If a guidebook exists for fledgling country soul fans, it’s Barney Hoskyns’ Say It One Time For The Brokenhearted. (It was originally printed in 1987; an updated version came out in 1998. Those who’ve yet to discover the heart-shredding joys of Spencer Wiggins, Ruby Johnson and James Carr will be well-served by getting a copy.) And while the title of the book comes from the song “I Went Off And Cried”, an emotive ballad recorded by Kip Anderson, it’s Bettye Swann’s version of “Be Strong Enough To Hold On” that Hoskyns credits as one of the things that gave him final-nudge inspiration. After that big build-up, I have to announce that “Be Strong Enough To Hold On” is not on this 22-song collection, but it’s the only negative I can muster about it.
The music career of Bettye Swann (born Betty Jean Champion in Shreveport, Lousiana) took off when she moved to Los Angeles just before her 20th birthday. On the west coast she found success on the Money label, most notably with the soul-chart-topping “Make Me Yours”, a song that in iconic-label terms was 55 percent Motown and 45 percent Stax. This release chronicles stage two of her career, bringing together the two albums she recorded after moving back to the south in the late ’60s, The Soul View Now and Don’t You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me, and throwing in a couple of non-album 45s.
If country soul is simply country songs recorded by soul artists, that particularly suited Swann, as demonstrated here by versions of a pair of Hank Cochran compositions, “Don’t You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me)?” and “Don’t Touch Me”. Even better are the two Merle Haggard songs she tackled, “Just Because You Can’t Be Mine” and an uptempo take on “Today I Started Loving You Again.” (The liner notes tell of Swann recording a duet of the latter with Buck Owens, only to have the cut shelved when the suits at Capitol feared that “duetting on a love song with a black woman could seriously damage Buck’s career.”)
Memorable covers of Tony Joe White’s “Willie & Laura Mae Jones”, the Bee Gees’ “Words”, Otis Redding’s “These Arms Of Mine” and Chip Taylor’s “Angel Of The Morning” show that Swann’s interpretive abilities extended beyond the country arena. And it’s a credit to Swann’s writing skills that the five songs included here which came from her pen hold their own with some true classics.
It’s also worth noting that this is the year’s second outstanding archival soul release from London-based Honest Jon’s, following on the heels of the Candi Staton collection (which surfaced in the U.S. on Astralwerks). OK, Honest Jon, my apparently trustworthy friend, might we discuss giving under-appreciated southern soul singer Doris Duke the reissue treatment next?