Sasha Frere-Jones tries to explain the excitement surrounding Amy Winehouse, this year's Grammy-winning phenomenon. Tellingly, the praise Frere-Jones finds for Winehouse comes across as faint, forced, labored or learned. He convinces me there's no reason to bother with her music.

In contrast, Frere-Jones breaks into real enthusiasm when he mentions the Dap-Kings, Winehouse's backing band. They're based in Brooklyn and a key part of Daptone Records, which is a headquarters for a revival in 60s soul and 70s funk. Sharon Jones is Daptone's star. Frere-Jones describes her this way:

(The Dap-Kings also work with Sharon Jones, a fiery fifty-one-year-old singer from Georgia, who is building a body of work based on sixties soul. Jones & Co. are faithfully re-creating the sound of Lyn Collins, a singer who was produced by and played with James Brown. Watching the two singers with the same band is like a controlled experiment. Live, there is no contest. Winehouse can be iffy, but Sharon Jones and the band invariably hit their marks hard and with gusto.)

And that's what you get, when you're the better artist, who happens to shine on the declining side of age, race and (yes) height: Parentheses bounding your laudatory review.

No worries, though. Amazon.com could not be more agnostic towards fashion or more dutiful in spreading Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' latest recording – 100 Days, 100 Nights – by CD and mp3. Do the right thing.

Music journalism