Search - Various Artists :: Rhythm Country & Blues

E. L. from MELBOURNE, FL
Reviewed on 11/23/2019...

Don't get me wrong, some of the collaborations are good, but the song choices could be better. Example: I Fall To Pieces. When you hear Trisha Yearwood sing that song, you hear her actually say I the song "I Fall Pieces" instead of I Fall To Pieces. Clint Black & Pointer Sisters are a good combination. Reba & Natalie are good as well.

Jo V. (Jo) from BOISE, ID
Reviewed on 8/12/2007...

What I like about this CD is the duet pairings. Of course, I particularly fond of any duet that involves Reba.

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Rich C. (jeepjeep) from SUMMERVILLE, SC
Reviewed on 3/2/2007...

good colabaration between some of the best country and rythm and blues artist

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Al V. (Al) from HOOVER, AL
Reviewed on 1/19/2007...

Some very nice cuts here by odd mixes of talent. Little Richard & tanya Tucker, Indeed! Ditto Chain of Fools by Clint Black and the Pointer Sisters. Good Stuff. Throw out your pre-conceptions, this is good music done well.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Overlooked Gem

Mark Blackburn | Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada | 01/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Did you ever read a book -- then read it again ten years later, and make the pleasant discovery that the parts you'd mentally underlined or highlighted years earlier, are NOT the same ones that `reach' you today? Witness, if you will, this amazing concept album, you may have forgotten (I had, almost.)



If you are like me, you may have almost forgotten this gem. If you're like my sister Andrea (who has the most amazing singing voice I've ever heard) you've NEVER tasted of its amazing grace.



'Sis,' who has refined musical tastes, last night dignified my latest review (for a Tom T. Hall compilation) by sniffing: "YOU'RE listening to country music now?? Ouch!!!" I resisted the urge to remind `Anra' about Ray Charles' classic country music album of 40 years ago (with the definitive version of Eddy Arnold's "You Don't Know Me").



Her comment made me go and rummage out this CD. Sure enough, there there it was: something I'd vaguely recalled from the superb liner notes, by James Hunter. A short quotation of the album's co-producer Tony Brown, from the days when he first worked with Gospel singer Shirley Caesar: "She had ALWAYS loved country music!"



----



Back in late 1994 when this album was released, it was Chet Atkins' duet with Alain Toussaint (on the latter's best selling composition, "Southern Nights") that prompted me to track down this disc in the first place. I'm pleasantly surprised to find this very day that, some tracks I didn't give a second listen to, back then, are now at center stage in my heart: As with good spiritual reading, when the light goes on, I am `lifted up.'



First things first: Amazingly, most of the singers featured here had never met before they got together in the studio with co-producer Don Was. The producer(s) had to guess at which artists might have `chemistry' at their first time meeting.



In this firmament there are stars in ascension -- Trisha Yearwood & Aaron Neville singing "I Fall to Pieces." And others, perhaps in decline but still able to shine brightly as they `rise to the occasion' -- Sam Moore & Conway Twitty, in harmony and `sync' - for a "Rainy Night in Georgia."



Some pairings are timeless and shine as brightly as ever - Natalie Cole & Reba McEntire caressing Buddy Johnson's (blues band) beautiful chestnut from 1948, "Since I Fell for You." And Gladys Knight and Vince Gill agreeing that "There Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing."



Only one track here might underline (for someone like my sister) the difference between talent and kitsch; and it's literally "Something Else" by Little Richard & Tanya Tucker. But, hey --- ten out of eleven ain't bad!



Ten years on . . . and what's my new favorite? A four-leaf clover I managed to overlook before. Then-rising-star Marty Stuart conjures up magic with the heart of a Soul/Gospel band who hadn't had a hit in years - the Staple Singers, Mavis and `Pops'. Marty (a superb instrumentalist in his own right) elevates the introduction to Robbie Robertson's "The Weight" . . . . "I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' `bout half past dead' . . . and soon enough, Pops & Mavis seize control of the narrative, and the whole group (as James Hunter puts it, "rejoices throughout the chorus. These people are like pilgrims on the road . . . turning plain plights and shifting responsibilities into Gospel Good News."



`Anra,' my dear sister, you may never know what you missed.



Mark Blackburn

Winnipeg"

Something to think about...

Frumious Bandersnatch | Bellevue, WA United States | 02/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... primarily about Don Was' project that came after this, but definitely sheds light on the attitude that produced it, particularly the artistic crisis he was going through. (No, I didn't have anything to do with the article.) Excerpt:"Somehow, the thought of this dreadlocked, hippyesque man in a cowboy hat at a country concert is as bizarre a juxtaposition as the ones that are found in his music. And that is exactly the point. Exercising a limitless and all-encompassing musical taste, and combining many seemingly disparate and opposing musical elements is the essence of his approach. And he can therefore work with artists as diverse as George Clinton and Neil Diamond, or Maxi Priest and Paula Abdul, without batting an eyelid. This was exemplified in a project that laid some of the foundations for Forever's A Long, Long Time, namely the Rhythm, Country and Blues album (1995), on which he produced tracks that saw meetings between soul and country singers, like Al Green and Lyle Lovett. Was picked up the story: 'I've always felt that there was very little separation between R&B and country in terms of songwriting. These singers can perform each other's material without stretching at all. However, I do regret that I only started to be adventurous towards the end of recording that project, when we ran hip-hop beats underneath these country songs, messed with the chords a lot, and really re-invented the songs. Forever's A Long, Long Time is in a way an extension of that.'"Obviously, some of the music profession still hasn't figured out what to do with music that truly crosses lines."