making up stuff and he was in the booth laughing so hard. I was just talking stuff. When I finished stuff, they slowed it down. That’s how that all started.

Did it take you some time to get accustomed to being the lead signer or did it come naturally to you?
I’ve been doing leads all my life in choirs and school. I used to sing with the chorus. One of my first solos came out. The teacher pointed me and I was bam and my solo was “on the day that you were born, the angels got together.” That was it and I was jamming. From then, I was leading songs with the chorus and then I had my band.

The band has been a hit on the indie rock circuit. How did it happen that those clubs were so open to your music?
It’s probably just the only club that will hold us. I have no idea. Our first fans were college students. I didn’t even know what an NPR was. I remember going out to colleges in Pennsylvania and were riding in vans up to the students and they were enjoying it and the next thing you know, we were in Europe and then I got the title “The Queen of Funk.” So there you go.