Country Soul Revue – Testifying

Testifying is cut from the same country/soul/gospel cloth as such American south-born ’90s gems as Arthur Alexander’s Lonely Just Like Me, Dan Penn’s Do Right Man, and Donnie Fritts’ Everybody’s Got A Song. Of course, that makes sense because Fritts (co-author of “Breakfast In Bed” and “We Had It All”) and Penn (got about two hours?), as well as other veterans for whom “seasoned pro” is a severely understated description (keyboardist Spooner Oldham, guitarist Reggie Young) were involved in all three of those records, and they’re on Testifying, too.

But the key to this disc’s existence is Casual Records’ Country Got Soul series, which collects soul/R&B-leaning recordings made by white southern songwriters and session players. Testifying, recorded in a recent ten-day session that must have felt like a class reunion where only the cool kids were invited, is a celebration of those swampy, funky, soulful sounds. Penn, Fritts, Tony Joe White, Bonnie Bramlett, and other Country Got Soul artists took turns fronting the all-star Revue, with bassist David Hood, trumpet player Wayne Jackson and others joining the aforementioned players.

The results should be labeled “required studies.” In fact, the first twenty seconds of “Chicago Afterwhile” (a song Penn co-wrote with Rufus Thomas’ son Marvel) — a humming B3, horns that genuflect toward Muscle Shoals, and Penn’s heart-squeezing voice — should be on display in the Smithsonian.

Strike that. These artists are much too vital to be preserved in amber. They need to keep on doing what they’re doing here: testifying.