Little Milton - Think Of Me (w/ Jon Tiven)

I had forgotten about this one...a repost!

I'm noticing a disturbing trend in these collaborations with Tiven and Company  - each of them ends up being the final album in the artists' career -- Arthur Alexander, Wilson Pickett, Howard Tate and now Little Milton! 

"For his debut Telarc Blues release, Little Milton continues in the soul-blues vein he helped to popularize starting with his work for the Chess label in the mid-'60s. His impassioned vocals are as strong as ever with guitar chops to match. The 12 tracks that make up Think of Me could be likened to a classic Stax production sans the driving horn section. The first-rate work of organist Bruce Katz keeps the proceedings percolating through Little Milton's soul-blues base liberally mixed with flourishes of country music, swamp pop, R&B, and urban funk. Any fan of Little Milton's Malaco releases of the '80s and '90s will definitely want to add this to his collection." AMG

Garnet Mimms - Is Anybody Out There?

At 75, Garnet Mimms is singing better than ever. The proof is all over Is Anybody Out There?, produced and arranged by Nashville's Jon Tiven. Tiven wrote or co-wrote 13 of the album's 15 tunes. He recorded the set in his home studio with wife Sally Tiven on bass, pianist Mark Jordan, and a host of drummers, including Chester Thompson. For his part, Tiven played guitar, saxophones, sitar, and harmonica. Jonell Mosser, Wayne Jackson, choirmaster Shake Anderson, Greg Morrow, Billy Block, Patti Russo, Felix Cavaliere, Buddy Miller, Little Milton Campbell, and P.F. Sloan all guest. But the real story is Mimms. The material is all retro soul-gospel and leaves his previous solo gospel outing in the dust. His calling these days is one of a preacher who counsels prisoners, and in the grain of his beautiful voice is the world-weariness of a man who has traveled many of life's roads but whose hope is unvanquished; in fact, it's firmly intact. Tiven is clearly not interested in having Mimms sound like a museum piece. He goes to great lengths to place his voice in songs that are deeply rooted in Southern soul, blues, and gospel. That said, sometimes it feels like his production goes to extremes. While there are no samplers or drum loops, playing near baroque sitar on some of the album's best songs -- like "Let Your Love Rain" -- can initially be a jarring experience, where it feels as if an alien presence has invaded the recording. Thankfully, Mimms' voice brings the listener right back and shows that everything is basically where it should be.

This doesn't feel like a retro record because Tiven's ideas about how to make soul records have changed substantially since he worked with the late Wilson Pickett. There are times when he feels as if he's channeling T Bone Burnett and Jeff Lynne simultaneously, but there is enough grit in his studio sound to shake any perceived excesses. Mimms responds, and that's all that matters. Listen to his voice on "Sweet Silence," where he hits every note, accentuating the drama in its narrative, and reflects on what is essential in gospel music: the sense of joy and gratitude, of worship that is rooted in the soil and dust but aspires to the glory of heaven. Check the scorching funky blues riffing in the title track and the way Mimms scales the wall of noise to express the tension in the narrative. This is a modern psalm in a time of trouble, and Mimms is the modern day David whose heart is heavy but holding close to the rock of his faith. In "On Top of This Mountain," Mimms gets into a wildly expressive upper register atop a veritable wall of backing voices and reverbed guitars and percussion. It's a hymn but it's also a proclamation of strength, grace, and devotion that knows the very heart of what he's singing about. The funky horns in "Love Is the Reason," which follows it, portrays Mimms effortlessly reaching deep into his belly to let that aforementioned joy become a question, one that only each individual listener can answer. With Is Anybody Out There?, Reverend Mimms, aided by Tiven and his coconspirators, has offered up one of the great surprises of 2008, an album so skillfully wrought and deeply expressive that it cannot help to inspire nearly otherworldly emotions in the listener.
Thom Jurek

Howard Tate - Blue Day (with Jon Tiven)

Now here is another of the Jon and Sally Tiven reclamation projects, as promised, I also have one with Little Milton coming up next. Jon Tiven seems to have a real talent at this stuff because Blue Day easily outstrips any of the other albums of Tate's final comeback. Strong songs, strong arrangements, strong performance by the star... There are some other projects with Garnet Mimms (Is Anybody Out There?), Betty Harris (Intuition), Don Covay (Adlib), Syl Johnson (Two Johnson's Are Better Than One), and of course the Arthur Alexander album that I've already posted. Should anyone wish to contribute one of those, please leave me a message and an email and I'll get it posted.

