Reed Turchi - I've Chosen Love (2021)

'I've Chosen Love' is an album of two parts, a yin-and-yang of both production techniques and recording mentality. Half of the songs were written using "love" as a lyrical cornerstone, and built on a foundation of soul and blues inspiration, written and mixed in Memphis with the spirit of STAX, Al Green, and Isaac Hayes hovering near, but recorded in the funky blues-rock studio Bud's Recording Service in Austin.

These songs, "I've Chosen Love", "Tell Somebody What Love Is," "Don't Let Love Slip Away", and "Keep on Keepin On" were all built with a big studio band, around the core of double-drummers Johnny Radelat (Gary Clark Jr) and Lemuel Hayes (Cindy Wilson), with Anthony Farrell (JJ Grey & Mofro / Greyhounds) on bass. As the tracks grew, Anthony Farrell pushed them from roots-rock to a more cinematic scope with his layered synth work, Art Edmaiston brought a true Memphis vibe with saxophone on "Keep On", and vocal performances by Heather Moulder and Kathleen Turchi made the album a collective rather than front-man-only effort.

On the flip-side of these songs, the rest of the album was recorded well into the COVID quarantine, outdoors in the backyard on a late summer night in Nashville, surrounded by cicadas. In contrast to the studio-tight sound, these more extended tracks feature a purely neighborhood band, playing only for themselves, and in celebration of being able to make music in a time without the usual shows, sessions, or collaborations. With an all-Mississippi rhythm section of Wallace Lester (Como Mama's, Reverend John Wilkins) on drums and Lee McAlilly on bass hypnotically grooving, and Heather Moulder's keyboards serving double-duty between rhythm section and lead, there couldn't be a better dance floor for the twin guitars of Reed Turchi and Ben Sparaco to spin through.
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Thanks to the state of the world beyond anyone's control, 'I've Chosen Love' has become an amazingly appropriate album of the times, a combination of the carefully-planned out and produced recording sessions, and the freely improvised, of-the-moment joy in spontaneous performance with a group of friends under the summer moon.