ACL Live Review: Curtis Harding

“It’s beautiful when you can sweat under the same tent,” nodded Curtis Harding, making the absurd early fall stickiness appear desirable. On this sweltering Saturday afternoon, he ripped down the Tito’s tent with a vintage romp through his self-proclaimed “slop ’n soul,” authentically evoking the early rock pioneers and soul men of yesteryear.

The flashy, bespectacled leader with a golden voice pushed through a look back at what could've been had he existed in soul’s transcendent, decades-long heyday. Commencing at 2:45pm sharp, the Harding quartet blazed through table-setting opener “The Drive,” off 2014’s Soul Power. In vehicular metaphors and a touch of emotional exposure, he warns, “Ignore my direction/ Neglecting all the signs/ That’s why love leads you astray.”

“Go as you are/ But don’t come back the same/ If you don’t get too far/ You’ve got no one to blame,” he exclaimed on the similarly explosive “Go as You Are” from last year’s exemplary Face Your Fear. On it, Harding reaches into the annals of a so-called simpler time, and so-called real men, with lyrics steeped in testosterone-driven sonnets. To this point, “Need My Baby” vocalizes over a funky backing: “’Cause you got that something that it’s all about/ And now that you’re here I can't live without.”

Nothing the colorful Harding sang or attempted musically felt forced through a particular hue. Throughout the set, the Georgia native appeared and sounded more original than what many may perceive. He took less from his great influences and added onto their significant legacy as if he were a respected contemporary.

Simultaneously warm, suggestive, and compelling without the alpha tendency, Curtis Harding’s soulful labors rank as unique deliverance bordering on the spiritual.