Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – I Learned The Hard Way

I Learned the Hard Way was produced and recorded on an Ampex eight-track tape machine by Gabriel Roth in Daptone Records’ House of Soul studios. The record drips with a warmth and spontaneity rarely found since the golden days of Muscle Shoals and Stax. Sharon’s raw power, rhythmic swagger, moaning soulfulness, and melodic command set her firmly alongside Tina Turner, James Brown, Mavis Staples, and Aretha Franklin as a fixture in the canon of soul music.

From the lush Philly-soul fanfare that ushers in The Game Gets Old at the top of the record to the stripped-down, Sam Cooke-style Mama Don’t Like My Man at the tail end, the Dap-Kings dance seamlessly through both the most crafted and simple arrangements with subtlety and discipline. I Learned the Hard Way is the Daptone Sound at its finest.