Exclusive: James Fauntleroy "Leading By Example" Mixtape

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you've no doubt seen James Fauntleroy's name pop up a few times. To catch the rest of you up, James Fauntleroy is my favorite songwriter. He's scored his biggest hit thus far in Jordin Sparks' "No Air," but he has also written incredible songs for Rihanna ("Fire Bomb") & David Archuleta ("Running") as well as most of Brandy's best material as of late ("Home," "Drum Life," & "Stand Back," just to name a few), etc., etc. What's cool about him is he seems to write for his own voice, so he sounds great on his demos (as does any talented singer he gives a song to)--which is REALLY cool because there is a plethora (& I mean PLETHORA) of his songs floating around! For example, his (excellent) demos for all of the aforementioned songs (with the exception of "Fire Bomb," sadly) are available online for your listening pleasure. What I've compiled here in Leading By Example, however, does not include songs you're probably familiar with, but rather the best of his material that has not been recorded by someone else. (That is, unless you're a Chris Cornell fan, as he did record the mixtape's first track, but seeing as this is an R&B/pop blog, I'm assuming you aren't... but either way, J-Faunt's version is awesome!) Naturally, James connects to his music remarkably well & you'll likely find yourself feeling the same way about it after listening to Leading By Example, which just so happens to be one of the most-played albums in my iTunes library. As before, click the play button above, check out the tracklisting below, & enjoy yourself!

1. Stop Me
2. Stingy
3. Between Me & You
4. Last Mistake Ever
5. Example
6. Fertilizer
7. Know You
8. Heart Dead
9. Make Your Body Talk To Me
10. Dizzy
11. Overhead
12. On Tour
13. Love Isn't Free
14. Stadium Love

P.S. Fun tidbit: James once informed me on Twitter when "Last Mistake Ever" leaked that when he wrote the song, he never named it, so he has no idea where the song's random title came from. He did, however, jokingly tell me that he would have called it "Act Like I'm Not All In Love With You." My recommedation? "All In Love With You." ;)