DO RIGHT MAN (SYEOR 2018 EXCLUSIVE)

Personnel: Dan Penn (vocals, acoustic guitar); Reggie Young (acoustic & electric guitars); Jimmy Johnson, Gary Nicholson (guitar); Doug Moffet (flute, baritone saxophone); Delbert McClinton (harmonica); Harvey Thompson (tenor saxophone); Wayne Jackson (trumpet); Charles Rose (trombone); Spooner Oldham (piano, electric piano, organ, Mellotron, glockenspiel); Bobby Emmons (piano, organ); David Briggs, Carson Whitsett (electric piano); David Hood (bass); Roger Hawkins, Florence Flash (drums, percussion); Ava Aldridge, Cindy Richards-Walker, Lenny LeBlanc, Buzz Cason, George Soule (background vocals). Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, Sheffield, Alabama. Includes liner notes by Peter Guralnick. In an age of wretched excess, listening to DO RIGHT MAN is like receiving a postcard from a long lost friend. A legendary figure from the golden age of soul who first emerged in the late '50s, Dan Penn is best known as a songwriter, having penned such classics as "Cry Like A Baby," "I'm Your Puppet" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man." Here, on ten superb arrangements, Dan Penn demonstrates that there's a world of difference between celebrating sensuality and writing something truly sexy, between dropping beats and laying down a collective groove, between screaming histrionics and subtle, soulful expression. Penn's voice is a gruff malleable instrument, capable of tremendous emotional twists and turns, but it's the depth of his sincerity that stands out on confessional tunes such as "Cry Like A Man," "It Tears Me Up" and "You Left The Water Running." And on his touching rendition of "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," Penn achieves a dark, poignant intensity of expression that can even hold its own--thank you very much--with the classic Aretha Franklin rendition we all know and love. But then, there isn't a single tune on DO RIGHT MAN that doesn't have that classic aura--this is the real thing.