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Album Details

• Artist: Ronnie Earl
• Album: Now My Soul (W/ The Broadcasters)
• Label: Stoney Plain
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-08-31

There is only one problem with the job of reviewing music all the time and that's that you don't always get to listen to what you want. I am not a huge blues fan but when I hear something soulful like Ronnie Earl's latest album, I always feel like I'm missing out. You see, I don't receive a whole lot of traditional blues albums. More often than not it ends up being a bit of alt.blues like the Fat Possum stuff or North Mississippi All-stars. I totally enjoy that music but when you hear traditional blues played with as much heart as this album time almost stops and you drop what you are doing to hear the rest of a blues guitar solo, like on "Feel Like Goin On". You can just picture Ronnie's face all contorted as he pulls of this wicked solo. The vocals are primarily taken care of by Kim Wilson from the Fabulous Thunderbirds. One exception is "Walking On The Sea" which is sung very gospel like by the Silver Leaf Gospel Singers. As with most contemporary blues albums Now My Soul contains a mix of covers and originals. This one actually contains 5 originals and the rest fit in nicely. My favorite cover is the soulful cover of Otis Rush's "Double Trouble". There is passion in Earl's playing that only could come across in a blues band. His Broadcasters are amazing musicians making Now My Soul one of the finest blues releases I have heard this year (although, as stated earlier, I haven't heard that many).

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