Although Rosie Gaines is in the music biz for quite a while now, had a successful time with Prince and his New Power Generation on his Graffiti Bridge and Diamonds And Pearls album and even had a major hit with a house remix of Closer Than Close, she's unfortunately not a household name yet. This is really a pity since our Rosie has enough talent to become a major star. She not only writes all songs herself but she also did the producing, recording and mixing jobs for her new album You Gave Me Freedom.
And thanks to Dome Records in the UK Rosie Gaines' new album is now widley available after her irresistible I Can't Get You Off My Mind was featured on the Hidden Hits compilation.
You Gave Me Freedom is a good and solid soul album with some very good stand-out cuts like the aforementioned I Can't Get You Off My Mind or So In Love With You, a beautiful ballad with Rosie delivering a great vocal performance. Another highlight is What The World Needs Now (no this is not a cover of the Burt Bacharach song of the same name), a fine midtempo soul song with some social conscious lyrics.
There's also the finger-popping swing of Honeychild or the catchy Wanna Be to satisfy lover of quality music. If you like your music more funky then you might enjoy New Beginning or I'm All Woman.
All in all this is a good album with two exceptions. Firstly, the cover version of the jazz standard My Man, which is really not the best version available although Rosie tried to give this song a new direction but failed in my opinion, and secondly the rather poor and flat sound of the otherwise nice Get Into This Groove, which sounds to my ears just like a highly compressed mp3 file would.

"I disagree with your assessment of Rosie's rendition of " MY MAN". She has put a new spin on the song. The scatting is impeccable. The entire treatment of this song in inventive, dynamic and is just an absolutely soulful interpretation of a Jazz Classic. I'm listening to it as I type this. It is a trully awesome rendition. She's probably playing piano too. Picture that "Live". I can hear Billie Holiday, Anita Baker, Aretha and Ella influences all over it, yet she makes it her own."