They often call him Fred but his real name is Mr. Aaron Neville Jr. At 34, Aaron Neville Jr. has earned the honorific, not only by his life experiences but by his musical individualism as well. How easy, we might well conjecture, to be the son of New Orleans' most famous native son. How easy, just to slide right into that music-industry groove and make a slick skim up the fame tree. How hard, in fact. It's no easy trick to be born and raised under the imposing Neville umbrella. But Aaron Jr., so much in the tradition of his older brother Ivan, has managed to handle the name, the fame and - most importantly - his own vision of life and music. The music on his demo, "Brotha 2 Brotha," sings volumes about growing up Neville, growing up hardscrabble New Orleans. Growing up. With little brother Jason, A Jr. delivers more soulful common sense than you'd ever expect on a handful of tracks. Those tracks - most of the writing done by little brother Jason - were recently delivered to a major record company in Los Angeles, and you can start rubbing your hands together now because "Brotha" will be sweetening your ears soon enough. Aaron Jr, who spends a lot of his time working for Neville Productions, is undeniably Nevillized, musically; comes with the genes, comes with the territory. But he's staked a claim for himself musically that's undeniably, well, AJ. He credits Brother Jason with most of the songwriting, but no one will doubt it's a real Neville-style collaboration. But don't assume it came easy. Like other Nevilles - hey, like so many others, Neville or non - Aaron Jr. had to battle a few demons before he found his muses.
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