Good Mama is loaded with classic rock blues numbers that showcases wonderfully the very expressive vocals of singer songwriter Tapri, she has a very distinctive raspy voice that’s full of earthy character, and she has perfected a great high pitch squeal which she dutifully uses to help accentuate the end of most phrases. She has a Kim Carnes sound that’s delivered with a Bjork dynamism. The songs are very bluesy, full of good old wailing blues guitar riffs and licks that is unashamedly loud in the mix, with so much Drum and Bass predominating a lot of music these days it’s clear that it was decided to lay them back a bit and let a powerful voice and clear guitar be the dominating influence.
The guitar riffs are almost AC/DC style but delivered with a very country blues feel, with the occasional smooth keys and harmonica filling the sound and giving it a nice warm country vibe. The music is quite raw, it’s not over produced with special effects or sampled layering, although there is the occasional 2nd Tapri backing vocal, harmonising with herself. Hard Work is a soulful slower number that benefits from its raw and rustic sound, and the long blues guitar solo is a perfect fit. After a while the aforementioned lack of Drum and Bass becomes a bit noticeable, which is a shame as there is some good work going on, like the cool experimental rhythms at the beginning and end of Feeling Like A Star but they too soon give way to the usual mix of lead vocal and guitar dominance.
With some nice bursts of brass the album ends with the upbeat title track Good Mama which is loaded with more of Tapri’s emotive vocals and signature squeals capping the album off nicely. There is no doubt with a full backing band Tapri would be a great act to experience live, and each track from Good Mama should certainly be on the set list as they are rollicking good songs full of emotion and a real expressive charm. Definitely worth a 2nd look and listen.
Moving from Europe to New Zealand, becoming a NZ citizen. Singer, songwriter TAPRI has released her first POP, Blues album "You Got Me" in January 2014.
In April she released another Rock Album "We Rock!" Strongly passionate about life and music, TAPRI started singing in age of 14 years old and has continued singing in her favourite genres POP, ROCK and BLUES.
TAPRI now songwrites with lyrics that are truthful and just as one of her songs say"never far from her mind". Her raspy voice aligns well to her favourite artist like Bonnie Tyler, Tina Turner,Kim Carnes, Janis Joplin.