The Transcendent Beauty of Soul Music

Scott Sharrard inhabits his guitar, and his guitar inhabits him. Much like Duane Allman, Sharrard is at one with his instrument; he pulls notes and phrases out of his guitar as he stretches out over the frets. He knows just when to play the right riff or note, and his soulful vocals float over his guitar, producing tunes that grab us from the opening licks or snare rolls. Backing Sharrard, who was Gregg Allman’s musical director, on about half of the songs is the famous Hi Rhythm Section — Howard Grimes, Reverend Charles Hodges, and Leroy Hodges — and those songs were recorded in Memphis; most of the rest of the songs were recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and feature David Hood, Spooner Oldham, and Chad Gamble.

Every song on Sharrard’s new album, Saving Grace, dances joyfully along with a musical spirit that flows from blues to country to jazz to rock and roll. Sharrard’s guitar riff gets inside us on these songs, lifting us out of our seats and out of our worlds. On the bridge of “Sentimental Fool,” for example, Sharrard’s lead riffs play call and response with Al Gamble’s B-3, and as the song fades out Sharrard’s guitar is talking to us note-by-note in an effusive, smiling voice. One of the hallmarks of these songs and of Sharrard’s playing is that we feel his notes as if he’s playing them directly to us; they are crisp and sharp and get under our skin. The album opens with a jazz-blues fusion, “The High Cost of Loving You,” which features a funky B-3 foundation over which Sharrard’s vocals and guitars soar. The opening slide guitar on “Faith to Arise” flows out of the Allman Brothers as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Ballad of Curtis Lowe” and floats over a little country finger-picked chord before moving off into smooth jazz-inflected ballad. There are refrains of the Atlanta Rhythm Section in the structure of this song and echoes of “Spooky,” written by Buddy Buie, chief producer and songwriter of the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

The title track flies high with a soaring vibe that sounds like what might happen if Solomon Burke, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Jeff Healy got together to perform a slow burning soul rocker. With its rapid-fire fret running, Sharrard’s lead solo on the bridge scalds and sears, burning into our hearts.  “Everything a Good Man Needs,” which is Gregg Allman’s last-known original song, and which features Taj Mahal on vocals, funks long with a swampy New Orleans-meet-Memphis jazzy promenade, while “Angeline” rocks along with Chuck Berry/Fats Domino vibe. “Words Can’t Say” opens with a phrase from “Rainy Night in Georgia” that flows under the entire song. The highlight of the album is “She Can’t Wait,” a rousing soul song that has snatches of “Waiting on the World to Change” and Carolina beach music; “She Can’t Wait” has all the hallmarks of a soul classic: crispy bright guitar chords, searing leads, soaring B-3, and sunny, shining horns.

Sometimes music so transcends its foundations in its organic beauty that it moves beyond a place that mere words cannot describe it. Saving Grace is filled with such music, and Sharrard’s guitar playing so often moves beyond words that the very best way to experience Saving Grace is to allow its music to wash over us and carry us to the places that Sharrard takes us.