"Pictures And Paintings" - Charlie Rich

This album, like many of Charlie Rich's best work, deserved, and still deserves a much wider audience. Like any great music, the sound on this album is hard to pin down. Charlie Rich achieved his greatest fame in the Country field (with #1 hits such as "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl"),  but on this album, Country is one of only many genres which he touches upon. There's a good deal of a Jazz feel to this album, along with a dollop of Soul.

It's almost hard to express how full of emotion are such standout tracks as the title track (written by Doc Pomus and Mac Rebennack AKA Dr. John) and "Go Ahead And Cry" (written by Charlie Rich's wife, Margaret Ann Rich). "Pictures And Paintings" beautifully paints an indelible picture of a man who cannot let go of a love that may never even have existed. And while the lyrics are certainly not at all upbeat, the music is a fairly upbeat shuffle. The next track on the album ("You Don't Know Me") is a painfully slow heartbreaker, a cover of a Country standard (a huge hit for Eddy Arnold, and later Ray Charles).

"Feel Like Going Home," the final track of the album naturally, is one of his most powerful and soulful songs. It ties in with author Peter Guralnick, who wrote a book of the same title after he heard Rich's demo version from the 1970's (which frankly is a more moving version of the song, it can be found on the 2-CD "Essential Charlie Rich") and also wrote the liner notes and served as one of the executive producers on the album.

"Pictures And Paintings" was the last album that Charlie Rich recorded.  It was released in 1992 and Rich passed away in 1995. The albums serves as a fitting epitaph to a varied and wide-ranging music career.

"Evidence: The Complete Fame Masters" - Candi Staton

While Candi Station is by no means an unknown Soul singer, it is my opinion that she is one of the most underrated. The work that she did at Fame Studios during the late 1960s and early 1970s is among the most vital, soulful and propulsive Soul music to ever be committed to wax. And thankfully Ace Records has finally brought all of these recordings together in one very complete collection, along with a few unreleased tracks.

There is a lot of heartache and longing on this double CD. From the distraught "Someone You Use" to the funky and liberated "Evidence," Candi sings about the hurt caused by love. Possibly the most agonizingly poignant performance is her take on "How Can I Put Out The Flame (When You Keep The Fire Burning)", which is about a woman who can't get over a man and until he's out of her life. The latter two songs were co-written by George Jackson, who co-wrote most of the greatest songs on this album and has written such hits as "One Bad Apple" and "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll". He also co-wrote her first hit, the charging and hilarious "I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Fool)". There are also a number of interesting covers on this album. Her take on the Soul standard "That's How Strong My Love Is" is a lovely declaration of fidelity and her hit version of Tammy Wynette's Country standard "Stand By Your Man" is a fascinating piece of Country Soul.

While Candi Staton is not as well-known as the likes of Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick or Gladys Knight, and therefore consequently her career has not been as long-lived, the performances captured on this double-CD are equal to the best works of these singers and deserving of a much wider audience.