Danny Brooks & Lil Miss Debi - Are You Ready?: The Mississippi Sessions! (2020)

Texanadians Danny Brooks and Lil Miss Debi (formerly of Toronto Canada) met Tom Easley of AVA Entertainment in 2019 and discussed making a record, making a real recording, blending old school with new tricks and now have a recording that some listeners are calling “new vintage”.

Recorded in Raymond Mississippi (a suburb of Jackson), Tom assembled some stellar musicians such as Chalmers Davis and Sam Brady, who he had worked with at Malaco Records (as an engineer). Rhythm section is brothers Micah and Joel May from Jackson Mississippi. James Lawlis, horn guru form Toronto Canada, Greg Martin of the Kentucky Headhunters adds his guitar style along with John Fannin (formerly with Rusty Weir/Jerry Jeff Walker). Rounding things out is Geri O’Neil adding some bass and background vocals , along with Lil Miss Debi and Danny Brooks. Special thanks to Professor Andrew Lewis, who added piano/B3 on “We Do Whatever It Takes”, and who helped enormously on bed-tracks. Says Tom Easley, “this is a recording for these times, and people need to hear these songs and what they are saying!”

The recording hearkens to a time when artists lived what they sang about, and wrote from the depths of those life experiences seared into their souls. You cannot scrub the Mississippi grit that clings to each of these tracks on “Are You Ready? The Mississippi Sessions!” Perhaps Greg Martin said it best years ago, and a little prophetic,”Listening to Danny Brooks is like driving out of Memphis Tennessee on a Sunday morning into the Mississippi Delta, listening to WDIA. It’s one of those things where time stands still. A dash of Eddie Hinton (Jerry Wexler referred to Eddie as the white Otis), Solomon Burke, Reverend James Cleaveland, and Howlin’ Wolf are all ingredients in Danny’s soulful, musical stew!”