Sweet Soul Music

Sweet Soul Music

Sweet home Alabama, late Sixties, early Seventies: Atlantic funded STAX, and Capitol licensed FAME. Florence Alabama Music Enterprises hasn't yet produced three box sets' worth of soul-splitting sides à la The Complete Stax-Volt Singles, but the little red hearts on the CD spines of Capitol's three FAME reissues are becoming a trademark of quality. The most recent release, Willie Hightower, showcases 18 sides, beginning with the Alabama choirboy's hit, Joe South's "Walk a Mile in My Shoes." The disc art might pass for Solomon Burke, but inside, it's pure Sam Cooke, Hightower's and every soul singer of the era's God. Cooke's "Somebody Have Mercy," and "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons/You Send Me" are exhibit "S," but Hightower's own "Time Has Brought About a Change" pays its tribute to Sam the Man's "A Change Is Gonna Come" outright. The novelty wears thin before the hour's out, the same said for these collections having no session info, but then along kicks the Vandellas-like "Because I Love You" and you're hot for Hightower's comeback, currently queuing up. Bettye Swann, aka Betty Jean Champion from Shreveport, La., lacks her hit here ('67's "Make Me Yours"), but where disc graphics might again be mistaken for Aretha Franklin, the filling approaches thick, rich Dionne Warwick. Country music, soul of another South, is at the heart of Bettye Swann, Hank Cochran's bittersweet "Don't Touch Me" rubbing hips with Merle Haggard's "Just Because You Can't Be Mine" and "Today I Started Loving You Again" (not the Buck Owens duet version, sadly). J.D. Loudermilk's "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" soaks up Swann's creamy coo, yet it's the roots wag of "Tell It Like It Is" fitting the Bayou beauty like Aaron Neville. Candi Staton, the first (2003), longest (74 minutes), and last word of the series thus far, couldn't pass for Shuggie Otis, but the Afro might cause pause, as will a disc as persuasive as the funkman's Luaka Bop debut reissue. Another 'Bama jamma – Little Eva unsheathes Aretha – Staton has it all, guts and grace, and from the Otis ("That's How Strong My Love Is") to Elvis ("In the Ghetto"), Staton didn't miss a trick. Comeback Candi, fan the FAME.