After a disappointing outing on Shanachie in 2009, this year should be a return to form for Leela James on an album which sees her reunited with Carl “Chucky” Thompson, the man who helped create the sound on her 2005 debut, Change Is Gonna Come.

“The title of the album, My Soul, pretty much says it all,” she told soultracks.com. “I just wanted to go into the studio and do what moved me at the time, and not think about it too much or not allow it to be something that was too planned. That’s what great soul music has always been about from the very beginning – something very raw, very authentic and very true.”