When you think of soul music, you may think of Motown or Memphis, but New Orleans also shares in America’s soul heritage. And Irma Thomas is the Big Easy’s number one soul diva, the Queen of New Orleans Soul. After some regional hits and even a national chart placement or two in the early ’60s, Thomas’ career tapered off, and by the end of the decade she went on hiatus to work and raise a family. She resumed recording on regional labels in the mid-70s, and has made eight albums with Rounder since the mid-80s.
From the opening strains of the opening track, “All I Know Is The Way I Feel,” this sterling sampler sets its hooks deeply and doesn’t let go. Settling into a simmering soul groove, with a voice like sweet molasses, she sings “anything that makes me feel so good/it’s got to be …” And then when those horns kick in, it’s heaven on earth.
She follows up strong with Dan Penn’s “I Count the Teardrops,” from 1996’s Story of My Life. The chugging electric piano and shimmering B-3 organ accentuate Thomas’ heartfelt vocals on lines like “Just like a cloud so full of rain/My heart can’t hold back this river of pain.”
And then there’s Paul Kelly’s up-tempo title track from her first Rounder album, The New Rules. This one really cooks on top of a solid foundation laid down by bassist Chuck Henry and drummer Wilbert Widow, with the bari sax, trumpet and alto tax riffing in unison in response to Thomas’ vocals.
The album has paid for itself after the first three tracks, but there’s lots more to come, including one track and an out-take from the Grammy-nominated Sing It!, with backing vocals by Marcia Ball and Tracy Nelson. Both of these tracks are outstanding; the first, “Love Don’t Change” co-written by former NRBQ guitarist Big Al Anderson, is a mid-tempo rocking blues, and “Yield Not to Temptation,” once a hit for Bobby “Blue” Bland, raises the roof with joyful gospel.
And the hits just keep on coming, as they say. The title track, a previously unreleased extended version of another Dan Penn song, is all strutting horns and swaggering B-3 organ. “Heart Full of Rain,” co-written by Tony Joe White, is a smouldering bluesy ballad. Thomas pays tribute to New Orleans institution Allen Toussaint (who wrote her 1962 hit “Ruler of My Heart”) with Toussaint’s “Old Records,” another slow number. And Doc Pomus and Mack “Dr. John” Rebennack’s “I Never Fool Nobody But Me” is New Orleans R & B at its funkiest and coolest. And don’t overlook Ann Peebles’ gospel-shaded “I Needed Somebody.”
Thomas never overdoes it vocally, always hitting the right note at the right time. She’s got tons of talent behind her and a sympathetic co-producer in Scott Billington, who produced this collection, wrote the liner notes and even gets in a sweet harmonica solo on “Old Records.” Once in a while a plain old piano might have done just as well as the electronic keyboards that predominate, but Thomas could make a hot soul record with nothing but a cheesy Casio backing her.
If you have even a smidgen of a hankering for funky rhythm & blues and soul that ranges from powerful gospel to smouldering blues, you’ll be soul-satisfied by this collection, part of the “essential soul” of Rounder’s 30th Anniversary Heritage series.
(Rounder Heritage, 2001)
