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John Fluker's J Is for Joy is a rare submission, a soul, R&B, gospel offering in a style that reminded me a little bit of Stevie Wonder and even more of Aaron Neville. In addition to the inclusion of several nice traditional carols, Fluker also gives us Follow The Brightest Star, co-written with Melissa Varley, a sweet R&B ditty with pop crossover potential.

Several John Fluker vocal tracks are followed by instrumental arrangements of some of the same songs, with Fluker performing background vocals only. These are whimsical, almost new age-soul fusion arrangements, and would be quite at home on an ambient or new age instrumental mix tape. More interesting yet, the liner notes credit John Fluker with performance of all of the instrumentals. Nice.

J Is for Joy is another title I would pay greater attention to if it weren't so late in the season, and if I didn't have so much farther to go before we could call ourselves published. And John Fluker is an artist to watch.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2006)

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From the liner notes:

All instruments and vocals performed and produced by John Fluker
Engineer/Mixing: Keith Sterling, Straylight Studios, Burbank, California
Mastering: Matt LaPoint, Los Angeles, California
Drum Programming and mixing for tracks 2, 4, 6, and 9: Matt LaPoint
Featured Vocals on Joy To The World: Florence LaRue of The Fifth Dimension
Guitar on Oh Come All Ye Faithful: greg Bowden
Altosax on Oh Come All Ye Faithful: Brad Leali
Brad Leali's Engineer: Toby Caldwell, Don Caldwell Studios, Lubbock, Texas
Clarinet on Follow The Brightest Star: Melissa Vardey
Photography: Tony Maddox
Photo Touchup: Christopher Warnecke
Album Design: Lucas Kelly

John Fluker

J Is for Joy

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Track List