Solomon Burke's return to country is as much a spiritual renewal as it is a reinterpretation of some of Nashville's greatest mainstream and Americana songs. The 66-year old King of Rock & Soul has always plied the gospel, of course, but Music City sometimes forgets to feel it in its bones. Buddy Miller, whose gritty hillbilly pleadings always carry a healthy dose of otherworldly soulfulness, is the right producer to bring it all together, since he invites such sidemen as Sam Bush, Kenny Vaughan, and Byron House, as well as guests/duet partners Patty Griffin, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Patty Loveless. This is the kind of album that clicks right off but continues to grow on you, such greasy, rolling blues-rock songs as Paul Kennerley and Barry Tashian's "Honey, Where's the Money Gone" loosening up your sacroiliac and Griffin's affecting "Up to the Mountain" morphing into a secular hymn in Burke's big hands. Not everything completely jells: The R&B chorines on "Vicious Circle" jar next to Miller's plinking banjo and Li'l Abner framework, and this rendition of his searing "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger" cries out for wife Julie's songbird harmonies. But when everybody sets their mouth right--as on Burke's duet with Harris on the George Jones/Tammy Wynette classic "We're Gonna Hold On"--the seas nearly part. Throw in some cockiness from the delightfully twisted psyche of Jim Lauderdale ("Seems Like You're Gonna Take Me Back") and Vaughan's blistering chicken-pickin' electric guitar, and lawdy, momma, ain't that good news today! --Alanna Nash
Album Description
Solomon Burke, the King of Rock & Soul, completes his 21st century trilogy with Nashville, a collection of country songs produced by Buddy Miller and recorded at his Nashville home. Solomon returns to one of his first loves, country music, after the GRAMMY® Award-winning Don't Give Up On Me and the GRAMMY®-nominated Make Do With What You Got. (His breakthrough '60s singles on Atlantic Records were in a country vein.) Nashville contains Solomon's soulful versions of classic country and country-tinged songs (by Tom T. Hall, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Don Williams, and others) and previously unrecorded soon-to-be standards by Patty Griffin and Gillian Welch, who also contribute vocals. Country divas Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Patty Loveless also make guest vocal appearances. It all adds up to one of the most affecting marriages of country and soul ever recorded.
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