Legendary soul
singer and songwriter William Bell has returned to his original home, Stax
Records, for the appropriately titled This Is Where I Live, his first major
release in almost four decades, out June 3rd, 2016. Known for writing and performing several soul
standards – “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” “Private Number,” “Every Day Will Be
Like a Holiday,” and “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” among them – Bell co-wrote
most of the songs on This Is Where I Live with GRAMMY-winner John Leventhal,
who also produced the album. Additional
co-writing contributors are Marc Cohn, Rosanne Cash, Cory Chisel and Scott
Bomar.
This Is Where I Live features newly-penned liner notes by
music historian and author Peter Guralnick, who observes that the album
“convey[s] home truths from a perspective of age and experience that might not
always have been readily apparent to a younger man.” The performances,
likewise, are assured and subtle, yet simmering with tension.
“At my age,” says
Bell, who is 76, “I've had a lot of experience, and I know what my limitations
are, what my faults are as a human being, and I utilize that. When I approach a
lyric or a melody, I'm brutally honest.”
That approach is immediately apparent on album opener “The
Three of Me,” which features a classic William Bell conceit as he catalogs the
different sides of a man who has loved and lost. NPR notes that "age
becomes Bell's voice, which is still sweet and unwaveringly earnest; befitting
the song's conceit, he sings harmony with himself. It's a pleasure to once
again hear his reliable romanticism arranged astride the earthy simplicity of
horns, Hammond organ and unfussy guitar riffs." Listen here:
http://n.pr/22xPFOr
Other album highlights include the hard-grooving “Poison In
The Well,” about an addiction to an unhealthy love, and the autobiographical
title track, in which Bell charts his journey from humble Memphis origins to
the world stage. When he switches into
ballad mode, as on the sweetly tender “I Will Take Care of You” – written for a
close friend recovering from health problems – the effect is devastating.
William Bell’s career started in the 1950s when he joined
the Phineas Newborn Sr. band as a teenager.
He signed to Stax in 1961 and delivered one of the iconic soul label’s
earliest hits with “You Don’t Miss Your Water.”
He also co-wrote, with Booker T. Jones, the iconic song “Born Under A
Bad Sign” for Albert King, which was later famously covered by Cream. In more recent years he has been covered by
Carole King, sampled by Kanye West, and feted by Snoop Dogg. He has performed everywhere from Bonnaroo to
The White House, and will play a select run of dates with John Leventhal and
his band around the release of This Is Where I Live, to be announced soon.
Track list:
1. The Three Of Me
2. The House Always
Wins
3. Poison In The
Well
4. I Will Take Care
Of You
5. Born Under A Bad
Sign
6. All Your Stories
7. Walking On A
Tightrope
8. This Is Where I
Live
9. More Rooms
10. All The Things
You Can’t Remember
11.
Mississippi-Arkansas Bridge
12. People Want To Go
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