All Audio/Video Clips require RealPlayer. To obtain the RealPlayer click "Here".

Sweet Sounds of Soul

Columbia Records had a surprise for fans attending Maxwell’s summer tour. Her name is Vivian Green, and she may have been the opening act for one of soul’s most romantic balladeers, but this sister goes well beyond holding her own in the romantic ballad department. With a soulful voice that belies her 23 years, Vivian Green is winning new fans one show at a time. LSR caught up with her, when the tour rolled through Washington, DC, to shoot the breeze over what soul’s newest songbird is all about.

Vivian Green and I had one of those classic star/journalist encounters. Initially scheduled to speak well before she hit the stage that night, schedules became crazy. After countless phone calls between her manager and myself, Vivian and I finally hooked up late that evening, and though I suspected she had to get to a sound check, she was friendly, calm and polite as if she had all day. We talked like newly found friends, exchanging our views on music and what the world will think when they’re introduced to her debut CD, “Love Story.”

Scheduled to drop in November, “A Love Story,” according to Green is an actual love story, her story. The tracks on the album are set in a certain order to help accentuate the happiness and sadness Vivian has experienced in her relationships. “The album is a sophisticated, autobiographical rumination on a relationship gone wrong, learning to love yourself, and then finding true love,” Green says.

A songwriter, and author of the lyrics on the debut album’s tracks, Vivian had a large degree of control over the flavor of “Love Story.” She sounds grateful and just slightly amazed that Columbia Records gave her such a wide creative berth. “They basically just let me do it,” she says with a small laugh. “They let me have my freedom. I was surprised because I hear about [record] companies saying they don’t like this or that – but they let me write the record completely.”

Having that degree of creative control allowed the new artist to put her mark on the project, and though “Love Story” may be structured as a narrative, it’s by no means manufactured music. Green filters a lot of different sounds throughout the tracks and it’s due primarily to her chameleon-like ability to translate what’s on her heart into various musical styles. “My vibe is however I feel,” she says. “I don’t like to put myself in a box. “Fanatic” has that neo soul vibe but every song isn’t like that, it was just how I feeling that day.”

So “Love Story” offers a little bit of everything ranging from soul and jazz to just enough pop to please the radio heads. “Emotional Roller coaster,” a track with a heavy jazz backdrop, showcases Green’s vocal range best, offering the listener a peek into her ability to be sultry as well as her power to hit the higher notes. And hearing this track live reinforces that this performer is not just a studio singer. As a matter of fact, Vivian thrives in the live environment. “I love live music and I’m very comfortable having live musicians on stage,” she explains. “Having live musicians on the record was a given. It wouldn’t be any other way.”

But the songstress doesn’t want anyone to think that because the CD revolves around love that every song is about the traditional boy-meets-girl plot line or that ballads are all she has to offer. “I was told a long time ago to always have a catchy hook. So it’s just in me,” she states. “It’s just how I write and I always try to make the song catchy so that people can remember it.”

As Vivian and I began to wind down the interview, the time had arrived to discuss the impact “Love Story” may have on soul music. She surprised me by sharing that she doesn’t really view herself as a soul artist, and she seemed genuinely taken aback by my categorization of her style. As we spoke I realized she had such reverence for soul artists, she worried that listeners would think her style was not to soul’s standard, preferring to reference her style as R&B/Soul. She pointed out that she views Angie Stone, whose music she personally enjoys, as pure soul.

One listen to a track like “Fanatic” will make fans wonder how she could be anything but a soul artist, but her modesty was touching. Once we agreed that soul music is less a “sound” than it is anything that genuinely comes from the heart, she embraced that her music can be logically categorized as soul. So what is she offering to soul music besides that strong, moving voice; a stage presence that some music veterans lack; and a CD full of tracks that will have soul fans grooving along?

“I’m offering myself,” she says with real innocence. “I’m offering me and sharing some of the things I’ve been through. Things I believe in my heart and things that men and women are relating to.”