Roscoe Shelton
LET IT SHINE
Black Top - 1149
available on amazon
Roscoe Shelton has thankfully emerged from his retirement from the music business in America in a big time way with the release of LET IT SHINE. He was starting to go big in the R &D charts in the late 60s when a series of labels folded out from under him. This is a big time R & B disc that should put him back in the spotlight in a big time (and well deserved) way. Right from the opening solid up tempo R & B groove of LADY (Your Man's Runnin' 'Round) to the restrained depth of hurt of HARD TO BE ALONE this disc is cookin' and percolatin' with a solid feel. Roscoe Shelton has a voice that goes right to the apogee of the feeling that is needed. His early days of singing gospel are extremely evident in this reaching for the inside feel of a song. His days of doing lead vocals for the Fairfield Four, a popular gospel quartet, hold him in good stead. This disc comes about as close as you get to the depth and truth of feeling that gospel has, on an R & B disc since someone of Sam Cooke's ilk was recording. The songs ring with a truth that must be lived and felt to be sung with such conviction. Listen to him confess to being wrong on I WAS WRONG! PLAYED WITH LOVE, and plead with the feeling of one who knows he has blown the best thing he ever had. What made this a more interesting disc to me is the fact that he wrote all the tunes but one. Or maybe he can sing with such strength of feeling because he knows of what he is singing. Then there is this oh so tight band backing him. I'm not sure how they fit in, as they are also the band on another Black Top release, but they know how to play and as a unit they are so tight.... (you can use your own imagination to make your own analogy). Suffice it to say that they are mighty impressive. The one thing that kept niggling in my mind was that as close as he was to gospel I kept waiting for him to go full out into a gospel tune, lordy I was just itching for it to happen. How can I fault a disc for something that wasn't there, I don't know, but it was like we were teased and teased but never fulfilled. Regardless this is one of the finest R & B discs to come out in a long time. Pick it up it won't disappoint.
Songs, times and writers
1 LADY (Your Man's Runnin' 'Round) - 3:53 - R. Shelton
2 EASY GOING FELLOW - 4:20 - Orange
3 SOMETIMES I GET BITTER - 4:08 - R. Shelton
4 LET IT SHINE - 4:04 - R. Shelton
5 WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME (for so long)? - 3:57 - R. Shelton
6 SAVE ME - 4:18 - R. Shelton
7 I THANK YOU - 3:08 - R. Shelton
8 ALL NIGHT LONG - 3:01 - R. Shelton
9 I WAS WRONG! PLAYED WITH LOVE - 3:16 - R. Shelton
10 THE REST OF MY LIFE - 2:38 - R. Shelton
11 I WANT YOU - 5:59 - R. Shelton
12 HARD TO BE ALONE - 6:36 - R. Shelton
Players -
Roscoe Shelton - vocals
Fred James - lead & rhythm guitar
Phil Rugh - Hammond organ
Jay Spell - piano
Bill Swartz - drums
Mary-Ann Brandon, Fred James, Roscoe Shelton - background vocals
Horns by the Third Coast Horns
Dennis Taylor - tenor sax
Steve Herrman - trumpet
Tom McGinley - baritone sax
Horn arrangements by
Dennis Taylor, Steve Herrman, and Fred James
Produced by - Fred James