Mama’s Pride

How Mama’s Pride got a bunch of Sammie awards for “best R&B group” is curious; the local quartet, fronted by twin sisters Tiffany and Kimberly Reis, makes meat ’n’ potatoes, guitar-based pop rock with gutsy vocals, simple triad harmonic intervals and a pre-Zeppelin-era lack of instrumental complexity. Some of the clichéd lyrics may get overbearing, like “What’s Meant to Be Will Be,” with its line about making lemonade, and the songwriting could use a bit of tweaking to strengthen the band’s better ideas and eliminate some of the ones that don’t work. Rebirth does get more interesting a few cuts in; imagine Bananarama trying to sound like a 1960s soul-rock band like the Rascals. So, when’s that short guy from Minneapolis who used to sign his name with an unpronounceable dingbat going to show up?