Can’t Sleep At Night / I Don’t Do Windows / Can We Talk It Over / What Makes A Good Man Go Bad / Have You Ever Played The Fool / Shake It Shake It Baby; Good Love Takes More Than A Minute; Soul to Soul / Playboy / Be Fair To People / If You’re Not Home By Tomorrow / Who Made The Mountain / Don’t Mess With My Wife / Medley: Blind Crippled And Crazy / Ace Of Spades.

The dependable Rooster label could have shed its “Blues” suffix and become Rooster Soul Records for this release, and they’d have been none the worse for doing so. 43-year old Johnny Rawls and his rather younger partner L.C. Luckett both hail from Mississippi, sang as youngsters in a gospel group, and cut this set last year at the Stackhouse Studio in the Magnolia State; so blues it may not be, but authentic Southern music it sho nuff is.

There’s a strong streak of gospel in the men’s harmonies (they take turns to sing lead too), and they play guitar and bass respectively. In addition, twelve of the songs are theirs, so apart from a rhythm sections and some production assistance from Patty Johnson and Jim O’Neal, this very much their own work. Able singers and musicians both, the duo have taken a number of influences on board. The title track and “Can We Talk It Over: get close to the classic Hi Records sound, the swinging “Good Love Takes More Than A Minute” recalls Sam and Dave circa “Soothe Me”, and the more blues-slanted “If You’re Not Home By Tomorrow” has one of them sounding very much like Little Johnny Taylor. The biggest “influence” comes on “Shake It” which is simply a rework of “Shake and Fingerpop”, complete with Jr. Walker-style sax from the appropriately speedy Nino Ferrari. This track is nothing less than great fun, and must go down a storm on stage.

The lads salute their gospel background on “Who Made The Mountain”, a pacy sanctified performance on which their guitar and bass parts are pure Stax and remind me of a delicious Annette Thomas single whose title escapes me. They salute also one of their early employers, O.V. Wright, with a rather thin version of the great man’s “I Don’t Do Windows” and a more convincing closing medley on which they really holler.

This is Rawls and Luckett’s debut as frontmen on record. A largely soul satisfying set, ultimately it may not be distinctive enough to catapult them to stardom, but it will do them no harm at all.

Mike Atherton