Northwest Arkansas quartet Carbon Brown put a modern spin on old-school soul, funk, and r&b with “Miss Ya Baby,” out September 4th, a wistful love song about longing for someone gone, whether that’s temporary distance or something more permanent. Drummer Maya Magnificent steps up to take the lead vocal here, a first for her in a big studio setting, while Tyler “Jazzmaster T” pulls out the flugelhorn for a solo that leans into a Chuck Mangione-style late-70s warmth. Craig, on keys, sax, and vocals, and Carrie “the Siren,” usually the band’s lead voice but on backing duty and aux percussion this time around, round out a group that came together through a local conservatory and, in Carrie’s case, a chance encounter while she was singing at her day job.
The production is very crisp, and no, I did not intend that to be a pun. I wrote down “very crisp production,” and then, as I was reading through the details, I found out it was recorded at Crisp Recording in Fayetteville! Which is a studio that’s been the standard in the region for three decades. The band recorded the song almost entirely live in one room, with only the vocals and flugelhorn solo needing a retake- the kind of real-time chemistry between musicians that’s harder to come by in an era where most home studios record one part at a time.
Maya’s lead vocal draws on influences like Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse, filtered through a more modern reference point in Laufey, and she brings a genuinely heart-grabbing delivery to the track while still working in some distinctly present-day details, cell phones and Instagram among them, into the lyric. With only a handful of streamable songs out so far while the band finishes a full vinyl album, “Miss Ya Baby” makes a strong case for keeping an eye on where Carbon Brown goes next, especially with upcoming shows lined up around the NW Arkansas motorcycle rally and a fall date at a jazz and r&b club in Tulsa.