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Kanye West, Raphael Saadiq, and Wyclef Jean endorsed this 26-year-old L.A. native’s 2005 debut, A Change Is Gonna Come, but her self-produced second effort stars Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman,” seven-minute ownership of Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is,” and a bit of Badu on “Miss You,” curvaceous as James’ takedown of Angela Bofill, Bootsy Collins, and Al Green (“Simply Beautiful”).
This article appears in June 5 • 2009.
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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993. More by Raoul Hernandez
