VA - Where Country Meets Soul - Collection (2012-2016)

It may open up with Aaron Neville's 1993 rendition of George Jones' classic "The Grand Tour," but Ace's 2012 compilation Behind Closed Doors: Where Country Meets Soul focuses on the golden age of country soul – the late '60s and early '70s, the age when the borders between these two strands of southern American music became decidedly blurring. And many of the 23 cuts on Behind Closed Doors are firmly within the Southern soul tradition – slow, smoky, gritty, and soulful, anchored by languid stride piano and buttressed by muscular horns.

Most of the sides slide by at a slow tempo, rhythms that usually groove to a deep funk and occasionally are given a sweet, smooth soul veneer (the Limelites' "Before the Next Teardrop Falls") but often the proceedings are stately, the better to showcase the singer (Percy Sledge's "Take Time to Know Her," Tony Borders' "Gentle On My Mind," Solomon Burke's "He'll Have to Go," Brook Benton's "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye"). All this slowness means that the cuts that do pick up the tempo really stand out from the pack: Cookie Jackson's take on Tammy Wynette's "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" blazes, and Moses & Joshua Dillard's ebullient rendition of Wynette & David Houston's "My Elusive Dreams" is positively addictive. But even if there's not a whole lot of variety here, there are plenty of good cuts that capture country-soul at its best.

Sweet Dreams: Where Country Meets Soul, Ace's second dip into the country-soul well, is every bit as good as its 2012 predecessor. Basically, it's cut from the same cloth as the first volume, concentrating on recordings from the late '60s but stretching deep into the '70s (Millie Jackson's "Sweet Music Man" dates from 1977), with Ted Taylor's 1962 "I'll Release You" and Orquestra Was' 1996 "Forever's a Long, Long Time Ago" functioning as de facto ringers. "Forever's a Long, Long Time Ago" may fit aesthetically but certainly not sonically, as it's a crisp digital blast on a collection devoted to warm, lush, analog soul.

There are lingering elements of highly produced, backing vocal-laden soul from the early '60s – the blueprint Ray Charles wrote on his trailblazing Modern Sounds in Country & Western music in 1961 – but nearly all of this is deep southern soul, either slow-burning laments or sweaty, horn-punctuated workouts (Johnnie Taylor's funky reworking of "Sixteen Tons" is unexpected and wonderful). This is the sound of the south, where the lines between country and soul blurred beyond recognition, producing magnificent music. There are no hits here – indeed, some of this is even unearthed, including James Carr's "Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong" – but that only illustrates how deep the country-soul river ran: it was a constant among a certain brand of soul singer, as this splendid collection makes plain. With any luck, there will be a Volume 3 on the horizon.

If the release of Cold Cold Heart proves anything, it's that Where Country Meets Soul is one of Ace Records' most popular series of the 2010s. If this third volume proves anything else, it's that the well of country-soul has hardly been tapped dry by compiler Tony Rounce and the label. Apart from a handful of tracks cut in the early '60s right in the wake of Ray Charles' groundbreaking Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music plus a few sides cut in the disco era or later, Cold Cold Heart is firmly grounded in the late-'60s heyday of soul music.

While there aren't many, if any, hits here at all, there are plenty of soul stalwarts usually singing songs that are pretty close to standards: Percy Sledge with "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road," Solomon Burke takes on "Beautiful Brown Eyes," the Supremes with "It Makes No Difference Now," Bobby Bland on "Who Will the Next Fool Be," Brook Benton easing into "Tender Years," and Johnny Adams with the title track. Elsewhere, either the performers or the tunes might not have household recognition but the sound does. This is all slow-burning, seductive, full-bodied soul and this third volume of Where Country Meets Soul isn't only as satisfying as the previous two, it whets the appetite for a fourth.

Not a set of country-styled soul music – as you might guess from the title – and instead a package that shows the undeniable influence that soul music songs had on the sound of country music in the 60s and 70s! The flipside of the scene has been well-documented on collections of western-tinged soul music we've stocked in the past – but this great set is the first we've ever heard to show the way that country singers were able to easily pick up hit soul songs of the time, then recraft them completely with a whole new sort of style!

The blue-tinged message of these tunes is universal – and has equally great power in the hands of these artists you might not identify with the tracks, but who really get their vibe, and go out of their way to rework the lyrics with different arrangements that help bring the music to a whole new audience. Titles include "Who's Making Love" by Daaron Lee, "He Made A Woman Out Of Me" by Jeanne C Riley, "Baby I'm Yours" by Tanya Tucker, "Only The Strong Survive" by Skeeter Davis, "I've Been Loving You Too Long" by Anita Carter, "You Don't Miss Your Water" by OB McClinton, "He Will Break Your Heart" by David Allen Coe, "Look At Them Beans" by Johnny Cash, "Pickin Wild Mountain Berries" by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty, "Dark End Of The Street" by The Kendalls, and "Scratch My Back" by Razzy Bailey.

Ace spent three volumes chronicling country-soul, digging out the best country songs sung by soul singers. Their 2016 Out of Left Field: Where Soul Meets Country flips the equation, presenting 24 soul songs as sung by country singers. Compiler Tony Rounce doesn't limit himself to the '60s and '70s, commonly seen as the heyday of country-soul, which is to the collection's benefit; by having this extend all the way into 1993, it forces listeners to reckon with just how deeply the Southern sounds of country and soul are intertwined. Such an extensive time frame does mean that there's a great variety of production styles on display – Don Gibson's 1978 rendition of "Starting All Over Again" flirts with smooth soft rock, Chips Moman's precise '80s production takes the edge off of David Allan Coe, and Hank Jr.'s 1993 take on "Out of Left Field" has a digital gleam – but the strength of this collection is how the sensibility shines through the varying sounds. Throughout it all, these country singers – Bobby Bare, Waylon & Willie, Johnny Paycheck, Tanya Tucker, Jerry Reed, Conway & Loretta, and Johnny Cash are all featured – not only tackle R&B standards but are informed by soulful phrasing. While some of these singers always have shown a soulful edge – Ronnie Milsap is as good a blue-eyed soul singer as there is – the revelation of this wildly enjoyable collection is how both pure Nashville vocalists and outlaws drew lasting inspiration from soul.