JGM Pick of the Week – March 28, 2023

“I Still Have You”
Smokie Norful
Tre’Myles Music / IndieBlu (release date: October 20, 2022)

By Robert M. Marovich

“I Still Have You” may be Smokie Norful’s most affecting single since “I Need You Now.”

Like the earlier hit, released two decades ago, Norful invites the listener to peer into his prayer room as he sings to himself about the one constant presence in a life of vulnerability and weakness. When nobody else cares, “The Great I Am” does.

“And sometimes I win / When the score says I lose;
Because even in my weakness / I still have you.”

Norful minimizes his trademark melismatic vocalizing to deliver the penetrating message, as the strings and piano set the ideal mood for this mini masterpiece—a candidate for JGM Song of the Year.