Percy Sledge – Shining Through The Rain

A decade after his last studio album, Percy Sledge returns with a flourish on Shining Through The Rain, which plays to his strengths as an interpreter of soul and blues with hints of country.

Producers Saul Davis and Barry Goldberg assembled a multigenerational cast to back Sledge, including a solid rhythm section of Bob Glaub (bass) and Ed Greene (drums), guitarists Larry Byrom and Greg Leisz, keyboardist Clayton Ivey, and vocalists Jakob Dylan and Carla Olson.

“Big Blue Diamonds” and “24-7-365” are uptempo slices of soul that sound like they could have been cut at Stax Records or Muscle Shoals. The former is a cautionary warning about the illusory nature of wealth performed with Paul Jones (Manfred Mann), while the latter is a lively dedication of love augmented by the backing vocals of Julia, Maxine and Oren Waters.

Sledge’s aching tenor is tailor-made for pleading ballads, as he demonstrated decades ago on “When A Man Loves A Woman” and “It Tears Me Up”. He continues in that vein on the new album with the guarded optimism of the title track and the weary resignation of Steve Earle’s “My Old Friend The Blues”. Like James Carr did with “To Love Somebody”, Sledge brings out the heartbreak of the Bee Gees’ “A Lonely Violin”.

Shining Through The Rain is an affirmation of Sledge’s still considerable talents as a singer and may help introduce him to a new generation, much as Don’t Give Up On Me recently did for fellow ’60s soul man Solomon Burke.