Daphne Willis

What to Say

(Vanguard)

When you throw around the term of female singer/songwriter, images of a girl in a coffe shop strumming her acoustic guitar during a solo set singing about love, liberation and the man holding them down comes to mind.

It is hard for a female singer/songwriter to separate herself from the herd. A handful of artists have done it, with Ani Difranco immediatley coming to mind. And now we have a new artist pushing her way to the forefront with intelligent and soulful music. Meet Chicagoian Daphne Willis, who has released her debut full length What to Say on Vanguard Records.

Throughout the dozen tracks on What to Say, Willis’ energy is front and center, offering up an edgier take on the conventional singer-songwriter stereotype. Her souful vocal delivery feels like a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day, and the funk in the back beat adds to that enthusiasm. What’s even more impressive is Willis’ flawless guitar playing, considering she only picked up the instrument three years ago.

When it comes to her writing style, the 22-year-old takes on such lofty topics as examining the social injustice of her generation. She also pens a heartfelt ballad to her grandfather who recently passed away on the track “Jim Thorton” and takes on relationships in her first single “Bluff.”

It is nice to follow the growth of a muscian with her first album, and that’s what you get when sitting down to listen to this remarkable debut. Daphne Willis is a young muscian finding herself in a big world, taking it all in and writing some of the freshest folk/pop/rock songs you have heard in a long time.