Lalah Hathaway Shares Her Soul on 'Self Portrait'

Lalah Hathaway sounds like soul.  Or, at least that is the way she describes it.  To me, Lalah Hathaway sounds like velvet.  Just like her dad, Donny.  Her voice wraps around you like a warm blanket on a cold day.  You feel good when Lalah is singing and you can tell she does too.  Last month, we sat down to talk about her new album, Self Portrait (June 3rd), her father and her life's love of music.

Self Portrait is Lalah's fifth album and her first in about four years.  But don't think she's just been sitting around twiddling her thumbs. In those four years, she's been "working, writing music and living a very, simple life.  Many people think that you're just lounging between albums, but that time for me was about trying to find a place to land that will give you the opportunity to create something artful, something mindful," notes Ms. Hathaway.  The proof is in the pudding.  Self Portrait is the most consistent album she's released since her self-titled debut eighteen years ago.  She agrees, "I think this is my best record.  It's the most concise."

A mid-tempo jam, "Let Go" kicks off the set.  Hathaway teamed on this track (and many of the others) with Rex Rideout and the immensely talented and underrated Rahsaan Patterson.  It's the kind of head-bobbing cut that reminds you of "Baby Don't Cry" (from her debut) that first won her fans.  But, this album is a bit different.  It's more mature.  More personal.  "This album is like a movie of my life over the last couple of years," she explains.  "The portrait I see of myself is of a very confident, smart woman who is extremely funny, independently wealthy and well-traveled - all things that I am to a small degree," she jokes.  

Jokes aside, Lalah delivers her classic style with "On Your Own."  With this song and every song, Hathaway never pushes...she oozes.  Her vocals are always clean and free flowing.  Sure, she has tricks, but with Lalah they are effortless extensions of the melody.  "On Your Own" was inspired by a dream where "my father was singing to me and telling me that I could make it on my own," she reveals.  Her father is ever present in her life and her music. 

"For me, my father is the best singer absolutely," she says, and she channels his vocal magic on my favorite song on the album, "What Goes Around."  Everything about this song is the truth: the lyrics, the music and Lalah's pitch perfect, emotional delivery.  She feels the magic in this song and the entire album explaining, "there's a freshness to it that I haven't had in a long time.  There's a vulnerability to it that I haven't had since I was 18 to 19 years old."  She's right to an extent.  This album is fresh and vulnerable, but not young and naïve as evidenced by the song, "That Was Then."  The track was produced by Rideout and written by Hathaway and Sandra St. Victor, whom she describes as "a baaad girl."  It speaks of all of the things she didn't know back in the day and how much she has learned.

Unfortunately, one of the lessons she has learned is that black and urban radio stations don't get it.  She acknowledges, "if you listen to black radio, in every city there's the power station and then, there's the R&B/Dusties.  You'd have the impression that there's no new soul music being created anywhere.  I would like for the radio stations to open up a bit."  Amen!  Along with Lalah, we're missing out on Ledisi, Rahsaan Patterson, Amel Larrieux (I could go on) unless you have satellite radio, which she loves.  "It's really the only radio I listen to. It's a combination of old and new.  That's why I love BET-J too," she says.

Well, I love Self Portrait and I love Lalah Hathaway.  She was amazing to speak with and even more amazing to listen to as she sings about her life.  If you love true soul music and/or Lalah Hathaway too...you need to add Self Portrait to your collection.  The album will be released on June 3, 2008.  For tour dates, check out www.lalahhathaway.com.