November/December 1996

JOHNNY RAWLS
Here We Go
JSP CD 271 (England)

Johnny Rawls, who teamed with L.C. Luckett to cut an outstanding deep soul album for Rooster Blues in 1994, is on his own this time.

Rawls recorded Here We Go at Taylormade Studios in Jackson, Mississippi, where he also produced JSP labelmate Lonnie Shields’ recent disc. Rawls’ guitar fronts the same basic group that he used on the Shield CD: keyboardist David Taylor, bassist Daryl Johnson, and drummer Eddie Gillespie. The bandwork is crisp and professional, and a tip of the hat goes to Gillespie, who, like Chicago’s Robert “Huckleberry Hound” Wright, knows how to keep the pots boiling without all the extraneous crashing and banging that is all too common these days. The riffing twin altos of Anthony Johnson and Samuel Ross are added on a few tracks, but there are times when the music begs for a full horn section. The reward for the absence of horns, though, is the resulting emphasis on the leader’s exquisite rhythm guitar work.

Rawls paid his dues playing on the chitlin’ circuit with the likes of O.V. Wright and Lynn White, and he learned his lessons well – every song is danceable, and his singing possesses echoes of Wright’s style. As with most contemporary soul/blues releases, this one offers a couple of straight blues that let Rawls shine as lead guitarist, but here’s nary a hint of the syrupy MOR ballads that have become equally obligatory.

JSP, which has been on a roll lately with Robert Kirkpatrick, T-Bone Singleton, and Shields, has another winner with this contender for the year’s best soul/blues album.

— Jim DeKoster

Living Blues