"On Blue Day, veteran soul and gospel singer Howard Tate lays down a set so utterly crackling with energy, vitality, and sheer grit one could be forgiven for forgetting that, at the turn of this century, he hadn't recorded in nearly 30 years and had been virtually forgotten and left for dead -- a victim of his own excesses. Tate was quite literally rediscovered by his former producer Jerry Ragovoy and brought back into the recording studio to work his vocal magic on tracks written for him by a stellar cast of songwriters in 2003. In 2006, he recorded A Portrait of Howard backed by the Carla Bley Band as well as a host of guests including Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen band vocalist Perla Batalla, and cellist Jane Scarpantoni. But Blue Day leaves that record in the dust, quite literally. At the age of 70, Tate is in absolutely top form as a singer and song interpreter. Produced by guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Tiven, and recorded at his Nashville studio with wife Sally Tiven on bass and all-star drummer Chester Thompson, the album also features a few choice guests like Jonell Mosser, Mike Farris, Dan Penn, Steve Cropper, Felix Cavaliere, and Joe Bonamassa. Tate is literally unleashed on these tracks, allowed the full range of his voice and his fierce, fiery persona. He is a preacher these days, and his blues and soul singing has been given great depth and dimension by his returning to the roots of his raising in the church.

Tiven wrote or co-wrote all 15 of these cuts, but without Tate's singing, they'd be merely good songs. He makes them great ones. The sound on this set is fat and warm, but it's spare, too -- it feels live, close, and full of kinetics and heat. There is plenty of space for Tate to inhabit each line and literally soar above the backing band. The opener, "Miss Beehive," is an attention-getter because it's about Amy Winehouse, her gift, and her self-destructive tendencies. It can be interpreted as tongue in cheek, but it's actually an empathic response to the demons that haunt her -- ones Tate knows only too well. Tiven may have written the tune, but the compassion in its grain lies firmly with the singer, and the arrangement recalls everything from Stax to Motown (the backing chorus and horn chart arrangement evoking those on "Heatwave" is a nice touch). But it's on "40 Days" where the deep well of Tate's soul origins comes pouring from his voice. It's a hard-luck tale of lost love where you become ensnared inside the singer's world and can't extract yourself. On "If God Brought You to It," the raucous wail of Delta blues and the gospel of the Southern black church come roiling up from the body of this duet with Farris. Essra Mohawk provides a killer backing vocal and Billy Block provides the crushing four-on-the-floor drumbeat. The shuffling soul-blues of "First Class" features Cavaliere's keyboards, Cropper on guitar, and Mosser on backing vocals, and this track is a standout. The hunted minor-key blues of "Buried Treasure" may have been written for Tate, but you can hear traces of the voices of both Syl Johnson and Al Green in it as well. The bottom line is this set is all killer and no filler. Tate is at the absolute top of his game at 70; he's making up for lost time with a vengeance." Thom Jurek, AMG

Check out how utterly BAAAD ASS Sally Tiven is on bass!! She tears it up on Improvising!

Wilson Pickett - It's Harder Now

When this album was recorded in 1998, it had been 17 long years since the Wicked One had been in the studio. It had been nearly as long since he had even had his own working band. He spent most of the time post 70's traveling around in soul shows playing the old hits with the 'house band' carried by the tour. Not much chance of doing anything new under those circumstances.

Enter multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer Jon Tiven and his talented wife Sally. Tiven was the guy who, in 1990, had found Arthur Alexander driving a school bus in Cleveland and made possible his short career resurgence; it seems to have since become Tiven's calling in life to find and record these folks and he is doing a hell of a job. "It's Harder Now" was both Pickett's triumphant return and, ultimately, his swan song. The album received 3 W.C. Handy awards and a Grammy nomination, Wilson was voted Male Artist of the Year, Comeback Artist of the Year, etc... I remember at the time eagerly awaiting the next chapter, but alas, it never came.

I have come to revere this album as one of the strongest final statements of any artist I can think of. A giant portion of what makes it so good is the writing and musicianship of Jon and Sally Tiven. Jon plays guitars, organ, piano, harmonica and saxophones, (whew!) produces, and writes, while Sally is the very funky bass player and frequent song collaborator. The music is exceptionally well played, like Muscle Shoals good, but it is the songs that make this one so special. Wilson's voice has moved to the bluesier side and there is a weight and gravel to his voice that was not there before. The songs fit him to a tee, oozing sex and bravado while acknowledging the passage of time, this is a mellowed Pickett as he makes clear on Soul Survivor and It's Harder Now. Other songs like What's Underneath That Dress and All About Sex, however, have a wicked sense of humor that is just irresistible. Had he been provided material this good in the prior decades, who knows?... If you don't have this one, DO NOT PASS ON IT! ALL KILLER!