Marcel Smith — “From My Soul” — Little Village Foundation
Great soul music isn’t hard to find if you want to visit the old masters, mostly long gone, but whose music still burns brightly — Johnny Adams, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Al Green, Solomon Burke, and many more.
It’s much harder to find someone making contemporary soul music magic that ranks with the classics, and when you find it, it needs to be recognized and appreciated.
That’s why “From My Soul,” a magnificent new album by Marcel Smith, a relative youngster and newcomer to the style, needs to get that recognition and appreciation.
Like many great soul artists, Smith has musical roots deep in the gospel tradition. When he was just 15, quartet gospel veteran Willie Washington heard Smith solo in his church. Washington offered him a spot in his new quartet, the WD Gospel Singers. Smith’s history in gospel music since then has given him the professional polish and the vocal chops that fill his secular music with soulful power.
For this album, Smith has returned to Christopher “Kid” Andersen’s Greaseland Studios and the Little Village label for his follow-up to 2018’s “Everybody Needs Love.” Andersen is effusively supportive: “It is that elusive quality of making you believe what he sings, making you care about the story, and care for him as a person, that puts Marcel right up there with the legendary greats of the idiom,” he says.
The musicians who back him here are all notable because of their sharp support of Smith’s vocals. They his include Derrick “D’Mar” Martin on drums; Endre Tarczy on bass; Jim Pugh on organ and piano; Kid Andersen, producer, guitar, and miscellaneous instruments; Rick Estrin on harmonica; Jon Otis on percussion; Jerry Jemmott on bass on track 8; Mike Rinta on trombone and horn arrangements on tracks 6, 8, and 11; Aaron Lington on saxophone, horn arrangements on t racks 1, 9, and 10, and string arrangement on track 3; John Worley on trumpet; Don Dally on strings; Tony Lufrano on organ on track 8; and Eric Spaulding on the sax solo on track 2. Backing vocals are provided by Lisa Leuschner Andersen and Sons of the Soul Revivers.
The album features five songs co-written by Smith, plus eight others that pull from some unlikely sources, but they all come together in a perfect union of sweet soul music.
The album kicks off with the horn-laced, R&B-flavored “I’m Coming Home To You,” with the glorious backing vocals of the Soul Revivers. The carefree lyric and upbeat music set just the right mood for all that follows. “If You Miss Me” follows, a slow, smooth ballad tastefully delivered with a classic small-combo feeling, with Smith’s vocals and lovely falsetto sliding gracefully alongside a sensuous Spaulding sax solo.
“What Can We Do” asks that question about an anxious world, with the Soul Revivers soaring in the background. “Freedom Blues” roars to life with a similar theme, riding on a strong Rick Estrin harmonica line.
A soothing cover of Willie Nelson’s “Wake Me When It’s Over” softens the mood as Smith does a great job of making this song his own. Another cover, this time an audacious take on Jimmy Liggins’ “Drunk” cranks up for the dance floor.
“To Be True” softens the mood again, a lilting love song so smoothly delivered that you know he’ll get the second chance he’s asking for. “Nothing Left To Burn” explores a more rhythmic pulse behind an exciting vocal take.
The great soul man Johnny Rawls joins Smith for two gorgeous songs: “There Goes My Used To Be” and “Turn Back The Hands Of Time,” the first a soaring ballad, the second a Stax-like anthem filled with crackling horns.
Smith pours his heart and considerable into the sweetness of “My Heart Told A Lie,” then sustains the tender mood on “I Don’t Want To Take A Chance.”
The closer is an emotional tribute to the memory of Smith’s mother, delivered with a spoken intro — a powerful nine-minute live version of the Bee Gees “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.” It’s a soul-powered masterpiece and a fitting finale to this stirring album.
“From My Soul” is simply a great album, rich with the irresistible emotional power of sweet soul music.
Here’s “Turn Back the Hands of Time” with Johnny Rawls:
Tracklist:
- Coming Home to You
- If You Miss Me
- What Can We Do
- Freedom Blues
- Wake Me When It’s Over
- Drunk!
- To Be True
- Nothing Left to Burn
- There Goes My Used to Be
- Turn Back the Hands of Time
- My Heart Told a Lie
- I Don’t Want To Take a Chance
- How Do You Mind a Broken Heart
Blues Roadhouse 
