Ndidi Onukwulu

On her debut No, I Never, Ndidi Onukwulu proved she can wrap her silky voice around anything from country blues to her own rootsy salon sound. Now we have The Contradictor, all about focus, training that formidable silk edge on everyone’s private pain, and contradicting the anguish with a full, upbeat, resonance.

The Contradictor is personal and universal, built on Ndidi’s songwriting mining the extremes of intimacy, with the bigger sounds and tones she is most interested in uncovering. These are songs of heartache, heartbreak, and longing. ‘Not nice,’ as she says, but as full as these can be. And as rich.

The album opens with the brassladen ‘SK Final,’ and moves breathlessly to the anthemic ‘The Lady & E.’ Other standouts are ‘Rise,’ which hearkens back to the blues of Ndidi’s first release, and ‘No Everybody,’ that sneaks an anticonformity rock message under a reggae opening.

Joining Ndidi on the CD is a fearsome roster of world-class players: including Jesse Zubot (strings/mandolin), Paul Pigat (guitars), Steve Dawson (guitars), Roey Shemesh (bass), Barry Mirochnick (drums) and Tyson Naylor (keyboards). Dawson produced the CD with Zubot producing some of the tracks.