Can you imagine Etta James performing a Layla Frankel song? If not, then the Nashville-based “Soulcana” (an amalgamation of pop, folk, soul, rock and blues influences) singer-songwriter Layla Frankel has you covered as she unwraps her new single, “You Can’t Love Me Like I Loved You,” to be released on Friday, March 26. It will appear on the upcoming EP Postcard From the Moon.
With a musical style that pays homage to the spirit of the late, great Etta James, Layla Frankel moved to Nashville in 2017 when she was fresh off a cross-country tour. Frankel initially found Nashville to be filled with certain cliques and clichés and started writing with original, bluesy authority. With the new single, she writes of salvation through the eyes of faith, taking on the role of a woman who expresses heartache at one hundred percent, thinking she’d make up for what her man had lacked. Maybe she could have loved him more for the both of them.
“You Can’t Love Me Like I Loved You” was a finalist in the R&B category of the 2020 John Lennon Songwriting Contest as noted HERE.
The single was recorded at Startstruck Studios in Nashville, produced and mixed by Jim Kimball (who has toured and recorded with an extensive roster of artists that includes Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Justin Timberlake), engineered by Todd Tidwell and the executive producer was Mary Johnson. The track features some of Nashville’s top session players:
Layla Frankel – lead vocals; Alex DeVor – keyboards, piano, background vocals; Sol Philcox-Littlefield – electric guitar; Jim Kimball – acoustic guitar, mandolin; Mark Hill – bass; NirZidkyahu – drums.
“You Can’t Love Me Like I Loved You” is a feel-good song with a hooky chorus that features horns and harmonies of a bygone era; think Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, Sheryl Crow, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan, but with a hint of modern day music.
