Blue-eyed and Memphis soul too smoothed-out to light sparks

Steve Cropper (ace guitarist for Booker T and the MG’s and Stax mainstay) and Felix Cavaliere (lead vocalist and organist for the Young Rascals) got together in 2008 for the tasty Nudge it up a Notch. Each showed some fire left in the tank, with  Cropper’s guitar playing instantly identifiable, and Cavaliere’s soulful voice still intact. This second outing still finds resonance between the two players, but its smoother sound doesn’t create the sparks of their previous outing. Key contributors to the previous album, including producer (and co-songwriter) Jon Tiven and drummer Chester Thompson are missed here. The opener, “You Give Me All I Need,” plays like a Hall & Oates song, and the title track’s galloping rhythm doesn’t generate the heat that it should. The production is generally too modern and the sound too clean to give this album the bite these players need. The songs, written by Cropper, Cavaliere and their producer/drummer Tom Hambridge, aren’t up to the level of their previous outing, neither evoking earlier glories nor offering anything startling new. The instrumental closer “Do it Like This” finds the album’s best groove, and a pair of covers, Ann Peeble’s “I Can’t Stand the Rain” and Jerry Butler and Betty Everett’s “I Can’t Stand It,” are more engaging than the original material. You can hear the musical talent, but neither the songs nor the production make the most of it. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Sizzling performance clips perk up documentary of soulful ‘60s songbird

One Upon a Time: 1964-1969 is one of four documentaries released as part of a five-DVD British Invasion box set by Reelin’ in the Years Productions. Of the four artists profiles (which also include Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits), Dusty Springfield made perhaps the largest artistic impact on America. Herman’s Hermits had more hits, and the Small Faces were a bigger influence on the mod movement in the UK, but Springfield’s key works, “I Only Want to Be With You,” Bacharach & David’s “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” and especially “Son of a Preacher Man” harbored a soulfulness that none of her UK peers could match. She exuded class in her demure, self-contained dance moves, elegant frilled blouses and long skirts.

As with many pop stars of the era, Springfield’s television appearances mixed lip-synching and live performances. Unlike most others, though, her lip-synching was truly expressive. While others simply mimed their vocals, Springfield acted them out with her movements, doing with her body and face what she’d already done with her voice in the studio. Better yet, she was a great live singer, as evidenced by a terrific 1965 performance of “All Cried Out” on the Ed Sullivan show and 1966 NME poll winner’s performances of “In the Middle of Nowhere” and “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.” She exhorts the crowd while singing covers of Betty Everett’s “I Can’t Hear You” and Otis Redding’s “Shake,” and without a monitor speaker in sight, delivers pitch-perfect vocals.

Springfield had greater chart success in the UK than the US, but even songs that failed to conquer the states, such as “Some of Your Lovin’” and Bacharach and David’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” were strong enough to lodge in the ears of American fans. Even her lower-charting US hits, such as “Stay Awhile” (perfectly covered in 1978 by Rachel Sweet) remain familiar. In 1968 Springfield took her singing to a new level with the sessions that resulted in the album Dusty in Memphis and the single “Son of a Preacher Man.” Amid players and producers whose music had provided the template for her own recordings, she sang with a reserve that spoke to her underlying strength rather than the explicit power she could unleash. Her gospel phrasings and confessional tone gave the hit an intimacy with which listeners connected on a deep, emotional level. Amazingly, the single only reached #10 and became her last hit until a 1987 teaming with the Pet Shop Boys on “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”

This 69-minute documentary includes sixteen performances, each of which (and four more) can be seen in full in the DVD’s extras. There’s also a 24-page booklet that’s stuffed with liner notes by Annie Randall, photos, ephemera and credits. Period interview clips with Springfield from 1964, 1971 and 1978 and contemporary interviews with two of her backup singers (Madeline Bell and Simon Bell) and Burt Bacharach provide interesting personal reflections. The details of Springfield’s anti-apartheid contract clause (for shows in South Africa) are particularly enlightening. The performances are terrific, but, in the end, the documentary doesn’t tell enough of Springfield’s story, and fails to explain (as the liner notes do) why her commercial success faded at the end of the ‘60s. This is worth seeing, particularly for fans, but if you’re interested more generally in the British Invasion, the volumes on the Small Faces and Herman’s Hermits are better documentaries. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Gourds’ lead vocalist sings country-soul

Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell has taken a break from his front-line duties with the Gourds to record his second solo album. The voice and obtuse lyrics will be familiar to fans, but the sound isn’t as driving or rough as the Gourds’ records, sitting instead in a deep country-soul groove that sports unusual production touches around the edges. The second-line rhythms that pop-up with the Gourds are still here, but relaxed from a march to a stroll, and electric piano is dominant on many tracks. Russell sings with the sort of choked vocals made famous by Boz Scaggs, and though this music is lighter with its blues, the vibe may remind you (those few of you who are remindable) of ‘70s concert stalwarts the Climax Blues Band.

The album opens with a lunar creation myth that manages to evoke both ancient times and space-age travel, and “Country Cool” essays Russell’s easy-going, unpretentious tastes. There’s a fever to “(If You Need the) 442,” though it’s not exactly clear what the testimony is about, and the unusual selection of goods at the “Poor People’s Store” will be familiar to those who know their city’s thrift store treasures. The band turns funky for “East TX Rust,” bringing to mind Dr. John’s Gumbo and Swamp Dogg’s Cuffed, Collared and Tagged. It’s a shame Russell didn’t cover “Sam Stone,” though he does close with a wailing solo version Sam Cooke’s “Change is Gonna Come,” and it’s a treat to finally hear him sing a straightforward lyric. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Shores of Galilee
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Dave Gonzalez and Mike Barfield cook up country, rock, soul and funk

Out of tragedy, new opportunities sometimes spring. With the passing of vocalist Chris Gaffney, the Hacienda Brothers were shuttered, and Gaffney’s partner, Dave Gonzalez, was left to seek a new musical outlet. As a founding member of the California-based Paladins, Gonzalez had explored rockabilly and blues, and crafted a reputation as an ace electric guitarist. His work with Gafney on three Hacienda Brothers studio albums refined his playing with quieter country and southern soul flavors. His new partner, the Texas-based Mike Barfield, cut his teeth leading the Houston-based Hollisters, folding together country-rock hillbilly twang, tic-tac train rhythms, and deadpan baritone vocals that brought to mind Johnny Cash and John Doe. After two group albums, Barfield turned solo, issuing the superb Living Stereo in 2002.

Barfield’s second solo album, The Tyrant, was heavier on the funk rhythms than his debut, and though elements of that remain in this new collaboration, its his background in southern soul, blues and swamp rock that makes him a natural fit with Gonzalez. This isn’t Hacienda Brothers Mark II, as Barfield and Gaffney are very different singers and songwriters, but the songs, including a few well-selected covers, draw on similar sources. Barfield reprises his cover of Tyrone Davis’ “Can I Change My Mind,” which appeared on Living Stereo in more raw form. Here the earlier twin guitar leads are replaced by Dave Biller’s pedal steel and James Sweeny’s Hammond organ, and the entire track finds a deeper, smoother soul groove atop Scott Esbeck’s bass line. Barfield also revisits his own “Lovers Prison,” slowing it down slightly and adding more bottom end. It ends up sounding like a winning cross between the Buckaroos and the Lovin’ Spoonful.

The album’s most unusual cover is a take on Goffin & King’s “Take a Giant Step” that melds the psychedelic inflections of the Monkees’ original (the B-side of their first single) with the slow tempo of Taj Mahal’s 1969 cover. Barfield and Gozalez’s originals, written both separately and together, include southern-funk dance numbers, country rock, and most winningly, country-soul tunes that include the Gonzalez-sung “Still Feel the Feeling” and the co-written “Love’s Gonna Make It.” Barfield’s Texas sensibilities fit well with the Memphis influences Gonzalez picked up working with Dan Penn [1 2 3], and both fold perfectly into the duo’s country roots. Backed by a band that’s equally at home with twang and deep bass, the Stone River Boys are all set to burn it up on the road. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Boomerang
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Three incendiary Otis Redding live sets from April 1966

The past few years have been rich for Otis Redding fans, with expanded reissues of key live recordings hitting the market. A pair of 1967 performances from London and Paris documented Redding at the top of the Stax Revue, and his breakthrough performance at Monterey Pop has been reissued in high-definition Blu-Ray. These are now augmented by this double-disc set of Redding’s four night stand at Los Angeles’ Whiskey A Go Go. Unlike the 1967 sets, in which Redding performed with Booker T. and the M.G.s in a large auditorium, these 1966 Whiskey dates are played with his ten-piece road band to a smaller, but hugely appreciative, club audience. Some of this material has been anthologized before [1 2], but this is the first time these three complete sets (the last from Saturday night and both from the closing Sunday) have been released as a whole.

