CIYO BROWN is a Jamaican-born, guitarist, singer and composer who’s busy promoting his seventh album, ‘Can We Pretend’. Tracks from the LP are already being rotated on Mi-Soul Radio, Solar Radio, and BBC Radio London and easy to hear why; Ciyo’s sound is soulful with a jazzy undertow – what he calls ‘Vocal Excursions with a Tinge of Guitar’.
Amongst the highlights is a lovely version of Bread’s ‘Make It With You’. There have been countless covers of this sweet ballad and Ciyo’s version is right up there with the best of them. Amongst the other covers is a version of the 1949 standard, ‘Again’. It’s another of the album’s focus cuts, coming in three versions including “groove” and “reggae” mixes, that latter one offering a touch of the Aswads or Dennis Browns! Listen up too to the album’s title track, a sophisticated, smooth soul cover of the Bill Wither’s song that has lots to offer.
