ALBUM REVIEW: The Mighty Soul Drivers Keep the Genre on the Road
Grant Britt
Posted On October 6, 2022
Soul is not dead. It’s been slumbering for a while, but in recent years it has been resuscitated by a handful of flamekeepers with the care and the tonsils to bring the music back to its former glory.
Pittsburgh native Billy Price has kept the music and sound of O.V. Wright alive his whole career. Idaho’s John Nemeth’s sound revitalizes ’60s soul, with his latest release, May Be the Last Time, resurrecting the soulful panther scream of Wilson Pickett and the risque hipness of Hank Ballad and the Midnighters. Charles Bradley brought back James Brown’s agonized soulful delivery. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings introduced a new generation to past soul glories, as has Eli “Paperboy” Reed. Now add New England’s Mighty Soul Drivers vocalist Bob Orsi to the list.
Orsi and his cohorts, drummer River City Slim, guitarist Larry Willey, bassist Tony DeLisio, and Steve Donovan on keyboards with John Smayda on saxophones and Neil Tint on trumpet, revive the Memphis soul sound with style and bombast, reverential but not cloying or clingy.
Orsi wails like a fallen angel on the title cut from their latest, I’ll Carry You Home, Tanairy Barton providing a celestial vocal backdrop for his uplifting promise with some glorious tootling from Tint’s mariachi-flavored trumpeting.
Four of the 11 cuts on I’ll Carry You Home are covers. “Cry To Me” is the toughest one to re-upholster. Solomon Burke’s soul-wrenching original in 1971 pretty much slammed the lid shut on redos. Marc Broussard came back with a scorching runner up on 2016’s S.O.S. 2: Save Our Soul: Soul on a Mission, but Orsi’s swing at it connects solidly as well. Smayda’s sax weeps and wails while Orsi rests his tonsils before continuing to testify in a most satisfying manner that would have Burke beaming with approval.
For the Temptations’ 1969 smash, “I Can’t Get Next to You,” the Drivers smooth it out a bit with a jazzier groove that glides smoothly along with the help of some Raelettes soundalike background singers. The redeeming quality here is that band doesn’t sound like a cover band, just an interpretive one.
Orsi has the sense not to try to cop Bobby Blue Bland’s signature velvety rasp on 1974’s “I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog,” just bopping along smoothly to the slick big-band arrangement.
Recorded at Muscle Shoals in 1967 by Clarence Carter, “Tell Daddy” was the precursor to Etta James’ 1968 hit “Tell Mama.” Orsi fires back as well as any man could going up against James’ blistering bombast, bouncing and rocking, dodging James’ counterpunches, aided by Smayda’s saxual jabs.
Although it’s an original, “Parking Lot Blues” has the churchy tint of James Carr’s spiritual soul.
“Piece of My Pride” is a rattly rocker that would be equally at home in a honky-tonk or a rowdy juke joint bolstered by Donovan’s ragtime key tickling.
I’ll Carry You Home is a great show of respect and admiration for a genre that never should have been neglected, with its powerful punch preserved and still packing a wallop.
The Mighty Soul Drivers’ I’ll Carry You Home is out Oct. 7 on Hog Heaven Records.
