“It started one place and ended somewhere different,” says Sug Daniels. “But ended right where it was supposed to end.”
The Delaware-rooted, Philly-based singer-songwriter said this last month while participating in the Let’s Talk About Jill Scott roundtable on WXPN Local — a meeting of the five #BlackMusicCity grant winners for 2022 whose projects celebrated iconic singer-songwriter Jill Scott in one way or another.
The first component of Daniels project, a cover of Scott’s hit single “Golden,” is out now. Recorded with a fellow Delawarean, multi-instrumentalist and producer Samuel Nobles, the recording both reinvents and stays incredibly true to Scott’s original. While “Golden” as heard on 2004’s Beautifully Human; Words and Sounds Vol. 2 is an uplifting bop out the gate, Daniels and Nobles slow and shift the tempo, making the vibe a bit more contemplative at the outset and building it into something instrumentally lush and rhythmically feel-good, underscoring that “taking my freedom” imagery in the lyrics.
Originally, Daniels planned to produce the cover and a video of her performing it, and have that be the project. But while shooting (with XPN’s Paige Walter behind the camera), she began to capture intimate moments of self-reflection, Daniels contemplating her own personal and artistic journey, as well as her relationship with the song and what it means to her. That video will be released in due time; meanwhile, listen to Daniels’ “Golden” cover below (and take the Jill Scott original for a spin as well).
Daniels and Nobles will play Dilworth Plaza at City Hall on July 27th; she’ll also open for Sarah Shook and the Disarmers at Valley Creek Park in Malvern on July 20th, and will play Rigby Mansion’s Sweet Juice Summer Fest on July 31st; details on all three can be found at Daniels’ Linktree. And both Daniels and Shook will be part of the 2022 XPoNential Music Festival; she with the Black Opry Review, them with their band. Tickets and more information can be found at XPNFest.org.