''Emerald City'' is the seventh album by

Teena Marie Mary Christine Brockert (March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010), known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, composer, arranger, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the sta ...

, released on July 22, 1986. It is a stylistic departure for her, with strong

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

influences favored over her established

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

style, and is a concept album. This proved puzzling for fans and critics, and the album sold poorly, peaking at #20 on the US Black Albums chart and #81 on the

Billboard Albums A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

chart. Two singles, "Lips to Find You" and "Love Me Down Easy", were released. They reached #28 and #76 respectively on the Black Singles chart, but neither charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. However, "Shangri-La", while it never became a single or charted anywhere, became a staple of

Quiet storm Quiet storm is a radio format and genre of R&B, performed in a smooth, romantic, jazz-influenced style. It was named after the title song on Smokey Robinson's 1975 album ''A Quiet Storm''. The radio format was pioneered in 1976 by Melvin Lin ...

programming blocks on adult R&B radio.

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

played the guitar solo on "You So Heavy",

Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading n ...

provided vocals on the title album track, and

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jaz ...

provided bass on "Sunny Skies". The album has been reissued by SoulMusic Records in 2012, with 5 bonus tracks.

Track listing

All songs written by

, except where noted. #"Emerald City" - 4:10 #"Once Is Not Enough" - 5:47 #"Lips to Find You" (Bendrix, Marie) - 5:11 #"You So Heavy" (Marie, Penny "P.J." Johnson) - 5:07 #"Shangri-La" (Marie, Johnson) - 5:04 #"Batucada Suite" - 5:06 #"Love Me Down Easy" - 5:24 #"Sunny Skies" - 7:14 Bonus tracks - 2012 SoulMusic reissue #"Lips To Find You" (US Instrumental) - Expanded Edition #"Love Me Down Easy" (US 12” single) - Expanded Edition #"Love Me Down Easy" (US Instrumental 12” single) - Expanded Edition #"14K" (track from "The Goonies" soundtrack) - Expanded Edition #"Lead Me On" (track from the "Top Gun" soundtrack) - Expanded Edition

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emerald City (Teena Marie Album) Teena Marie albums 1986 albums Epic Records albums