(June 14, 2023) “There Is No Distance,” the new ballad by The Detroit Emeralds, is a heartfelt description of why one person is determined to maintain a close connection to another. The tune is the kind of declaration of love and loyalty that many listeners wrongly claim can no longer be heard in contemporary R&B.
Of course, James Mitchell has been making romantic ballads, mid-tempo love songs and dance tunes as a part of The Detroit Emeralds or The Floaters since the 1960s, so he knows how to do this. He personally selected Dewayne "Loc" Lomax, Alfonzo Livingston, and Orrick Ewing as the three new members of the group and tapped Peter Sinfield, who wrote “Think Twice” for Celine Dion, to write “There Is No Distance.”
(June 14, 2023) “There Is No Distance,” the new ballad by The Detroit Emeralds, is a heartfelt description of why one person is determined to maintain a close connection to another. The tune is the kind of declaration of love and loyalty that many listeners wrongly claim can no longer be heard in contemporary R&B.
Of course, James Mitchell has been making romantic ballads, mid-tempo love songs and dance tunes as a part of The Detroit Emeralds or The Floaters since the 1960s, so he knows how to do this. He personally selected Dewayne "Loc" Lomax, Alfonzo Livingston, and Orrick Ewing as the three new members of the group and tapped Peter Sinfield, who wrote “Think Twice” for Celine Dion, to write “There Is No Distance.”
The result is that fans will be treated to a cut that will take longtime fans of The Detroit Emeralds, the Floaters and soulful balladry back to the when a guy couldn’t wait for the pace at the party to slow down so he could walk across the room and see if this number was enough to convince the lady who caught his eye to join him on the floor and reduce the distance between them to zero.
Any fella looking to use “There Is No Distance” as the soundtrack for romance will get ample help from The Detroit Emeralds. The quartet possess a solid interplay between the sweet tenor lead and the backing vocalists, and Sinfield’s lyrics recall the gentlemanly romance regularly heard on the radio back in the day. Check out The Detroit Emeralds on “There Is No Distance” here.
By Howard Dukes
The Detroit Emeralds
"There Is No Distance"