The album hit the R&B albums chart and “Closer” garnered substantial airplay. Sony signed Goapele and released an expanded edition of Closer in 2004 ( Even Closer) on Columbia with Skyblaze retaining ownership of the masters. The artist caught the attention of Sony Music after Closer sold well into the tens of thousands on Skyblaze, a label co-founded by her manager and brother, Namane Mohlabane. Where does the past begin? For longtime Goapele fans, it’s 2001 when an EP called Closer introduced the singer’s cream and caramel coated voice to progressive soul audiences. In the past I’ve put out almost every song that I’ve done and this time I’ll work on it and then step back and then work on it”. “It’s been a much more gradual pace and much more deliberate. “I can get in the studio whenever I feel like it and just slowly work on it”, she says about her forthcoming album, tentatively titled Milk and Honey. There’s no major label monitoring how quickly the sand trickles through the hourglass. With her own label (Skyblaze) and her own recording studio (The Zoo), Goapele relishes the flexibility of recording tracks on her timeline. The respite from the road has clearly replenished her creative reserves leading to this year’s long-awaited release of her third full-length album. Goapele appears to process the scheduled-to-death pace of tour life as buoyantly as the groove of “The One”, one of the new cuts she debuted in the show. She played Bohemian Caverns in Washington, D.C. Tonight marked her second consecutive gig on the east coast. The song does not disappoint.Īfter greeting two-dozen or so fans, Goapele retreats not to a land of “milk and honey” but upstairs to the venue’s modest, muted-color dressing room. If there is one song by which to adjudicate the “it” factor of a Goapele show, “Love Me Right” is it. The pulsating funk-rock of the encore, “Love Me Right”, neatly condenses the emotive range of the concert. Her band rocks out to a cover of Rufus & Chaka Khan’s “You Got the Love” after she interpolates the “bees and things and flowers” line from “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” by Roy Ayers into the close of “Closer”. Goapele tosses in a few new numbers, “Tears on My Pillow”, “Fall Into Pieces”, and the forthcoming album’s first single, “Milk and Honey”, which is followed by a smoldering version of “Love Hangover” by Diana Ross (just the slow part). Only two albums into Goapele’s career, fans have established their favorites and it’s easy to see which ones get the most play on iPods by the number of mouths singing along to “First Love”, “4 a.m.”, and “Closer”. “I’m so happy you all came,” Goapele exclaims, wearing an incandescent grin while the opening strains of “Romantic” begin.
A few singles and free downloads over the last 12 months have kept her name circulating in the online world while she’s focused on raising her child. Whereas many of her contemporaries have been setting (and chasing) trends in the intervening years, Goapele took a hiatus. Just enough time, in fact, for a whole new group of curious listeners to discover Even Closer (2004) and Change It All (2005) since her last appearance. The Oakland, California-based soul singer has not performed in the Northeast for some time. Who says New York audiences are cold? Goapele has “I Heart NY” on her Facebook page and it’s clear that the audience hearts her in return.
When Goapele steps out on the stage in stilettos, the audience, subdued until that point, express a vociferous kind of adulation. By half past eight, they get what they’ve been waiting for. That changes once the clock inches towards show time. They might recognize the joints but don’t move towards the dance floor. This is Manhattan funneled through a chic, sophisticated, yet (self consciously?) edgy set. A string of white lights dress the balcony and illuminate couples holding hands and girlfriends chatting it up. Without an opening act, a DJ keeps the crowd grooving and shuffling unassumingly in place. This audience only cares about one person at the moment: Goapele. An announcement about his rescheduled concert basically falls on deaf ears. The mention of Mos Def usually inspires something more than silence, but not tonight at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.