Booker T. Jones teams with up Kori Withers for "Watch You Sleeping," the next leak from his upcoming album Sound The Alarm. In case you're wondering: yes, that's the daughter of Bill Withers, who relied on Booker T for production duties on his classic album Just As I Am--which featured "Ain't No Sunshine," among other immortal tunes. This 2nd-generation collabo is in some ways the opposite of Bill & Bookers most famous work together in this sense: it's all sunshine all the time, making you almost believe Kori is the "she" her dad was singing about. In fact, "Watch You Sleeping" itself is a love song so simple, breezy and heartfelt it's halfway a lullaby; timeless and yet totally contemporary in exactly the way you would hope Bill Withers' daughter would sound if you imagined her, sound unheard--the Withers strum-song approach translated for the post-shoegaze generation. It's also, of course, an amazing dem of the variety of sounds Booker has coaxed out of an incredible array of collaborators on this album--when contrasted, for instance, with the soulfully militant fight song that it is the title track with Mayer Hawthorne--stream their duet "Sound The Alarm" right here via OKP world premiere and look for our interview with Booker coming soon, including some reminiscence about working with Bill and the story of how his ensemble of young soul cats--including Estelle, Anthony Hamilton and Gary Clark, Jr, besides Mayer and Kori--came together. Stream "Watch You Sleeping" below and stay tuned:
shouts to BB
