Back Where I Belong

Filipina-American with a big, captivating,heartfelt voice singing gospel, Tagalog folk and R&B, channeling Sugar Pie Santo (another Filipina who wrote and sang R& B 50 years ago) with great backup, recorded at Greaseland Studios in San Jose; definitely a mashup of styles (she was a straight folk singer before doing this album) but worth listening to because of her voice and the musicianship and because you don't hear a lot of Filipino music – the songs here are hauntingly beautiful

No FCC issues; Favorite tracks: 5, 6, 9, 12, 13

1-No More (2:05) – traditional gospel sung a capella

2-Going Back Where I Belong (2:43) – bluesy rock by Sugar Pie De Santo

3- The One Who Really Loves You (3:37) –Smokey Robinson – great cover

4- Witch for a Night (3:07)-- foot-stomping number with heavy duty organ-playing

*5-Bayan Ko (3:46) – slow, beautiful unofficial national anthem of the Philipines sung in harmony with sweet guitar accompaniment

*6-Down by the Riverside (2:33) – nice voice and ukelele on this famous gospel tune

7-Ask Me “Bout Nothin' But the Blues (5:10) – big orchestrated number; heavy duty blues

8-Can't Let You Go (3:31) – great close harmony over toe-tapping piano, etc. with horn flourishes

*9-My Illusions (3:50) – woman-centered blues with lots of organ playing and great backup; dark stuff

10- I Don't Wanna Fuss (3:37) – “If you treated me like you should/Everything'll be right”

11- Dukha (2:17) – Tagalog sung by a chorus

*12- Life Goes On (4:01) – has a New Orleans sound

*13 – Oras Na (3:37) – pretty Filipino song accompanied by ukulele