These are much more than collections of songs – they’re performances, with beginnings, middles and ends. Redding was not just the best soul singer of his generation, but a terrific entertainer who crafted whole performance, not just vocals. The segues between songs are often so tight as to leave both Redding and the audience gasping for breath; once he has you in his emotional grasp, he doesn’t let go. His command – of the material, his singing, the band, and of the audience – is so thorough that it’s difficult to believe he was only 24-years-old at the time. The sets are a perfect blend of his best known hits and covers, including tour de force workouts of the Stones “Satisfaction,” along with lesser-known gems like “Any Ole Way” and the R&B hit “Chained and Bound.” There’s some duplication of songs from set to set, but it’s interesting to hear how Redding mixes up the song order from night to night.

As satisfying as were the Stax Revue sets, as rousing as were those performances, as great as was the Stax house band, these performances are as good or better. Redding is an incandescent ball of fire for a half-hour at a stretch, and his band, led by saxophonist Bob Holloway, never lets up. Redding is warm as he takes a moment to speak with the audience, and he and Holloway share a bit of repartee while the band catches their breath. By the last set of the stand, Redding gets a bit playful with the set list, adding a cover of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” and a ten-minute rendition of “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” whose groove is soul deep (but whose looseness would have made James Brown a pretty penny in band fines).

The three sets weigh in at two hours of churning soul music, recorded by ace West Coast engineer Wally Heider. The sixteen-page booklet includes new liner notes by Ashley Kahn, a choice photo of a tuxedoed Redding with two go-go-dancers, and a microscopic reproduction of Pete Johnson’s L.A. Times show review. Redding’s subsequent European tour with Stax, three-night stand at San Francisco’s Fillmore, and legendary performance at Monterey Pop may have been witnessed by larger audiences, but these club sets capture the roots of his musical greatness: unrelentingly gutsy performances that leave every last drop of soul on the stage. This is an essential spin for Redding, Stax and soul fans. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Soaring contemporary Christian pop-rock, country and soul

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Two sides of Carole King

Brill Building legend Carole King has really had two full music careers. Starting in the late 1950s and flourishing in the 1960s, she was part of the legendary stable of New York City songwriters who took their name from the sister building to the one in which they wrote their effervescent gems for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music. Together with Gerry Goffin, King wrote some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s, scribing landmark sides for the Shirelles, Everly Brothers, Drifters, Chiffons, Monkees, Aretha Franklin, and dozens more. King is generally regarded, based on the chart success of her songs, as the most commercially successful female pop songwriter of the twentieth century. Had this been her only contribution to pop music, she’d be heralded as a legend, but King also had it in mind to step into the spotlight and perform her songs.

Her early attempts at a singing career, represented here by the Top 40 hit “It Might As Well Rain Until September,” fit into the prevailing Brill Building sound. She sang demos (some of which can be sampled on Brill Building Legends) and had another minor hit with “He’s a Bad Boy,” but didn’t really develop her singer’s voice until nearly a decade later. Moving to the West Coast, King recorded an album with Danny Kortchmar as The City (Now That Everything’s Been Said), and released a solo debut (Writer) that gained notice but little sales. It wasn’t until the following year’s Tapestry that King found the fame as a singer that her songs had previously found for her as a songwriter. Her songs created a lyrical voice that was perfectly in sync with 1971, and even more poignantly, her tour de force remake of 1959’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” highlighted the emotional depth that had been part of her songwriting from the earliest days.

