Fallin' - Alicia Keys (cover) by Meresha and the Alien Invasion
Cast your mind back, if you will, to the late 50's, early 60's. And perchance, a jazz/blues bar in the Deep South. Birmingham, Alabama; when the cotton is high.
Percussion, Hammond and Bass are being drowned out by a Psiren's lullaby, snaking its way out of the bar into the humid mid-summer night...
..that sensual crooning could draw Cadillacs right off the Highway, drivers instantly desparate to satisfy their urgency to consume more of this luscious lullaby.
And, yep, even end up crashing on the rocks in a sea of Bourbon and reminiscence that those ululating undertones whip up.
That Psiren is Meresha. The depth of Aretha Franklin, without the Queen of Soul's harsh edge, emanates from a timid frame. A frame that, on first glance, has no business being able to bang out the blues this beautifully.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that Meresha was a product of The Glee Club. Perhaps even a Britney/X-Tina cover artist, what with those pigtails and the absolute innocence etched onto a face that singing in bars like B B King's is yet to erase.
Stop right there before I give you a lobotomy, if that's the extent of your imagination. I know. I've just had to give myself the same surgery.
This cover of Alicia Keys "Fallin'" (above) surpasses the original, IMHO. Yet this oh-so talented - and as yet unsigned - American artiste has a much wider repertoire.
Covers to date include, but are not limited to, two Led Zep classics, ably back by her band the Alien Invasion, that you can catch on YouTube, too:
I'm sure her signature will be on a record label contract, soon. An appearance on "Later with Jools Holland" would not go amiss, either, to launch her in the UK.
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