WILLIE CLAYTON: CAESAR SOUL & BLUES

Last year Willie Clayton gave us a splendid CD titled Soul Caesar, and now on September the 16th in 2022 he released a new, equally outstanding album called Caesar Soul & Blues (EndZone; www.willieclayton.net), and in terms of writing and playing he continues collaborating with Christopher Forrest. Of the eight songs on display, they wrote four together and Willie wrote the rest alone. He never runs out of songs, because he’s constantly writing. Willie: “All the stuff on there is brand new. I could release a new album every month, because I’ve got that much music.”

Co-producer is Daryl Cooper, but there’s a lot more to the music created here than just those three gentlemen. “Everything is live on there. I create the music, and Christopher, Daryl and other musicians play it. There are live guitars, live keyboards, live bass, live drums, live strings and horns. I recorded in four places: besides Memphis, Tennessee, and Winona, Mississippi, strings was put on a lot in Las Vegas, the horns was put on in Jackson, Mississippi, at the Malaco Recording Studio. That’s five live horns: trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, baritone and tenor saxophone.”

Caesar Soul & Blues’s repertoire consists of three danceable songs. The two opening tracks – Oh What a Night and Part Time Lover – are easily flowing, smooth and catchy steppers, whereas How You Do that is a funkier dancer with even some rock guitar licks thrown in. Find My Way is a pleading and a bit melancholy ballad, and here you can really marvel at the full horn sound. Get Next to You is a slightly bluesy downtempo song, You Can’t Beat a Woman is a lilting beat ballad, while the highly emotional Don’t Make Me Beg is the first single and also one of Willie’s favourite tunes on here. Customarily, all Willie’s slow songs are memorable, touching and soulfully interpreted, and of the five ballads here I liked each one very much... except Love Machine, which features my hate toy, that vocoder type of voice box. But for me that’s the only distracting element on the album.

Willie admits that physical CDs are not on sale in big quantities anymore. “There’s going to be a limited amount of hard copies pressed and they will be distributed by Blues Critic” at www.soulbluesmusic.com. According to reports, Willie recently put on a great show at the Delta Blues Festival in Greenville, Mississippi, on September the 17th. “I think people are really coming out more and they are really ready for live entertainment again.”

You can listen to these enjoyable tracks on the “Sunday Smooth Selection” show on www.afro-disiac.co.uk hosted by Peter Dawson next Sunday (September the 25th) 10-12 noon U.K. time, and later still in a podcast, posted on www.mixcloud.com.

With this soulful record Willie’s remarkable career continues seamlessly. If you wish to learn more about his past career, please visit https://www.soulexpress.net/willieclayton_part1.htm. Willie: “I would like to thank all the readers over there who might be interested in Willie Clayton and like and love my music. I will continue giving you real soul & blues music.”

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