Brian Kingsley : Funky, Country, Alternative Singer/Songwriter

Earlier today, I recorded a couple covers to put up on Youtube. One of the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun" and one of Prince's "When You Were Mine". Probably my favourite track of his 1980 album "Dirty Mind". I was considering his classic "Little Red Corvette" but decided to save it for a later date. So, after getting my covers uploaded, I looked around Youtube for other Prince covers and came across a really good cover of "Little Red Corvette". With an incredible smooth guitar sound and powerful vocal, Brian Kingsley creeped into my ears and soul. Well, yeah it sounds a little weird when said that way but really, it was a great cover. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV6G5KdaGrc

Brilliant. Brian definitely added his own touch to it, which I like. I truly am curious how he managed to record his guitar with such a smooth sound. So many times you get the little "scratchy", metallic sounds in the recordings. Really great sound, and really great rendition. Although a lot of Prince's stuff gets pulled off Youtube, I'm glad that the covers stay. Prince is an absolute genius of a musician, who is said to play twenty seven instruments. But, I guess what I admire most in him is the songwriter. He writes songs that can be played so many different ways, by so many different people and sound great. Cyndi Lauper did it with "When You Were Mine", Sinead O'Connor did it with "Nothing Compares 2 U" and Brian just did it with "Little Red Corvette". Great stuff.

After watching that great cover, I subscribed to Brian's channel (just like you should have done), and went through the rest of his videos. There's some great covers up there and I was happy to see he had a great Michael Jackson cover beside his "Little Red Corvette" cover. I have to admit, my mind was blown by two things. How great his cover was and why it didn't have more views. Once in a while you come across a gem of a cover on Youtube and it hasn't been recognised. Well, a little more often than once in a while. But let's change that, shall we? Listen to this very personal approach to "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjXNkvSbViM

Love it! Once again, he's got that beautifully smooth guitar sound and a strong, but controlled vocal on top of it. What I like about it is the contrast between the styles he's mixing. Bringing together a singer/songwriter - folk sound with a funky guitar line can be incredible, and I love doing it. Brian is definitely a master of bringing the funk to the folk. You know when one guy (or girl) with a guitar can make you want to dance, that is just great! Incredible rhythmical force behind Brian.

Aside from the great covers, Brian's got some brilliant originals that you can listen to on Youtube. One that caught my ear is called "She's Gone". Quite different from his covers of M.J. and Prince, I got a real country feel from this song. Nevertheless, I got a taste of those early 90's alternative rock MTV unplugged sessions with bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It's definitely something I'd like to listen to more than once and will be downloading as soon as I finish this post. You can download the song too, from Brian's Reverbnation. Don't forget to check out his Facebook page for updates. Check back tomorrow for another fantastic artist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj-tE2arijk

Alex Hamel