Luke McMaster feat. Lamont Dozier: ‘My Life is A Song’

By Kerry Doole

Luke McMaster feat. Lamont Dozier -  "My Life Is A Song" (indie:)  The Canadian pop star's recording with the legendary Motown singer-songwriter is one of the most interesting collaborations we've come across in a while.

This new tune was spawned by a soon to be released documentary project entitled Icons of Soul, in which McMaster and his songwriting partner Arun Chaturvedi track down some titans of soul, hang out with them, hear their stories, and then write a song with them.

"My Life Is A Song" is the first single from McMaster's recently-released album, Icons of Soul Volume 1,  and is a co-write between McMaster, Chaturvedi, Christopher Ward ("Black Velvet"), and Dozier.

The song features McMaster's blue-eyed soul voice neatly complementing the mellow and melodic vocals of the master, Dozier. The lyrics include titles of earlier Motown hits he helped write, and the video also nods to history. "Straight from Motor City to your radio," the song declares, and let's hope that's the case.

McMaster explains in a media release that his project “is a way for me to honour the soul music and the Motown sound that I fell in love with and which continues to be my favourite music. These songs and the documentary remind people who may have forgotten and educates those who may have never known, about the legacy that people like Lamont Dozier have built, and that the music these individuals created in the 1960s is the foundation of much of what they are hearing in modern soul, R&B and pop music today." 

“Working with Lamont was incredible, even just watching him sing and what he did with the melodies and other aspects of the piece, just using his instincts, are things I wouldn’t have come up with in a million years. The way he can just kind of close his eyes and tap into something is really inspiring,” he said.

Dozier, still spry at 78 and very active in contemporary songwriting circles, was part of the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland team, alongside brothers Eddie and Brian Holland. Together they composed a string of hits for the likes of The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Isley Brothers, and Martha and the Vandellas, before moving on to form their own label, Invictus Records, in 1968. In 1990 the Holland-Dozier-Holland trio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

McMaster has focused on his songwriting career in recent years, contributing material to top artists such as Rihanna, Nick Lachey, and Jim Brickman.

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Publicity: Paula Danylevich, Hype Music