Album Review: Huey Lewis and The News – ‘Soulsville’ (W.O.W. Records)
The title to Huey Lewis and The News’ new album, the band’s first new studio record in nine years, is completely fitting. To make Soulsville, a collection of covers from the legendary Stax label catalog, the band traveled to Memphis to record at Ardent Studios, the famed room just up the street from Stax where Isaac Hayes, Booker T. and the MGs, The Bar-Kays, and Rufus Thomas (as well as the likes of Led Zeppelin and Big Star) all recorded. Working with Jim Gaines, who not only recorded the band’s hit records, Sports and Fore!, but worked at Ardent when he was younger, the group recorded a good portion of the album live — even if it meant having the horn section in one room and everyone else in another. Aside from the Staple Singers’ “Respect Yourself,” the majority of the album’s 14 songs are lesser known tracks. As such, Lewis and company are able to make each their own. It’s surprising how well the album works, and how much soul these guys — best known for ‘80s hits like “I Want a New Drug” and “If This Is It” — actually possess. More than just a novelty, Soulsville shows where their hearts lie and how they are to translate that affinity into something honest and stirring.
Fuente: LimeWire Music Blog
