variety.com
28.09.2022 / 00:06
Vonda Shepard Returns With Soul-Searching New Album and a Lasting Appreciation for 25 Years of ‘Ally’
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic No need to send out a search party for the “Searchin’ My Soul” singer. It’s true that Vonda Shepard has kept a low profile of late, not just during the pandemic but for a few years before it, not having released an album of new material since 2015’s “Rookie.” But she’s back with her ninth studio album, “Red Light, Green Light,” titled in part for the stop-and-go feelings a lot of us might have experienced during the past two and a half years. For Shepard at least, who has touring dates now lined up on the east coast and in Europe to follow the new release, all systems are go, again. For the still-curious who never really checked out Shepard’s discography outside of the “Ally McBeal” music, which she produced as well as sang, the new album is a chance to discover anew that she’s not just a soul-revue woman, but a distinguished songwriter when she’s out from under the covers. For those who already knew her from top-flight original albums like “It’s Good, Eve” and “By 7:30,” it’s a revisitation with a next-gen figure whose work snuggles comfortably alongside that of her piano-based ‘70s forebears.