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Johnny Rawls - Guitar and Vocals
Roosevelt "Mad Hatter" Purifoy - Keyboards
Calvin Beale - Bass
Allen Kirk - Drums
Rodney "Hot Rod" Brown - Saxophone
Peter Bartels - Trumpet
Will Redding - Trombone
Jerry Soto - Guitar on "It's All In The Game"
Bruce Feiner - Tenor Saxophone Solos on "I Got Soul" and "How Much Longer?"

Produced by Johnny Rawls
Recorded at Soto Sound, Chicago, Illinois
Engineered by Jerry Soto
Mixed at M.A.R.S., London, by Martin Atkinson and John Stedman
All Horn Arrangements by Johnny Rawls

JSP Records
P.O. Box 1584
London N3 3NW England

Liner Notes:

Bubbling just under the surface of deep Delta blues is sweet Southern soul. “Do you like good music, yeah, yeah.” Otis, Stax-Volt, “Try A Little Tenderness,” Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Johnny Taylor, “The Dark End Of The Street,” Sam Cooke, “Darlin’ You Send Me,” O.V.Wright, “You Gonna Make Me Cry,” Percy Sledge, “When A Man Loves A Woman,” Z.Z. Hill, and horns that punctuate the testifyin’, sweet, soul music.

Singers drivin’ from town to town on the Chitlin’ circuit, singin’ ‘bout, “I got a woman good to me” or “I sure got my eyes on you,“ hurtin’ with those painful facts of every lovers’ life, preachin’ them “give me another chance, baby,” blues, and pleadin’ “Can I get a witness?”. This is the dark side of the street soul singers inhabit. They aren’t labeled, like Robert Cray, by the popular media as a singer of soul blues. They must live long in the world of hurt; they must tell real stories of anguish. Johnny Rawls comes with it all.

Most impressive about Rawls is the multitude of talent he possesses. Most would be thrilled to own his expressive voice, but Rawls has the studied guitar approaches, assured song writing skills, expert production touch, and dead on arranging necessary to qualify him as a consummate professional. Rawls has certainly assimilated the lifetime of production lessons where he learned how to balance sound and achieving the artist’s vision. Not only does he arrange and produce his albums, Rawls also handles those chores for many of the other JSP soul blues recordings.

This second JSP release marries his blues guitar with the gospel vocals associated with the soul music from the sixties. His JSP debut, Here We Go, had the authentic soul feel Rawls learned from his years working in the band of the great O.V. Wright. Though Rawls was unaware at the time, the soulful torch was passes to him. Upon Wright’s death in 1980, Rawls continued playing on the Southern soul circuit with the O.V. Wright band for the next 13 years. He joined forces with his guitar partner L.C. Luckett, recorded as Rawls and Luckett, and impressed the music world in 1994 with Can’t Sleep At Night, a runner up in Living Blues’ award for the Best Soul/blues album of the year. Finally, in 1995, Johnny Rawls took those 30 years of lessons and jumped full force into the baptismal by fire soul blues waters.

Rawls does not sing from a Motown revue approach. There will be no choreographed back-up singers with pantomiming hand gestures. No Temptation walk, Smokey falsetto, or squeaky clean Tops four part harmonies. Nor does he attack the audience James Brown style. Instead Rawls sings about the spirited convictions of the heart with a voice that drips emotion. Utilizing the lessons soaked up on the Chitlin’ circuit and from the gospel preachers he witnessed, Rawls pleads his faithful listeners to the verge of explosions. When Rawls pleads to his unfaithful woman, “I wonder how much longer you expect me to hold on?”, we’re all sheddin’ his tears.

Like its gospel roots, soul blues finds its enormous power in the preacher-like voice a singer like Rawls must possess. Most instruments attempt to mechanically imitate the unadulterated qualities of the human voice. Rawls’ mastery of this naturally flawless vehicle is a blessing to behold. Like many of the greats he studied with, Rawls memorized how to let his personal heartaches or celebrations become part of every syllable that passes through his vocal chords.

On this release, first he tells you about his soul, then he shows it off. With an Otis Redding groove, the introductory story “I Got Soul”, utilizes semi-autobiographical verses as a vehicle to enlighten listeners about the rich, musical life Rawls has experienced. With references to places far from Chicago and singers like his mentors, O.V. Wright, Little Johnny Taylor, and Z.Z. Hill, Rawls proudly announces his devotion to this sweet soul music. Follow this with it’s “All In The Game,” and Rawls shows off some steamy surrenderin’ that will bring grown men to their knees.

It’s one thing to devour a bold and brassy woman struttin’ her soul to audiences, singin’ ‘bout my man is doggin’ me; it’s quite another to bear witness to male singers on bended knee pleadin’ with their baby for one more chance to make it right, testin’ the limits tensions can extend to. Rawls’ soul style recalls the bygone days of singers holding the hand of a front row female and singin’ his anguished laments only to her ears. Listen to the sweltering vocals and eloquent band harmonies on “How Much Longer Do You Expect Me To Hold On.” When Rawls needs guidance, he cops a sympathetic bow from a warm tenor sax. The homage paid to Wilson Pickett and Sam and Dave’s Stax-volt sounds breath new life and vibrancy into Rawls’ imploring on “Can’t Nobody”.

But Rawls can easily cross to the bluesy side of the street and add his penetrating guitar work to the approach. The stinging B.B. King licks on “Louisiana Woman” are metal penetrating lasers to the core. His call and response guitar work on “Don’t Wanna Settle Down” replaces the powerful horns from the other tracks with an echoing tone. This quick-paced, 1-4-5 shuffle testifies to Rawls’ ability to stand on either side of the soul blues street. “Lover Man” pits the guitar dynamics of Hendrix against the solid punch of Otis Redding’s horns. When Rawls decides to turn the lights off and mine only the blues on the aptly titled “The Blues”, he calls upon an after hours style piano to play tag with his expressive notebending in this confessional blues ballad.

Handy nominations must consider this release not only as the Soul-Blues album of the year, but they also must consider the talented Johnny Rawls as one of the top vocalists in the genre and any of these original songs as Song Of The Year. Anything less would be an outrageous oversight.

Art Tipaldi
Contributing writer to Blues Revue,
the Boston Blues Society and
the Springfield Advocate.