Album Review: Solomon Burke – ‘Nashville’

By Jeff Swindoll Oct 3, 2006, 15:13 GMT

Solomon Burke, the King of Rock & Soul, completes his 21st century trilogy with Nashville, a collection of country songs produced by Buddy Miller and recorded at his Nashville home. Solomon returns to one of his first loves, country music, after the GRAMMY Award-winning Don’t Give Up On Me and the GRAMMY®-nominated Make Do With What You Got. (His breakthrough ’60s singles on Atlantic Records were in a country vein.) ...more

Solomon Burke has become known as the king of rock n’ soul in his sixty year career.  He’s a Grammy award winning (‘Don’t Give Up on Me’ (2002) winning for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2003) artist and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.  Awards are not uncommon to Burke, but it was at the Americana Music Awards that he met producer Buddy Miller that led him down the path to this album – ‘Nashville.’ 

Miller is a longtime collaborator with such artists as Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris.  So what may you ask is the big deal with this album?  The deal is that Solomon Burke, the king of rock n’ soul, is making a country album.  Country music has always been in Burke’s blood, but it’s the soul music and blues that he’s mainly known for.  He’s dipped his toe in the cool country waters but has never devoted a whole album to them. 

He expresses that doing a country album like ‘Nashville’ is something that he’s always wanted to do and that he’s always loved Roy Rogers and Gene Autry (Autry is one of the people that the album is dedicated to in the liner notes).  He also admired Herb Jeffries, one of the first black cowboys.  In fact, he’d tried some country songs after hearing Charlie Pride, but was pushed back into R&B by the Atlantic.  “I’m trying to ride a horse and they were trying to put me in a Cadillac” he says about his short four song  foray into country music. 

Since this album is something that he’s always wanted to do, he expresses that it feels like he’s completing a circle.  He also found a fine collaborator in Miller and he’s been able to assemble a wonderful list of female country stars to appear on the album.  The album was recorded over an eight day period in Miller’s house and Miller assembled some of the country music’s greatest female artists to collaborate with.

Solomon also covers some songs by legendary country performers George Jones (“We’re Gonna Hold On”) and Tom T. Hall (“That’s How I Got to Memphis”) as well as Bruce Springsteen (“Ain’t Got You”). 

Solomon lends a bit of soul to each of the songs.  Even better he sounds like he’s having the time of his life doing them.  You even witness a bit of studio talk at the end of one song that confirms that everyone is having a ball.  I think that his fans will enjoy this album, but will also impress country music fans. 

‘Nashville’ is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information and a complete track listing.