Freddie Waters - One Step Closer to the Blues

Another rerun of an earlier post - this one is for Lazz on a post from Preslives.

Nashville is usually associated with Country Music rather than R&B.  Yet quite a number of fine R&B artists came out of Nashville.  Among soul singers, we have Earl Gaines, Roscoe Shelton, and Charles Walker (the subject of my next post).    Freddie Waters may have been the most distinctive of all the Nashville soul singers, someone who channeled Sam Cooke through his own unique sound and approach that is recognizable from the first few notes.

 

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Freddie Waters began his professional career in Nashville as the lead singer in the Hytones, and was then signed as a solo act by Ref-O-Ree Records.  His fine singles for that label and live shows had enough success on the Chitlin’ Circuit to earn him a recording session for Stax Records.    Unfortunately, his output on Stax was limited to only one 45: “Groovin’ on My Baby’s Love,” and his career fizzled after that.   

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Over the next 28 years, Freddie Waters had few other opportunities to record.   He cut a few more singles for the obscure October Records in Nashville, and then made a solid, if rather uneven, album for TJ Records.   

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Fortunately, Fred James had enough sense to bring Freddie Waters into the studio one more time in 2000 , fix him up with a dynamite band, and produce this beautiful album for Black Magic Records.   Two months after recording One Step Closer to the Blues, Freddie Waters had left us.   For me, this stellar session reaches its absolute apex with the cover of Percy Sledge’s classic “It Tears Me Up.”   It tears ME up every time I hear it, a true masterpiece and vivid demonstration of the incredible under-appreciated talent of Freddie Waters.