I loved the House mix of Shannon Harris and Avery Young's "Keep on Reachin'" so much that the album's namesake sent in a copy of the CD - probably for courtesy, but this one is good enough to bite into on its own (Artists, take note, cuz this is how it's done. More than a hundred producers and singers have been reviewed in these pages, and just about everything sent to the office gets reviewed as time and space permit.) It's been out awhile but if you haven't picked it up, I'm going to tell you to do it now while you've still got a chance.

The label helpfully points out that record stores should file this one under "Jazz, World Music, Dance, House, Acid Jazz, Soul and Afro-Beat". I'm here to tell you that any one of them would be appropriate. I tried to put this into words the other day, but I truly believe that Shannon is one of the most talented artists - not just in House music, and not just in Chicago, but anywhere. I don't know how this is supposed to be listened to, but this to me seemed like a man telling a story in several chapters, from the uplifting and e-z listening "May God Be With U Always (Awakening) that opens up the disc to the rootsy and deep "Mizimu: Ancestral Spirits". It's not all House, it's not all up-tempo but it is all pure spirit and those who have it will most likely recognize it as such.