Al Green Back to Memphis Soul

The legendary soul singer returns to secular soul this fall – he is recording an album in Memphis with Willie Mitchell:

“I Can’t Stop” finds Al Green repeating history. He has again teamed with legendary production mate Willie Mitchell, and the album is being recorded at the pair’s old stomping grounds, Memphis’ Royal Studio. Green is even recording with the same mic he used in the ’70s.

The album also marks a couple of firsts. Green is now signed to Blue Note. And his work in progress has the jazz-oriented label stretching into R&B. “I Can’t Stop” is due Nov. 18. Its impending debut pushes the release of the four-CD EMI package “Al Green: The Immortal Soul of …” to early 2004. [Billboard]

No one deserves the royal comeback treatment more than the Reverend Al, and I am very excited to hear what he comes up with Mitchell, who helped construct Green’s immortal sound of the ’70s.

I recently paid tribute to Green:

Born the youngest of ten children to deeply religious Arkansas sharecroppers, Green was the last of the great southern soul singers, creating a spare, sexy, spiritual sound out of simple yet elegant production (by Willie Mitchell) and a classic Memphis soul band in the Stax/Volt tradition almost ten years after the sound had peaked.

They say “Al Green is love,” and His Greatest Hits makes gloriously clear the relationship for Green between romantic love and love of God, that others, including Prince, have pursued with much less success. Recorded between ’71 and ’75, Green had an amazing run of hits written alone or with Mitchell including “Let’s Stay Together,” “Tired of Being Alone,” “I’m Still In Love With You,” “Here I Am (Come and Take Me),” “Call Me,” and a stunning version of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”