The Best Voice of 2012 for me has to be the voice of the one and only Willis Earl Beal . where should I start, this guys voice is really something quite special indeed, somehow his voice is both haunting and extremely soulfull. at the same time, it has the same power that made the Anthony and the Johnson’s really jump out. His voice is something like the crackling power of Tom waits raw and gruph with a kind of sonic saltyness which can only really be compared to 1920s chain-chomp Blues records.

His performances are blistering in his ground swelling vocal display and his physical presence is big and intense, that he doesn’t need a backing band onstage with him. All he has for the live set-up is a real to real tape player that plays clunky backing tracks and one guitar that he plays on the song Evening Kiss, But trust me that is all that he needs.

I have been lucky to see Willis Earl Beal a number of times this summer, this man really does have something special, i’ve been left crying shaking like a nervous wreck. All three times feeling over come by his vocal power, its like being sucked in by something scary and loving at the same time.