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HONORÉ – “Overcome” – Digital single – Soul Jones Records – 16th October 2026
The eagerly anticipated debut album from Honoré (pronounced “On-or-Ray”) is, for the most part, a love affair, the concept inspired by getting swept off her feet by a Canadian, now her husband, and moving with him to Toronto. “Overcome” is the diversion home.
Inspirational soul in the rousing tradition of the ’70s. Think a Gamble & Huff-style Philly message song, delivered by a Minnie Riperton or a Valerie Simpson, with strings, horns and massed voices (Honoré multi-tracked, drawing on her five octave range) carrying the testimony. Underneath it, though, the rhythm is clean and tight Earth, Wind & Fire-style funk. Her session band, the Detroit Lovers, cut the 115bpm groove at Willis Sound in Willis, Michigan, joined by the 18-piece Detroit Soulchestra. Arranged and produced by Maurice “Pirahnahead” Herd (Victoria Monét, Lucky Daye, Sy Smith, De La Soul) and former Nightcrawlers (“Push The Feeling On”) member Thomas McKay.
The song came out of a trip back to her parents in Detroit, where she was born and raised, sitting in their living room in front of a television that was always turned on. Consumed by music, she doesn’t own a telly herself, by choice, and a few days of the mainstream news cycle reminded her just how disillusioned she had become with her home country. “I had to write what I was feeling,” she says.
With ICE running rampant, it was a time when Trump was cosying up to Elon Musk and DOGE was in full effect. “It’s about gearing up to slay the dragons of today,” says Honoré. “We have dragons. They are real. Unfortunately, they are human. And it all stems from greed.” Her dismay was tempered by how desensitised her parents, with a lifetime of experience behind them, had become to the shocking stories being churned out. “Looking at that awful stuff, but also remembering who you are, not succumbing to that despair.”
The title has a double meaning. On the one hand, Honoré was overcome with emotion at what was happening; on the other, she was determined to do her bit to overcome the circumstances being forced upon her fellow Americans.
As the song was taking shape in the studio, the first demo, written as “Riding High”, didn’t feel powerful enough, so she changed the title before the lead vocal was cut. “It’s too important a song to me.” She had already cried in the studio over it. “I was afraid of making a song that was just a platitude.” The answer was not in pretending everything would be all right, but in knowing that there is still much left to fight for. “As long as we draw breath, there is hope.”
The same care and attention went into the vocal. Honoré put in extra practice to hone the lead until she felt she had it down. “I gave myself enough time to figure that out.” Taking inspiration from Deniece Williams records, she recut it from scratch months later.
What “Overcome” offers is a direction rather than a fix. “If we stick together, if we realise that the people are stronger than the few who are trying to use us, we can overcome.” The motto she now lives by sits in the lyric: “I rise, you rise, we rise.”
Honoré arrived with the Thom Bell-influenced sweet soul double A-side “It’s Over” / “Innocent & Real”, the former picking up airplay on BBC Radio 2 and Jazz FM on its way to #2 on the UK Soul Chart, the latter becoming a soul-head connoisseur favourite. The euphoric ’70s super-soul of “Ain’t No Substitute” went one better and hit #1, while subscribers to leading American soul music website SoulTracks voted her Newcomer Soul Artist of the Year for 2025. The gorgeous Hi Records-style vintage soul of “We’re Still Making Love” followed this summer and remains in rotation.
“Overcome” is released by Soul Jones Records on 16th October 2026 as a digital single. Honoré’s self-titled debut album follows on 30th October, on vinyl and digital.
Philly message soul on a Detroit funk groove. Dig it.
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Track: “Overcome”
Written by: Maureen Honoré
Produced by: Maurice “Pirahnahead” Herd, Thomas McKay
Arranged by: Maurice “Pirahnahead” Herd
Vocals, backing vocals: Maureen Honoré
Bass: Takashi Iio
Rhythm guitar: Sasha Kashperko, Thomas McKay
Keys, synth: Antony Gordon
Drums: Ron Otis
Strings and Horns: Detroit Soulchestra Ensemble by Maurice Herd, contractor: John Madison
Band recorded at: Willis Sound, Willis MI
Strings and Horns recorded at: Black Sheep Audio & Production, Novi, MI
Vocals, backing vocals recorded at: Exeter Sound Studios, Toronto, ONCat. No: SJRD902
Label: Soul Jones Records© all rights reserved