Candi
Staton did it last issue and now it’s the turn of Willie Walker
& the Butanes to offer up a slice of absolutely timeless soul
music to gladden the heart. Butanes’ leader and guitarist, Curtis
Obeda, has followed up on their relationship cemented over many years
now in Minneapolis and delivered the songwriting goods throughout,
all an equal match to Willie’s last ‘Star Pick’
outing, ‘Right Where I Belong’. This is real no frills
soul, drenched in horns and devoid of any rock guitars and a joy from
start to finish. In the liners, Obeda sums it up when he says: “Willie
Walker has lived in Minneapolis for over forty years but it’s
still Memphis you hear when he sings” and it transpires that
some of the songs here were written with other artists in mind but
it’s hard to think they could belong now to anyone but Willie...
‘Real Love’ might have been written with thoughts of Al
Green recording it - and it certainly has the sound of his Hi heyday
- but it’s Willie’s now, just as the punchy ‘Just
Wait Til I Got Home’ needed no Wilson Pickett nor the ‘Thanks
For Being There’ no Tyrone Davis, despite a slowed-down ‘Can
I Change My Mind’ riff going on in the background. Curt also
had Bettye LaVette in his sights for the gritty ‘I’ll
Get To You’ but she would have had to hark back to her Silver
Fox days and it fits into the mould here just perfectly. There’s
a nice tale told about the femme-supported, upbeat toe-tapper, ‘Sweet
(Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)’ too as the ‘yeahs’ that Willie
sings were originally intended to be filled with extra lyrics - hell,
the result was so good, the extra lyrics were ditched! There’s
more upbeat stuff by way of ‘The Last Time’, the meaty
strutter, ‘Opposites Attract’ and the slightly bluesy
feeling opener, ‘What’s It Take’, while those who
want their soul downtempo and deep will thrill to the Goldwax-era
Willie style of ‘Cry, Cry, Cry’. More ballads come by
way of the dual-tracked Joe Tex country-styled ‘I Won’t
Be Lonely’ and the dead slow ‘The Dream For Me’,
boasting guitar, drums and a hint of piano. ‘Exactly Like Me’
takes things back to mid-pace, with its philosophical lyrics and ‘My
Baby Drives Me Crazy’ is laden with vintage Stax horn riffs.
2006 or 1966, this is what soul music is all about for me and I rather
suspect you too
David
Cole - In The Basement magazine (UK)
Willie
Walker’s One On One CD ‘Right Where I Belong’ garnered
him CD Of The Month in B&R 198, and ‘Memphisapolis’
has to be in the running for my pick of 2006. Born in Mississippi,
reared in Memphis and now resident in Minneapolis (which I guess explains
the CD title!), Willie is once backed again by the excellent Butanes,
led by guitarist/ songwriter/ arranger/ producer Curtis Obeda (and
I believe he went out for the pies and Bovril at half time!) ‘Memphisapolis’
contains thirteen original Obeda songs; featuring three horns, two
female background singers, Hammond organ and rhythm section.
Yes indeed, I never thought that soul records of this quality were
being cut nowadays, I though the magic touch had been lost somewhere
back in the 1960s along with Beatle wigs, black and white television
and real leather footballs with laces. It contains elements of all
the great Memphis studios, and summons up the spirit of Otis Redding,
Al Green and all those other giants who recorded in the Bluff City
in the heyday of real soul music.
With a horn arrangement straight out of the Stax studio, proceedings
open with a gritty number titled ‘What’s it Take’.
‘I Won’t Be Lonely’ and ‘The Dream For Me’
are pure country soul and ‘Real Love’ is one of the best
Al Green songs that Al never recorded (not to be confused with the
song of the same title on Al’s new ‘Everything’s
OK’ album).
Obeda penned ‘The Last Time’ 25 years ago, it was extensively
rewritten over the years and Walker’s bluesy rendition just
hits the right spot. The poignant ‘Exactly Like Me’ reminds
me a lot of the songs that came out of the civil rights movement of
the 1960s. Another bluesy number is the Pickett-tinged ‘Just
Wait Til I Get Home’. ‘Opposites Attract’ is another
Stax tinged number; if it doesn’t become a classic there is
no justice!
