WILLIAM BELL - ONE DAY CLOSER TO HOME

William Bell’s Grammy-winning album, This Is Where I Live (https://www.soulexpress.net/deep5_2017.htm#williambell), was released in 2016, so it has taken as many as seven years for him to come up with a new record. Released on April 14, 2023, One Day Closer to Home, was well worth waiting for. This wonderful, smooth and soulful gem was recorded at Wilbe Studios in College Park in Georgia, and this time also released on William’s own Wilbe Records, and not on Stax like that preceding album.

“My signing with Stax was just for that one release. I had taken a hiatus from Wilbe to sign with Stax. They wanted me to do a project for them and I thought it would be a good idea to go back to my roots… and it worked. It helped to kick the label back off, and this year we got the 50th anniversary of the movie Wattstax. I’m still working on a lot of stuff with Concord, but I’m not on their contractual commitment anymore, so I thought I’d put it on my label this time, because it took me a year and a half to complete all of the songs.”

According to my calculations, One Day Closer to Home is William’s 16th solo album, excluding all the “Best Of” and “Greatest Hits” compilations, but including his Live in NYC (in 2009) (https://www.soulexpress.net/williambell_discography.htm). While talking about longevity and continuance, let’s not forget that William cut his first recording in 1956. That took place 67 years ago! “It’s a long time, but sometimes it feels just like yesterday. I wrote my first song, when I was with the Del-Rios. We had a doowop group, and my first recording was Alone on A Rainy Nite. We had Rufus Thomas’ band, the Bear Cats, backing us up.”

Besides writing songs for this new project, William has actually cut at least one record after the previous album. In 2019 he appeared with Southern Avenue on a brisk song titled We’ve Got the Music. One year later he received “The National Heritage Fellowship”, a lifetime honour for folk and traditional artists. “The National Endowment Award was such an honour. It’s the highest honour you can get in entertainment. They say that when you’ve reached that top pinnacle, where do you go? I’m glad to stay up there” (laughing).

“Really wonderful things have happened in my life. I’ve performed for two former U.S. Presidents, President Bush Senior and then Barack Obama. For a little kid coming out of Memphis, Tennessee, that’s quite an accomplishment.” If you wish, you can read William’s bio up till 2008 at https://www.soulexpress.net/williambell.htm.

I STILL GO TO PARTIES

Total Package Band not only plays with William on the road, but have now accompanied him in the studio as well. “They’ve been with me probably with the exception of three members for 24 years, and that is an accomplishment in itself. It’s like a family now. When Covid ended, I was not doing a lot of performing, because I was writing for a new CD project, but I wanted to keep them busy as a family unit, so I used them in the studio. This was our first time, when I was using the members of my own band. They’re still with me. They’re still travelling. Tyrone Holmes is my band leader. He plays baritone horns, and his wife Jackie Holmes is also my tour manager, so it’s a family affair.”

The opening track on the set, I Still Go to Parties, is a funky number with a sharp beat. Markee Turnage plays drums, Tom Young bass, Reginald Jones keys, Cody Matlock guitar, William himself is on percussion and the three-piece horn section consists of Alex Walke on tenor sax, Tyrone Holmes on baritone sax and Melvin Miller on trumpet. Alongside William, Phyllis Smiley and Marsha Miller are on background vocals.

“I wrote this song with Reginald “Wizard” Jones. We met, when I moved to Atlanta, so he’s been with me for almost forty years. After I moved here, he came in to Pittsburgh, Atlanta. He was playing in a local club, where I happened to work in one night. We just got to talking, and I hired him, because he’s such a good keyboard player. He plays about six or seven instruments. I hired him as a session player for two or three years, and then I started using him as a co-producer, because he’s such a great musician. He reminded me of Booker T, and he’s been my right arm in all my production work.” William and Reginal are the main producers on this new set as well.

Rock enthusiasts will enjoy the guitar solo on I Still Go to Parties. “That is Cody Matlock. He is a 25-year-old musician. He’s been with me for four years. He’s such a great artist. He sings well, plays tremendously well and he’s learning the technical ending of it on the road as well as in the studio.”

I WILL REMEMBER TONIGHT

I Will Remember Tonight is a smooth, melodic and gently flowing mid-tempo song with a bit of country to it, too. William co-wrote the song with Greg Humphries. “Greg is a wonderful musician and a session player. He has a band of his own and he resides between Nashville and New York. He was brought to me by my management, Charles Driebe from Blind Ambition. He said that here’s a young guy you should consider writing something with. Greg came to my studio in Atlanta, stayed almost a week and we came up with four really good songs and two of them I got on this CD.”

On this track Rurik Nunan plays violin, Sean O’Rourke is on drums and Darryl Smith on guitar. “This was recorded like in 2019. I did not use it before, because I wanted it to fit in with the right environment with all the songs connected.”

IN A MOMENT OF WEAKNESS

Another William & Greg song is the very slow, intimate and heartfelt In a Moment of Weakness, which actually was released already in 2018 in Amazon’s Produced By series. “I wanted to get some of that Memphis feel to it, so I went to Memphis and hooked up with the producer Matt Ross-Spang, who worked at Sam Phillips’ studio over there. I used the Hodges Brothers – Leroy on bass and Charles on organ – from Willie Mitchell and Royal Studio. Matt wanted to pick the rest of the musicians and I said ‘fine.’ We had a wonderful session, but we only did one song.”

Those musicians that Matt picked include Ken Coomer on drums, David Coasar on guitar and the 4-strong string section of Jonathan Kirkscey, Jennifer Puckett, Wen Yih Yuh and Jessica Munson. In a Moment of Weakness is one of William’s personal favourites on this set.

