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CHRISTIAN WEEK MAGAZINE: HE'S IN
THE SOUL SHAKIN' BUSINESS! - Music Review/06
If it’s true that the best bluesmen, instead of fading away, just
improve with age—that would explain what’s happening to Danny
Brooks. On
Soulsville: Rock This House, the second installment of Brooks’
Memphis trilogy, the vision he introduced in the first recording
has progressed and keeps getting better. One of the most obvious
differences is that the country flavorings have been replaced with
a Memphis-style horn section that soars through most tracks.
Brooks voice seems stronger, and the musicianship seems hotter. |
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Similar to his
last album there’s a nostalgia for the Memphis R&B hits of a
generation ago. On “Hold On” he sings of past stars Otis
Redding, Gladys Knight and Sam Cooke without
turning it into a gospel piece; sure, there’s a reference to
The Blind Boys of Alabama, too, but the album has plenty of
bold statements already. Keyboard master
Richard
Bell expertly produced this disc, with many of the same
players he called on for
Soulsville: Souled Out ‘n Sanctified—bassist Dennis Pinhorn,
drummer Bucky Berger, Gary Craig and Doug Romanow.
This time Papa John King, who’s played for years with
Long John
Baldry, is the electric guitarist of choice. Although
Rock
This House is a roots record, it never gets stuck in a rut.
The opening song, Can’t Keep A Good Man Down For Long, is
a Jerry Lee Lewis-styled rocker featuring Bell on piano. Stand
Up builds from a shuffling bass line to a roaring chant and
concludes with blasting horns. Good Love Is Hard To Find
is a catchy pop song in the Memphis tradition and Down On My
Knees is an organ-drenched ballad. Growling his way through “Yonder
Cloud”—a harmonica-rich blues strut inspired by John Lee
Hooker—Brooks sounds more than a little like Tom Waits
at his best. The vocal group
on the cut “Walks On Water” echoes the Blind Boys’ version
of the traditional song Wade In The Water—although
instead of being about crossing over from this life to the next,
it’s about trusting the One “who walks on the water” because He
“walks down that hard road with you.” It seems Brooks no longer
feels he needs to put up a billboard on every song to reveal his
heart; the weight of straight testimony throughout the disc makes
it more than clear what he means elsewhere by I Know You’ll
Find There’s a Way. Brooks has found a style that
permits him to perform gospel on the secular blues circuit—so he’s
equally at home performing in a church as he is in a blues bar;
ironically, there may be more uncomfortable folk in the church
setting, as he lays the gospel down. Imagine what his tavern
audience might be thinking as Brooks sings, “He’s going to rock
down every stronghold/ Rock down every chain/ Take whatever’s
wrong and make it right.../ He’s in the soul shakin’ business and
that’s why we’re here tonight!” It’s true that most early street
corner blues singers included gospel in their repertoire; like
them, Brooks has earned the right to sing about the grace of God,
because he’s the real deal. -D.S.
Martin/Music Critic
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