‘I’ll Get To You’ was originally penned for Bettye
Lavette but appears to have been rejected by Miss Lavette; well her
loss is Willie Walker’s gain. With a punchy brass arrangement,
driving rhythm guitar figure and Hammond fills, Willie’s pleading
vocal treatment takes us to the river via the pulpit. The closer ‘Thanks
For Being There’ was cut at the end of a session and utilises
a syncopated beat which Obeda intended to take back to the studio
to redo, however it didn’t happen, just as well Curtis, it’s
mighty fine the way it is.
If you like your soul ‘real’ (i.e. how it used to be recorded
in the good old days), sung by an artist with a mellow, (sometimes
gospel tinged, sometimes blues drenched) voice then you will have
to have this plastic pill. A sure fire winner for Messrs Walker and
Obeda, www.thebutanes.com is the place to go.
Phil
Wight - Blues & Rhythm magazine (UK)
http://eskbank.blogspot.com/
For
all the fans and critics bemoaning Soul music’s reliance on
machines these days I present you with a pacifier. 100% organic, natural
Deep Soul music (and original songs to boot!). We’re talking
Hammond organ, a horn section, rhythm section with a pulse and an
authentic O.V. Wright-styled Soul shouter. Actually, Soul aficionados
already know about Willie Walker & The Butanes. Their 2004 LP
“Right Where I Belong” made waves on both sides of the
Atlantic. Blues Critic Online placed it in the Top 10 Soul Blues CDs
of said year. Well, nothing’s changed as Willie, songwriter
Curtis Obeda and the Butanes (John Lindberg, Virgil Nelson, Robb Stupka)
are back with an equally gritty slab of raw, sweaty aural pleasure.
It
must be noted first that all 13 tunes are originals- so there’s
no godzillionth cover of “Respect Yourself” or “Mustang
Sally” here- just some new relatives penned by Obeda. Wasting
no time “Memphisapolis” commences with a vintage Stax-kissed
groove on “What’s It Take”, which even quotes “In
The Midnight Hour” (musically) following the chorus. You wonder
who’s the star here- Walker’s throaty rasp or the tidal
wave of horns (Jim Greenwell-sax, Michael B. Nelson-trombone, Brad
Shermock-trumpet). Like a lot of Obeda’s compositions the song
is more groove than melody. Many of the songs aren’t immediate
but slyly burrow their way into your heart on repeated listens. Not
so for “My Baby Drives Me Crazy”, “Opposites Attract”
and “Thanks For Being There”; a trio of easily accessible
Memphis movers replete with female backups and riffing horns. Some
of the cuts here were originally intended for others: “Real
Love” for Al Green; “I’ll Get To You” for
Bettye LaVette; “Thanks For Being There” for Tyrone Davis
but those shoes are now filled by Walker just fine thank you.
The
gem of the set is “Exactly Like You”, a midpaced 50s-styled
ballad about brotherhood that bear hugs your soul. “What’s
it gonna take for you to see/You’re exactly like me...we’re
both men but we’re living different lives”. It’s
a stunner. The Deep Soul “Cry Cry Cry” (not the Bobby
Bland song) isn’t far behind. The liners say this song was the
first Walker and Obeda demoed together. “Real Love” has
a definite Al Green/Willie Mitchell/Hi Records thang going for it
with Walker delivering a more mellifluous vocal than usual. The man’s
a rarity these days- singing Soul with a pitch and pain the greats
like Pickett, Redding, Clay, Cooke & Wright used to do. Walker’s
career does stretch back to those same 1960s with the famed Goldwax
and Checker labels. Only a handful of 45s were issued and there hasn’t
been much since. His profile was augmented a tad when his “There
Goes My Used To Be” appeared on the excellent compilation, “The
Goldwax Story”. Surely there were many who found it hard to
believe a voice like his would be under-recorded (although I hear
there’s mucho unreleased Walker out there somewhere). Fortunately
Obeda and his Butanes had the wisdom to back Walker and he couldn’t
ask for a more dedicated bunch. Take a listen to the Butanes get down,
get funky and get loose on the last half of “The Last Time”
to know what I mean. They may live in Minneapolis but their hearts
reside in Memphis and there you have “Memphisapolis”.
Dylann
DeAnna - Bluescritic website (US)
www.bluescritic.com
