Tad Robinson - Real Street (2019) [Hi-Res]

For the recording of Real Street, singer/harmonica player Tad Robinson traveled to the birthplace of Southern soul: Memphis, Tennessee. There he teamed up with Memphis music legends, organist, Charles Hodges; bassist, Leroy Hodges; and the drummer, Howard Grimes, collectively known as the Hi Rhythm Section at Scott Bomar’s, Electraphonic Recording. The results are ten glorious tracks of blues-infused and passionate soul music. Throughout six originals and four reimagined covers, Robinson’s singing has never been so focused and fluent in the language of the blues and his subtle harmonica playing adds just the right spice to the mix.

Memphis guitarist, Joe Restivo; trumpeter, Marc Franklin; tenor saxophonist, Kirk Smothers; and current Fabulous Thunderbirds pianist, Kevin Anker round out the band on these exciting new tracks, with background vocals handled by Chicagoan, Devin B. Thompson.

From the ebullient shuffle, opener, Changes, to the poignant immediacy of George Jackson’s ballad, Search Your Heart, each song is a showpiece with the Memphis groove-makers’ interlocking parts evoking a timeless Southern soul-blues landscape made new again.

Robinson, an eight-time Blues Music Award-nominated singer, croons on the wry, self-deprecating account of the departure of his bored lover in Full Grown Woman, gets gritty and gospel-soulful on the wistful and radio-friendly, Love In The Neighborhood, and riffs and weaves his way through his joyful reworking of Roy Orbison’s, You Got It.

The Memphis veterans lay down a beautiful understated backing for Robinson’s story-telling on this collection, plucking just the right riff, chord change and color out of the Memphis air, bearing witness to their rarified status as architects of the Southern soul sound.

Real Street is an earthy, straight-from-the-gut-to-the-heart collection that fans of soul and blues music will cherish.