Dan Penn Living in Mercy

Dan Penn
Living in Mercy
Last Music Co.

Dan Penn has not recorded often in recent years, but the legendary songwriter has a new album, the first since 1994's "Do Right Man." He has written (or co-written) so many classic songs, including "The Dark End of the Street," "You Left the Water Running," and "I'm Your Puppet." As this latest recording displays that as he approaches 80, he still has a gift in spinning memorable melodies and lyrics.

For this recording, Penn wrote songs with some of his closest collaborators, including Wayne Carson, Spooner Oldham, Gary Nicholson, Carson Whitsett, Will McFarlane, Bucky Lindsey, Buzz Cason, and the Cate Brothers. Recorded in Muscle Shoals and Nashville, the musicians included Milton Sledge (drums), Michael Rhodes (bass), Will McFarlane (guitar), and Clayton Ivey (keyboards), along with a full horn section. They provide lithe backing that supports, and not overwhelm, Penn's performances.

Dan Penn may not have been James Carr or Otis Redding, but his grainy, world-weary singing has a strong appeal, particularly in his reflections on love and relationships. It is evident as he expresses the lyrics of surviving despite things going wrong as he is living in mercy as his woman's love is killing him. On "Clean Slate," Penn is asking his lady to give him one more chance to make it right for the mistakes Penn has made. Then he considers "What It Takes To Be True," and it doesn't take quitting or playing the field. Then there is the gentle rocking groove of "I Didn't Hear it Coming," where he sings about her telling him she loved him, while he was too shy even to ask her to dance. Then there is a song about being lost. friendless, and trying to make it in Nashville on "Down in Music Row." There is a driving groove to Penn's pleading to his baby on "Edge of Love." A similar feel is heard on the upbeat "Soul Connection," with its celebration of his relationship.

The closing track "One of These Days" is a gospel original with a lyric that hints at the Book of Revelations as he sings time running out of we don't change our ways, and the lord will draw the line if we don't change our ways. It is a heartfelt vocal and well played. One might imagine that the songs here may well provide other artists with choice material to produce their interpretations, like so many of his songs, have over the years. Dan Penn has not recorded that often over these years, so we should appreciate this soulful, new recording.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is Dan Penn performing "Living in Mercy" from the album.

Ernie Johnson In The Mood

Ernie Johnson's In the Mood, on Waldoxy, is the latest release from the sister label to Malaco and was quite a pleasant surprise. Johnson is a veteran soul-blues singer who most recently had an album on Jewel that really did not leave much of an impression on this writer. Producers Paul ‘Heavy’ Lee and Tommy Couch Jr. took Johnson down to Muscle Shoals where with a crack rhythm section anchored by drummer Lee, and the solid keyboards of Clayton Ivey along with Big Mike Griffin’s guitar, produced a superb collection of blues and southern soul that echoes Bobby Bland, Otis Redding and other masters. 

Johnson’s opening I’m in the Mood For the Blues is a striking song, quite suggestive of some of Bobby Bland’s better Malaco recordings, and the similarities between Johnson and Bland is perhaps most evident here in the phrasing of his slightly raspy voice. Don’t Waste My Time, another Johnson original, is a slow blues with some piercing guitar from Griffin while Ivey’s down-in-the-alley Hammond B-3 helps form the bottom with the Muscle Shoals Horns crisply punching out the arrangements. 

There is a strong Johnson ballad, I Love You, where Johnson's slightly quivering vocal is suggestive of how Otis Redding might have sounded if he had recorded with the Hi Rhythm Section. Like this entire album, the studio band here is first-rate, and the backing vocals effectively employed. Similar flavor can be found in the Jackson-Barranco composition, Hold On. But, these are only the highest peaks on what is a consistently soulful disc that may be the best of many fine releases on Waldoxy/Malaco to be issued this year.

The above review was originally published in the October 1995 DC Blues Calendar, the newsletter of the DC Blues Society, which I edited at the time and the November 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 206). I received my review copy from Malaco/Waldoxy. Here is a clip of Ernie Johnson performing.

Taylor's Good Love Was Good Soul & Blues

Johnnie Taylor was one of the great soul and blues singers of the past five decades (emphasis for the eurocentric editors of the Penguin Guide who exclude a whole genre of contemporary blues because they consider it soul music, yet they somehow cannot similarly weed out blues-tinged rock recordings). The following is a slightly modified review that originally appeared in 1997 in Jazz & Blues Report.

Issued in 1997 Johnnie Taylor’s Malaco album, Good Love, was another latest installment of a remarkable musical career that started when he replaced Sam Cooke in the legendary gospel group Soul Stirrers. It continued with recordings for Cooke’s SAR label as well as his glory years with Stax where he recorded soul and blues classics like Who’s Making Love and Cheaper to Keep Her. Later he was with Columbia, where he recorded the smash Disco Lady. Today he continues performing and recording with Malaco, recording some of the best soul and blues in the Stax vein. Good Love made the Billboard Blues charts with its mix of southern soul, soulful ballads and blues typical of his Malaco recordings. George Jackson’s fine composition Last Two Dollars, is a strong blues about a lady who has lost everything at a casino and asks the soul philosopher for two dollars so she can pay the bus fare home and will have enough to play the juke box while she waits, so she can hear some down home blues. I suspect this number will resonate strongly in the gambling venues in Mississippi. The title track and Sending You a Kiss, are ballads were written and arranged by Charles Richard Cason, although they share what sounds like programmed accompaniment. The rest of the album was recorded at Muscle Shoals and Malaco’s Jackson, Mississippi studios with Clayton Ivey, Jimmy Johnson, David Hood and Roger Hawkins among the studio band. While the backing on the Cason tracks may not appeal to some ears, little fault can be found with Taylor’s singing on these, or elsewhere on this collection of new recordings. Another George Jackson number, the ballad Walk Away With Me, has a melodic line that loosely suggests, Dark End of the Street, while Sam Mosely and Robert Johnson penned the fine blues Too Late to Try to Do Right, which shows that one doesn’t have to start out at full tilt to put the lyric over. The pair also penned Slide On, a number that should go over well with urban audiences that groove and dance to the electric slide. Ain’t That Lovin’ You (For More Reasons Than One) is a duet with his daughter Tasha that establishes her as a talent to keep an ear out for. There may be a couple of weaker songs, and the wonderfully sung This Masquerade, stays too close to George Benson’s hit version. But, even with a few production lapses and a couple of weak lyrics, this album is evidence of just how vital a singer the soul philosopher still was.