Album: Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange

Release Date: June 28th, 2011
Buy Links: FEMusic Store | Itunes 

The Foreign Exchange, was initially started as the long distance marriage between Little Brother’s Phonte Coleman and producer Nicolay.  Upon it’s conception, Foreign Exchange has grown and produced three stellar albums: Connected, Leave it All Behind, and Authenticity.

With new material, artists go on tour to preview the new material to see how the fans perceive the music, however, perhaps you were unable to attend a The Foreign Exchange show but, with their latest installment Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange, they allow their fans a glimpse of their live show.

Dear Friends, is the first live project from The Foreign Exchange camp  (Phonte, Zo! on piano, vocals from Sy Smith and Jeanne Jolly) and it has the same intimate appeal and humorous commentary from their actual live show, but this project took an acoustic route.

The project opens with two tracks from The Foreign Exchange’s latest release Authenticity, in the form of “Fight For Love” and “All Roads.”  The album then leads into one of my personal favorites “Take Off The Blues,” off of Leave it All Behind.  This is also one of my highlights from this project—the acoustic feel of this song changes the tune a little bit but it works so well.

As you go deeper into the project, you are introduced to the group’s comedic anecdotes, notably Sy Smith’s story about this guy with Tourette Syndrome on the airplane.  This story segues to “Greatest Weapon Of All Time” (another personal favorite) from Zo!’s Sunstorm, album.  This performance actually sounds very similar to the album version—just as lovely, and soulful.

Their cover of their Grammy nominated song “Daykeeper” is also a highlight and takes a random trip into a country song.  Listeners are also introduced to two new tracks—“Steal Away” featuring Jeanne Jolly and “All The Kisses” featuring Paris and Amber Strother of King.  “Steal Away” introduced me to Jeanne Jolly and she has a beautiful voice, in addition, the song has beautiful lyrics.  “All The Kisses” is a beautiful song as well and despite Amber and Paris singing background vocals while Phonte steers the direction, it makes for a perfect marriage.

This is a great project and perhaps as a whole one of the best live and unplugged albums I’ve heard in a while, but, this doesn’t mean you should not see them live.  The Foreign Exchange is on tour right now and just kicked off their West Coast Tour Dates (check below).  Also, as a bonus, if you still have not yet make sure you download Zo!’s Just Visiting Three, here.

Also, if you live in the Bay Area, I am giving away free tickets to the show at New Parish, just like the sites fanpage and leave a message in my inbox.