All About Buford: Supercar

Boston-based Contemporary a cappella mixed quartet (2 men, 2 women) All About Buford came onto our radar screen only recently, when they won the Harmony Sweeps Boston Regional. The group gave an excellent performance at the Sweeps Finals, and "Supercar" is a very good CD. There's a smoky, street-savvy, manic edge to all these songs (all arrangements by the group), a lot of it coming from brilliant vocal percussionist Adeel Pandith. The first cut is an amazing hardly-recognizable cover of Jonatha Brooke's "How Deep Is Your Love," the second is a cross between Don Henley's "Nobody Else In The World But You" and Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious," that totally works. "My Funny Valentine" is a moody, smoky gem, Patty Larkin's "Wolf at the Door" and Norman Whitfield's "Car Wash" fit nicely into the mix. Sean Altman does a quirky little intro to Buford's strong cover of Sean's and Billy Straus' "Falling Over You." Our favorite cuts are originals by group member Taunia Soderquist, "Supercar" and "Do You Trust Me" (from the first CD), songs of the street with roots in rap. As the live intro guy says at the beginning of the CD, "this group is right in the middle of the Boston a cappella club scene, and they're wicked hot!" Recommended.