BRAG ABOUT YOU

A lively mid-tempo toe-tapper called Brag About You has again Rurik Nunan on violin. “Rurik was working with a band out of New Orleans and they were playing in a club at Atlanta here, and I went to hear them. He had such a different approach as a violin player for rhythm & blues and blues. I had never really heard a violinist play with a rhythm section blues like that. I had this idea for a song, and I wanted to incorporate this, so I asked him if he was available for a session. He jumped at the chance, and we cut with him three songs. He’s just a stellar violinist, who plays in a different style on violin for r&b and blues.”

William co-wrote Brag About You with Bill Elders. “He’s a lead singer for a rock band out of North Carolina, and again my management heard them. My manager called me and said ‘I’ve got this kid that sings with a rock band, but he’s a heck of a guitar player and a good vocalist. I think you two could try to write something together.’ When I got with Bill, we just kind of connected here in the studio.”

Human Touch is a softly bouncing, laid-back toe-tapper, and here you can enjoy Alex Walke’s flute playing. “I got some stellar musicians with me, and that’s why I hang on to them. Alex is a great player. He plays alto, tenor, flute, baritone… He can play five or six instruments. I wanted to have a different element on this particular song. Alex said ‘let me try flute on this.’ ‘Okay.’ That’s an old sound, but that’s a different sound for today, and it worked perfectly.”

LET’S MAKE LOVING GREAT AGAIN

William and Reginald co-wrote Human Touch, as well as the next two tracks – the mid-tempo I’ve Got Feet with a hammering “walking” beat and a slow and sweet swayer titled Let’s Make Loving Great Again, and this smooth and memorable song was chosen for the second single off the album. “Like I said, Reginald is a wonderful musician, and a lot of people ask me, is he Booker Jones’ son. ‘No, he’s just another Jones, but he reminds you of Booker, because he plays so many different instruments and he’s a wonderful arranger. He has a good sense of what to place with a song to make the lyrical content and the melody work. We work great together.”

“Let’s Make Loving Great Again is like a feelgood song. In today’s society there’s so much hatred and violence that we just wanted to do something positive and put a positive spin on it.”

We Can Never Go Back is a horn-heavy and slightly wistful downtempo song. Along with William and Cody Matlock, one of the co-writers is Larry Eaglin. “Larry is a wonderful musician. He played quite a few years ago with a band called Arrested Development here in Atlanta. After that he became a disc jockey for 24 years in Atlanta on WRFG. I ran into him in a club situation. He was wanting to get back into ‘behind the scenes.’ I told him to come by the office, because he had the knowledge of other disc jockeys across the country and around the world, so I hired him as a promotion man. He’s been with me for 12 years by now. He’s also a good writer and a guitarist.”

Larry indeed is one of the guitarists on the track, but Cody Matlock plays the guitar solo in the middle. The fourth co-writer of the song is Brandon Collins. “Brandon is my newest engineer. He’s from New Orleans and he relocated up here after Katrina. He’s such a wonderful and intuitive engineer. He’s the new gun and he’s teaching me and “Wiz” different things about digital domain of engineering. We’re old-school engineers. He’s a musician also. He plays drums.”

ONE DAY CLOSER TO HOME

The title song and the first single from late last year is a slow and bluesy number, co-written with William by Scott Bomar, who also plays guitar on the track. “I’ve known Scott since he was a little kid and used to hang around Stax. He started a band called the Bo-Keys. I did a couple of tunes with him for the Bo-Keys, and we just continued our association. He’s been around for a while. He’s been the musical director for a couple of really great movies. He wanted to write something, so he came to Atlanta and we just came up with some really good Memphis-sounding songs. I really like One Day Closer to Home.”

The melodic and emotional ballad named When I Stop Loving You is a beautiful country-soul number, which was co-written by Larry Campbell. “I met Larry in New York. I went to play upstate New York, and Larry had the band up there at Leron Helms’ place in Woodstock. Larry and I became good friends, and his wife Theresa with Amy Helm and Catherine Russell were backup singers on This Is Where I Live. Larry wanted to write something. He came up with songs, and back in Atlanta we cut some demos on them. They were such good songs that later on I went into the studio and cut a couple of those songs. We still got two more that he and I wrote that we haven’t cut yet. He’s an old-school of that Bob Dylan thing” (laughing). Larry indeed has worked with Bob Dylan, but he’s best known for his work in country-rock as a multi-instrumentalist, writer, singer and producer.

“I think When I Stop Loving You is one of the better written songs, and I think I’m looking strongly at that one as the next single. I love that country flavour. It’s a feelgood song.”

GEORGIA PEACH

Ain’t Gon’ Let It Bother Me is a slow and smooth song, which pads along gently and also features horns and backup vocals. This swayer grows on you. The song was written by Carl McBride. “Carl is a writer that signed to my publishing company, Water Well Music. He’s also a wonderful artist, but he does gospel music. I love how he writes. And he knows I came from gospel. I love that song that he sent me, and, of course, I recorded it.”

The concluding song, Georgia Peach, is a bluesy romp, again co-written by Scott Bomar. “Scott plays the rhythmic portion of it, but Rick Hinkle is on lead guitar. The song had such a good feel on the demo that started the idea. When I got back to record it, I wanted to get that same feel, so we extracted from the demo Scott’s licks and put them into the recording, and Rick Hinkle, who is a guitarist out of Atlanta, was on the session and we just combined the two to retain the great feel for it.”

“Right now I’m doing some demo work, and then I’m doing a concert - a jazz session - in New Orleans at the end of the month. Then we start doing Take Me to the River 3, the final of the trilogy, so I hope to be working with Martin Shore on this movie for a while.

https://williambellmusic.com/

(Interview conducted on April 17, 2023; acknowledgements to Messrs. William Bell and Larry Eaglin).

© Heikki Suosalo