Selections from “Live at the Palais Royale’ / Soulsville 3” – Danny Brooks

“No Turning Back,” “Righteous Highway,” “Carolina,” and “Carry Me”
Danny Brooks
From Live at the Palais Royale’ / Soulsville 3 (release scheduled for September 2009)
www.dannybrooksmusic.com

TBGB has reviewed several projects by Canada’s Danny Brooks over the years, having first heard him when he appeared on the 2002 Northernblues Music compilation Saved! Northernblues Gospel Allstars.

Later this summer, Brooks will return with a brand new release, part of his celebrated “Soulsville” series: Live at the Palais Royale’ / Soulsville 3. A live album makes sense, too, because Brooks plays the kind of music that revels in audience enthusiasm.

Although his album won’t be out until September, Brooks previewed some of its tracks for TBGB. First is “No Turning Back.” Brooks does some raucously righteous blue-eyed soul shouting on the infectious song about getting religion and not backsliding. The performance features bluesy harmonica, courtesy of Jerome Godboo, and a chugging rockabilly beat. Brooks notes that he wrote the song “with the Five Blind Boys of Alabama in mind.”

On “Righteous Highway,” a Brooks track originally featured on the Northernblues Saved! compilation, Papa John King solos on slide guitar/resonator like a saved George Thorogood, while Brooks handles the fuzz slide, summoning up the ghost of Elmore James in the stinging metallic chording.

Brooks also plays slide guitar on “Carolina” and “Carry Me.” The latter sounds like an updated version of a 1920s guitar evangelist street corner performance. All in all, Soulsville 3 promises more rootsy religious music, but this time with high-octane electric gusto, no doubt propelled to higher heights by an appreciative audience.

In early October, Danny Brooks will be appearing at the Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, Texas. I can totally see him performing his distinctive gospel music in that environment. And word has it he is spending more time in Austin these days. Canada’s loss is Austin’s gain, but his singing and playing suggests that Texas has been running warm in his veins for quite some time.