NO HOLDS BARRED

Yeah, he just won a bunch of Grammys, but don’t hold that against him.

John Legend is a present-day soul singer in the hallowed traditions of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Sam Cooke. While it is far too early in his career to include him in such a distinguished classical group, he has the voice, musical skills, songwriting ability, heart, and intelligence to make it there some day, and maybe in the near future.

If you haven’t listened to and studied his music already, this weekend, with no major boxing and an impending blizzard in the Northeast U.S., is a good one to take the plunge.

There are both full-length studio and live versions of his signature song “Ordinary People" on his page on the VH1 site. This page also links to a short biography.

You can also go to his own site for more information, although unfortunately it is poorly designed and hard to navigate, especially bad for a bidding superstar.

Nonetheless, I highly recommend buying his debut album, Get Lifted, either by legal download, or the CD or CD/DVD versions. This is one you will want to keep and play repeatedly.