JSP Records (JSPCD2145)
Released January 30, 2001

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JOHNNY RAWLS - Vocals, Guitar - All guitar solos except as noted. Rhythm Guitar
BRUCE BEARS - Organ, Piano on Bridge of "Sometimes".
MIKE NUNNO - Bass
JASON ARNOLD - Drums, Cowbell on "I Wanna Come Home".
EDDIE KIRKLAND - Vocals & Guitar Solos on "Don't Lose Your Good Thing" & "Should Be At Work".
PHIL GUY - Vocal & Guitar Solo on "Should Be At Work".
BRUCE FEINER - Piano on "Don't Lose Your Good Thing", "Sometimes", "Hit By A Truck", "Put Your Trust In Me", "I Wanna Come Home", "Don't Give Up On Your Dream". Synthesized Strings on "Hit By A Truck", "Sometimes", "I Wanna Come Home".
BURT TEAGUE - Guitar Riff on "Talk Is Cheap", Classical Guitar on "Sometimes" & "I Wanna Come Home".
'JUNIOR' BADOWSKI - Harmonica on "I Should Be At Work".
DESTINI RAWLS - Vocals on "Gonna Keep On", Speaking Voice on "Should Be At Work".
THE NUTMEG HORNS
JAMIE FINEGAN - Trumpet, Solo on "I Wanna Come Home".
BRUCE FEINER - Tenor Sax, Solo on "Gonna Keep On".
ROBERT FEINER - Baritone Sax, Tenor Sax on "Sometimes" & "I Should Be At Work".

Produced by Bruce Feiner
All Horn. String & Classical Guitar Arrangements by Bruce Feiner
All recording done at the Hidden Valley Studios, East Granby, CT - Bruce Teague Engineer

Special Thanks to John Stedman for his Never Ending Support
Special Thanks to the Rawls & Feiner Families for their Love & Support

We Hope This Music Stimulates Your Soul!

Hammond B# Organ & Leslie provided by Goff Professional - Newington, Connecticut

Manufactured in the United Kingdom

Liner Notes:

The main difference between Johnny Rawls and many contemporary bluesmen is, he gives you songs while all they give you is guitar playing. They base their whole artistic thrust on guitar fireworks which aren't bad things - until they become filibusters (which these days they all too frequently do). Selective blues buffs value multi-dimensional artists like Rawls more than they do the increasingly commonplace players who deliver guitar bombast with the single-mindedness of a mallrocker.

It's not surprising that Rawls is the way he is, given his years of experience playing guitar for such artists as Z.Z. Hill, Little Johnny Taylor and O.V. Wright. Those classic Southern soulsters didn't just yell "baby" over thump-de-thump beats, they sang songs, using their passion and vocal timbre to convert lyrics into audience-riveting dramas about life and love.

Same story with Rawls.

Rawls writes (or co-writes, generally, with Bruce Feiner) tunes that are cleverly crafted but still have edge and intimacy. Which are precisely the qualities lacking in many of the recordings by New Millenium soulsters, whose producers saddle them with programmed accompaniment. Let's not name the label that's most noted for this formulaic production tack, but Rawls, himself a prolific composer, has a comment on it.

"I don't knock the (label's) sound but I like a sound that's more live and less mechanical. They use a lot of synthesizers. I like to use real instruments to keep it more like the old traditional sound. Like it used to be."

Blues critics laud Rawls for a sound that's 'like it used to be', but point out that he's still a man of the present. He's no relic in the hallowed hall of yesteryear, but a constant presence in the venues of today.

And that's another mark of a true-life soulster - they're relentlessly roadbound.

"I be all over creation, man," says Rawls with a proud laugh. I live in Milwaukee, but I'm hardly ever there. I play over 200 dates a year, so I'm on the road almost constantly." Still he finds time for the studio, not just as a recording artist but as a producer. He produced his first three JSP CDs and was also at the soundboard for recent works by Dietra Farr, George Stancell and Johnnie Marshall. His main inspiration in the production trade was Willie Mitchell.

"Mitchell's one of the greats," Rawls asserts. "I met him through O.V. Wright. I never cut records with Willie, because he had an in-house band, but I used to be in Memphis a lot with O.V. who took me by the studio a few times, so I got a chance to see Willie at work. Man, that's a guy that knew this business."

Rawls continues: "And I love this business. I love all of it. Being in the studio producing, being on the road songwriting - I just love it."

Well, he'll occasionally admit to wishing he toured a bit less, so he could stay at home and compose. Still, the road's not a bad place to write.

"When I write, the idea might come when I'm drivin'. We're drivin' down the road, (in a) four-passenger Dodge van, and I might see a person or a town or a motel - and an idea comes. Then a lyric, then a good groove - it kind of comes out of nowhere. I can't just say I'm gonna sit down, write a song. Hard to pinpoint what starts you writing, and you sure can't force it."

Rawls goes on, "Bruce Feiner and me do our own writing, our own production. That's why I like JSP - they don't interfere with our creativity."

"We're constantly involved with the record-making process," confirms Feiner. "Recording, over-dubbing, songwriting - and songs are our strongest point! Johnny's a great live performer, an incredible producer and writer. To me and Johnny, it's the song first. Second, you gotta be able to sing it convincingly, and a distant third, is lead guitar."

Which isn't to say Rawls is a lazy guitarist. You'll hear lots of him on this CD. But you'll also hear a horn section and several keyboards, tonally varied on the selections, so you get the diversity of accents that are a Rawls/Feiner hallmark. On "I Wanna Come Home" the beat is tense, the horns feisty and there's a fine trumpet solo (you don't hear much of the latter in blues nowadays). The lyric is of an infidelity the protagonist had the gall to take lightly, but feels fear as the expected forgiveness isn't coming. The mood's more upbeat at "Gonna Keep On", on which the horns strut Stax-style and Rawls' co-vocalist is his daughter Destini.

As its title implies, "Don't Give Up On Your Dream" is similarly life-affirming, this time to horns and a rhythm that connote the Caribbean.

That's blues vet Phil Guy sharing the vocals on "Should Be At Work".

Don't Lose Your Good Thing" is a trad style deepfried soul-blues with rhythm that's a boast and fine singing by - what that's none other than blues strongman, Eddie Kirkland!

"Man, I always liked that deep, authentic soul sound he has in his voice!" says Rawls of his guest vocalist. "I like ol' Eddie!"

Kirkland returns the compliment. "I've known Johnny since he was 17. We both played around Georgia then. He's a nice guy, has always respected me, and has got spirit and soul."

Kirkland said this hurriedly, between stops on tour. Comments from Rawls were gathered the same way, as Rawls was in and out this and that motel, as he traveled from venue to venue. He's playing dates, introducing to live audiences tha material on this CD, and writing yet more material for recordings that are undoubtedly to follow.

TIM SCHULLER
Tim Schuller is a contributor to: Blues Access, Living Blues and the Texas musicmag 'Buddy'.