***Johnny Neel and the Last WordCOMIN'
ATCHA . . . LIVE!
(Big Mo)
Nashville insiders call
holy-voiced singer/songwriter Johnny Neel the "white
Ray Charles." True enough,
Neel sounds as if he'd got the same red clay as Brother Ray stuck in his
throat. And he's blind and plays keyboards. And his songs are about affairs of
the heart and soul -- worldly, often sad, and poignantly observational. Some of
the best are here: the teary "Lost the Will To Love Me"; his take on the
spiritual emptiness of wealth, "Society Hill"; the punchy "Bless My Soul." With
a pair of empathetic female vocalists and ringer guitarist Jack Pearson (who's
subbed in the Allman Bros.
for Dickie Betts) among the ace bandmembers, these
live arrangements help Neel deliver the goods with spirit. It's a compliment to
say that -- save for the occasional too-canned synthesizer sound -- this CD
could have been recorded 20 years ago.
-- Ted Drozdowski
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