Donnie Fritts – One Foot In The Groove

Starting off with a groove that lays N.C. Thurman’s Hammond B-3 licks over Mike Dillon’s drums and David Hood’s bass, Donnie Fritts’ One Foot In The Groove plays fine as a humane, southern-specific rehab record. So when the Alabama-born singer and songwriter declares, “Feelin’ low and flyin’ high/I didn’t know what to do,” or reaches out to “another brother down in the dumps,” he makes amends, maybe.

Still, if you’ve been fortunate enough to have seen Fritts with the Decoys (his backing band here, augmented by the likes of Tony Joe White) rip it up live, you know how deep a pocket these musicians can create. The interplay among Hood, Dillon, and guitarists Scott Boyer and Kelvin Holly exemplifies the big-bottomed funk that makes Muscle Shoals the meeting place of Memphis, Caribbean and New Orleans rhythm-section traditions.

One Foot captures their perfectly cooked playing, with producer Dan Penn adding horn arrangements and Mickey Raphael’s harmonica to a great set of songs. Fritts sounds like Levon Helm on “Don’t Beat Around The Bush”, in which bad old friends test his sympathy. “Been sittin’ here for fifteen minutes/Talkin’ to some fool on the phone/Wants me to send him some money,” he complains. He sounds wistful on “My Friend” (a dead ringer for a Box Tops production) and represents himself in the case of his best friend and his wife on “Nothing But The Blues”.

Best of all is “She’s Got A Crush On Me”, which finds Fritts on the receiving end of the kind of attention that temporarily single southern soul men sometimes attract. “She lives at the Sweetwater Trailer Park, lot number three/She goes to the Church of Christ/She chainsmokes Camel Lights/And she’s got a crush on me,” Fritts gamely sings. It’s a wonderful moment on a funny, charmingly rueful record.