Legacy’s 2-CD set looks at both sides of King’s career. Disc one samples her early solo work, her 1970s stardom with tracks from  Writer, Tapestry, Music, Rhymes & Reason, Fantasy, Wrap Around Joy, Thoroughbred, her score for Maurice Sendak’s Really Rosie, and a couple of later tracks recorded with Babyface (“You Can Do Anything”) and Celine Dion. Missing are the albums she recorded for Capitol, Atlantic and EMI from the late-70s into the early-90s; they may not be essential to telling the story of her breakthrough years, but a sampling of tracks would have made a nice addition. Disc two samples fifteen King compositions recorded by (and mostly hits for) other artists. The breadth of acts that made brilliant music from King and Goffin’s compositions is staggering, particularly when you realize this is a fraction of the hits she wrote, and that is in turn a fraction of the thousands of cover versions these songs earned.

Disc one clocks in at over seventy-one minutes, disc two at forty-one – no doubt the cross-licensing of singles from so many original labels limited the second disc’s track count. Additional King-penned hits by the Drifters, Cookies and Monkees are missed, as are hits by the Animals, Tony Orlando, Earl-Jean and Steve Lawrence (not to mention Freddy Scott, who’s “Hey Girl” is represented by a Billy Joel cover), but what’s here is terrific. Disc one isn’t a substitute for King’s classic albums of the early 1970s, but provides a very listenable tour through her first seven years as a solo artist, and a great introduction to one of pop music’s brightest lights. Disc two is rich, but only hints at the wealth of King’s songwriting catalog. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Tommy James’ third solo LP offers Nashville-bred country-soul

After charting fourteen Top 40 hits with the Shondells, Tommy James began a solo career on the heels of a temporary group hiatus that turned permanent. His second solo release, Christian of the World, yielded two big hits (“Draggin’ the Line” and “I’m Comin’ Home”), but this third solo effort – recorded in Nashville, produced by Elvis’ guitarist Scotty Moore, and featuring the talents of Music City’s finest studio players – didn’t catch on with either pop or country radio. And that’s a shame, because it may be James’ most fully realized album. With a band that included Moore and Ray Edenton on guitar, Pete Drake on steel, Pig Robbins on keyboards, Charlie McCoy on harmonica and DJ Fontana and Buddy Harmon on drums, James cut a dozen originals, mostly co-written with co-producer Bob King, and a cover of Linda Hargrove’s “Rosalee” that features some fine fiddle playing by Buddy Spicher.

There are numerous country touches in the instruments and arrangements, but also the sort of country-soul B.J. Thomas, Joe South and Elvis recorded in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. James didn’t re-fashion himself a nasally country singer, instead finding the soulful style he’d developed on the Shondells’ Travelin’ fit perfectly with the textures created by the studio players and the gospel-styled backing vocals of the Nashville Edition. James’ voice is easily recognized as the one that graced the Shondells’ hits, but it sounds just as at home in this twangier setting. The productions are remarkably undated (except, perhaps, Pete Drake’s talking guitar on “Paper Flowers”), and though not up to Nashville’s current classic rock volume, they still feel surprisingly contemporary.

James and King wrote songs of faith, romance, lost-love and lovable scoundrels, but in the pop idiom rather than the country, so while their topics fit Nashville norms, the words didn’t ring of 17th Avenue. In James’ hands, even the Nashville-penned “Rosalee” sounds more like Memphis or Muscle Shoals than Music City. The religious and spiritual themes of Christian of the World are revisited in songs contemplating the hereafter, the call to community, and the sunny warmth and peaceful satisfaction of belief. Unlike the preceding album, however, none of these songs managed to grab the ear of radio programmers or singles buyers. Perhaps no one was ready for James to fully graduate from his career with the Shondells, but in retrospect, divorced from the pop and bubblegum hits that led him to 1971, one can readily hear the new level of artistry he achieved.

