The Powerful Now

Album info

It wouldn’t be correct to define Anthony David solely by his protest songs because he’s given us some great duets, vulnerable, blues infused numbers and some funky stuff as well. Still, David could be considered one of this generation’s great protest singer/songwriters solely from the output on the album As Above, So Below. He addressed racial profiling and the fraught relationship between black men and law enforcement on “Crooked Cop” from his breakout debut Three Chords and the Truth, while gentrification in Atlanta is the topic of the title track on Red Clay Chronicles.

So with all that has transpired in the nation since the Grammy nominated artist’s last project – 2012’s Love Out Loud – one would expect David to include a few conscious cuts on The PowerFUL Now, his latest, and one would be right. However, David seeks to motivate rather than mobilize with the conscious tracks on his characteristically solid fifth project of original music.

By Howard Dukes