Solomon Burke - Nashville

Tue 5th Dec, 2006 in Music Reviews

Country music has stretched its slender roots and captured people all across the world, but when its heart and soul taps its heels in its favourite place, it’s dancing in Nashville. Thriving with preaching spirits and the amazing echoing history of the infamous Ryman Theatre, Nashville is an experience that singer-songwriter Solomon Burke, believes every musician should have.

Following on from a career that reaches over five decades, Solomon Burke is often referred to as the king of Rock and Soul. He is renowned for his help in shaping and refining the sounds of Soul music, through his beautiful vocal techniques, and his expression of feeling within his songwriting. The inspiration and quality of his songs are recognised by many musicians and have been covered by many artists, including the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. In 2001, Burke was also inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

His new album Nashville is a collaboration of songs written by country music’s heavy weights and their inheritors, including songwriters such as Tom T. Hall, Don Williams, Larry Henley, Kevin Welch and Jim Lauderdale. Burke also collaborates with country music’s princesses Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch, Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris and Patty Loveless, singing along with them and playing their own songs. With this album Burke hopes to share the experience of Nashville and its musical culture and background, as well as pay tribute to those who inspired he and his music so.

Nashville was recorded over an eight-day period at the notorious country music musician and producer, Buddy Miller’s family home, who also produced and mixed the album. All acoustically based songs, the arrangements are simple, with traditional sounding melodies and instrumentation. Burkes deep voice bounces off the Fiddle and Wurlitzer and Lap Steel and Harmonica, and a flourish of strings, arranged by Tom Howard, creates a lush and slightly cliché hum of heartbreak.

The majority of songs on this album have a similar feel to them, as is stylistic of country music. However, the songs that are most note-worthy seem to be the simplest and most passive sounding, perhaps capturing more with their sweetness. Gillian Welch’s, Valley of Tears, highlights Burke’s appreciation of subtlety in music, with only slight but lovely vocal harmonies, ending with Burke holding onto the word tears as if he were weeping. Patty Griffin’s, Up to the Mountain, unravels a beautiful melody which absolutely shows off Burke’s Soul style vocals, however could do without the incredibly naff string section which actually swallows the song towards the middle. Finally, the last song, co-written by Larry Henley and Red Lane, Til’ I get it Right, demonstrates the magnificent lyrics that country music has to offer, revealing a story of conquering love.

To create an experience of the sounds and understanding of Nashville is a difficult task, I’m sure to tighten and restrict this to fourteen tracks is almost impossible to accomplish. But as far as giving the unknowing a Nashville education, I think Burke and his friends pull it off. This album shows those who know nothing about country music, what it is about, where it comes from and what it has to offer.