Collectors’ Choice’s straight-up reissue clocks in at nearly 44-minutes, making this the longest of the four Shondells/James reissues in a batch that also includes I Think We’re Alone Now, Gettin’ Together, and Travelin’. The six-page booklet features full-panel reproductions of the album’s front- and back-cover, and newly struck liner notes by Ed Osborne that includes fresh interview material with James himself. While Shondells/James neophytes might pick a greatest hits album (such as Anthology or Definitive Pop Collection) as a starter over the Shondells’ original albums, anyone who enjoys country-rock with a soulful backbone should check out James terrific accomplishments on this release. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Pop band’s swansong muscles up heavy rock and soul

By the time of this album’s 1970 release, Tommy James and the Shondells had morphed from the garage/frat-rock of “Hanky Panky” to the bubblegum of “I Think We’re Alone Now” to the pop psych of “Crimson and Clover” to the gospel-soul of “Sweet Cherry Wine.” For this last album as a group – James would fly solo with a self-titled album later in the year – they reduced the psychedelic quotient from Crimson & Clover and experimental flights of Cellophane Symphony and muscled up some heavy rock ‘n’ soul. The album is surprisingly funky and progressive, especially when compared to what the band had been recording just a few years earlier.

Opening with the near-instrumental title tune, the sound is funky progressive rock, complete with a lengthy syncopated organ-and-drums breakdown and even a short drum solo. The heavy sounds continue with James effectively refashioning himself into a soul shouter and blues crooner. Mike Vale propels the album’s second single “Gotta Get Back to You” with his bass line, and arranger Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner deploys a backing chorus to terrific effect. The band’s mid-60s garage-rock roots turn up in the “Little Black Egg” riff of “Moses & Me,” but topped with a processed vocal that’s very end-of-the-decade, and the bluesy “Bloody Water” borrows the guitar hook of “Tobacco Road” and roughs it up nicely.

The album’s pre-release hit, “She,” is also the tune that fits least with the album’s heavy vibe. Co-written with Richie Cordell and bubblegum kings Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, the lush ballad is a throwback to the Shondells’ earlier work. James and Bob King’s originals were significantly more grown-up and gritty than the pop songs the group recorded a couple of years earlier, and suggested the expanded horizons James would explore in his solo career. Traces of the group’s earlier studio experiments are still to be heard here, but with the psychedelic fog lifting, the focus is more firmly on song craft. Casual listeners may want to start with the hit anthologies Anthology or The Definitive Pop Collection, but fans will want to hear the distance the group traveled to this final collaborative album.

Collectors’ Choice’s straight-up reissue clocks in at under 34-minutes, leaving one to wish they’d doubled-up with a second album (or add bonus tracks), as they did for recent reissues of Jackie DeShannon, Waylon Jennings, B.J. Thomas and others. The six-page booklet includes full-panel reproductions of the album’s gatefold front cover (with a terrific Ron Lesser western painting depicting James and Shondells’ stagecoach being chased on horseback by Roulette label head Morris Levy), but the thematic inside cover panels aren’t included. The track list restores the album’s intended ordering, swapping the two album sides and leading off with the album’s title track. Newly struck liner notes by Ed Osborne include fresh interview material with James himself. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Invigorating mix of rock ‘n’ roll, production pop, Tex-Mex and more

Among the most intriguing aspects of this San Antonio quartet’s second album is that you’re never quite sure what you’re listening to. Is it taking cues from early rock? California production pop? Stax soul? Tex-Mex? Neo-psychedelic grunge? The answer is ‘yes’ to all. At times, like the Beach Boys ‘65-inspired “Younger Days,” the influence is pure honorific. Other antecedents are amalgamated, such as the suggestions of Little Richard and Thee Midniters in the early rock ‘n’ soul of “Mama’s Cookin.” Others are honored and tweaked at the same time, such as a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “You’re My Girl,” on which the sound is a bit harder than the original, but the lust in the vocal gets at what Phil and Don could only allude to in 1965.

You can hear Sgt. Pepper’s-era Beatles in the guitars, the somber mood of Johnny Cash in the vocals, and the teenage energy of mid-60s go-go rock in the rhythms. But as quickly as one thing strikes you familiar another emerges from the mix to create doubts. “Got to Get Back Home” features the roller-rink organ of Dave “Baby” Cortez,” a Norteno polka-rhythm and accordion, and a vocal that swings like a drunken folk-revival whaling song. The closing title track is an instrumental session that sounds like ? and the Mysterians jamming a B-side in Memphis. As an added treat, several of the tracks are produced in punchy AM-ready mono and the album is available on vinyl! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | I Keep Waiting
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