Editor's Note: This review is part of a series of albums and artists nominated for the 2007 Blues Music Awards (full list of nominees). This album is nominated for Album of the Year and Soul Blues Album of the Year. Thomas is nominated for Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year.
There are a lot of people who associate U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind with 9/11. The anthems, the themes, and some of the lyrics seem to speak perfectly to the aftermath of that terrible day in our nation's history. That connection is further cemented by the way they rose to the occasion. No American band on the scene was capable of the galvanizing performance U2 gave at the Super Bowl that followed a few months later. When America needed a band and a soundtrack for a moment of grief and healing, it borrowed U2.
In that same way, it may be forever impossible to listen to Irma Thomas' beautiful After The Rain and not be flooded with images of Hurricane Katrina and its devastating tangible and psychological impact on the country. It was feared that Thomas, a New Orleans native, might have lost her life in the storm. This was quite obviously not the case; she was on tour at the time of the storm.
It makes for a better story if All That You Can't Leave Behind is a post-9/11 album and if After The Rain is a Hurricane Katrina record. Unfortunately, those stories aren't exactly true. ATYCLB was released almost a full year before the terrorist attacks on NYC and Washington D.C. All but one of the songs for After the Rain had been chosen before Katrina pummeled the shores of the Gulf Coast region. Both records make such powerful statements that they transcend timelines. These are special albums made for trying times.
Article comments
1 - Pico
Mighty fine write-up, Josh. I got this one last summer and I do think it's one of Irma's best.
2 - Josh
I suppose you're in the right geographic region to be all over a release like this, Pico. I wish I had gotten ahold of it sooner. I had to listen to it a few times to let it soak in for me but as soon as I started writing this it all just seemed to flow. I listened to the disc another couple times as I did and my fondness for it grew. It's a wonderful album.