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 Chicago Pride -- Under the covers. Three words that, when taken together, can—depending on one’s own proclivities—conjure up opposing images in the mind: naughty or nice, salacious or modest, dangerous or safe. Now, take these same three words and make them the title of the new album by singer/turned porn star/turned singer Colton Ford, and the brain activity intensifies. Under the Covers is the second full-length album from Ford, following his 2008 debut, Tug of War. Sure, the title winkingly refers to Ford’s adult film past. But it’s also an apt reference to the album’s main focus: songs made famous by others.
Ford has recorded a collection of songs that sound, at once wholly familiar and wonderfully fresh. Musically, Under the Covers spans myriad genres and multiple decades. At 32-years-old, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” (re-imagined here as an interlude) is the oldest song in the collection. It is seamlessly situated between R.E.M.’s alternative rock hit “Losing My Religion” and Babyface’s R&B charttopper “It’s no Crime.” Elsewhere, Ford takes on Britney Spears’ “Trouble,” Sade’s “By Your Side,” Alicia Keys’ “No One” and Nirvana’s “Lithium.” Ford’s lifelong fondness for words and melodies led him to begin a career in music while still in college, working as a performer in dinner theater revues. By the late-’80s, Ford had signed a production deal with the company co-owned by hit-making songwriter Denise Rich. In the early-’90s, Ford was confirmed to be the featured male vocalist on Frankie Knuckles’ second studio album, 1995’s Welcome to the Real World. In the end, conflicts at the label (Virgin Records) prevented this from happening. Virgin then offered Ford a solo deal, but the album never saw the light of day.
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