Elly Roberts reviews
Candi Staton: His Hands
Distributed by
Honest Jons
- Cat.no: HJRCD23
- Released: March 2006
- Rating: 10/10
Joss Stone, Macy Gray and Corinne Bailey Rae are making a good living out of being ‘soul pretenders’ – now comes the real thing.
Thirty years on, 66 year
old Canzetta Maria Staton aka Candi Staton (pronounced Stay-ton) is still
remembered for her disco hit Young Hearts Run Free. More recently, she
re-charted with an outstanding remix of The Source’s You Got The Love.
She’s
also a very successful TV preacher and gospel singer in America. With this
stirring CD, she joins the likes of Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight as one
of the true greats.
Dropping the secular tag, she goes back to her roots.
Riddled with real pain and agony (the true essence of soul music),the diva
opens her heart fusing classic soul/country-gospel/blues, Staple Singers
style.
Coming-on strong as the wronged woman, she successfully revisits the Muscle
Shoals sound of years gone by. In the sleeve notes, Staton says, "This is
the music I’ve had in my heart for many years. I call these tunes ‘life
songs’. These tracks speak to the areas of our lives that are affected by
our own choices and decisions. Sometimes, our choices lead us into places
that we wish we hadn’t gone, but “That’s Life."
Taking those sentiments on board, it looks like Ms Staton’s gone through the
mill and back, all wonderfully captured with every ounce of reflective
concentration. Each lyric targets the heart and shakes it up, as the opening
song; You Don’t Have Far To Go hits the spot.
The singing, mostly balladeering, is some of the best she’s ever done, with
a touch of huskiness to add to the empathetic nature of the writing. Using
all her diverse musical experiences she consummately pools them together
into this profound listening experience.
Top tracks – How Do I Get Over You, I’ll Sing A Love Song To You and the
upbeat Running Out Of Love.
One of the greatest southern soul albums ever recorded.
The full list of tracks included are :
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
