Solomon Burke: Don't Give Up On Me

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

One of the seminal soul voices whose style defined the genre in the 60s, Burke has hardly been sighted these past two decades, other than by his parishioners (yep, he has his own church) or his most ardent fans. Count among them Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Nick Lowe and the other songwriters approached to offer a previously unrecorded song for this, a sparsely produced album which breathes classic soulful emotion.

The Dan Penn title track, the Waits/Kathleen Brennan Diamond in Your Mind (where Burke sounds touched by the spirit of Satchmo) and the Mann/Weil Russell None of Us Are Free (with the Blind Boys of Alabama, see review below) are among the many standouts.

But it's the Costello/Cait O'Riordan The Judgement which is the most dramatic. Only Brian Wilson and Andy Paley's cliched Soul Searchin' doesn't match the high standard of writing, but Burke typically pulls out every emotion he can find. Welcome to the resurrection.

Label: Fat Possum