If you thought the days of fatback, gutbucket R&B died off with Wilson Pickett, think again. After a transformative moment watching James Brown at the Apollo Theater in 1962, Florida-born Bradley spent a good 20 years working odd jobs in various towns before moving back home to Brooklyn and doing a little singing on the side. In a story similar to Sharon Jones’s, he eventually came to the attention of retro-soul powerhouse Daptone Records, which parlayed the singles “Heartaches and Pain” and “The World (Is Going Up in Flames)” into No Time for Dreaming, his 2011 full-length on Daptone imprint Dunham Records — one of the longest-gestating debuts in pop history, and one well worth holding onto.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2012.
