Don't Give Up on Me

"Don't Give Up On Me" features original songwriting contributions from several very well-known artists including Van Morrison (two songs) Bob Dylan, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, Tom Waits, and producer Joe Henry himself. It's not really soul, or R&B, rather it's a hybrid of sorts, blending folk, blues, soul, R&B, rock n' roll and a touch of gospel. Burke delivers everything with panache and a voice full of soul, though, and every one of these performances are filled with power and intensity.

"Don't Give Up On Me" is remarkable for its sparse sound and low-key production, no big bands or string orchestras, just bass, percussion, a guitar, an organ and the occational piano. It is reminicent of Johnny Cash's "American Recordings" in that respect, and there are some terrific songs here. The title track is the best, a gritty, dramatic deep soul tune with a huge hook and a lot of passion, but there are plenty of other highlights. It's actually a bit funny how much the slow swagger Tom Waits' and Kathleen Brennan's "Diamond In Your Mind" sounds like a Tom Waits song, even though it's Burke singing it, and "Stepchild" sounds almost as much like the Bob Dylan song that it is.

Brian Wilson's "Soul Searchin'" is another highlight, as is Van Morrison's swampy "Fast Train", and Nick Lowe's slow "The Other Side Of The Coin", another genuine soul number.
If I am to complain a little bit I'll say that the relatively unvaried tempo and similar arrangements wear a little bit thin towards the end; a couple of up-tempo songs would have been nice. But there is an awful lot of amazing performances here, and you can only wish that Burke would have stayed with this lean, muscular sound on his next album.


Good - except...   November 12, 2002
 24 out of 25 found this review helpful

I'm coming at this record from a different angle to most people - I've never heard anything by Solomon Burke before, or listened to much soul music. But I'm a big fan of Tom Waits and Bob Dylan etc., so I thought I'd check it out.
And it's great. Really good. The songs are by and large top-notch, except for Van Morrison's contributions, which is a shame. Also, I found the much-vaunted organ contributions of organist Rudy Copeland annoying.
But that's the bad. The good? Fantastic voice, gorgeous, lush sound (it's a definite headphones record), and definitely worthwhile.


Get the throne ready   August 28, 2002
 18 out of 18 found this review helpful

The "King of Rock & Soul" ascends his throne in all his glory with this tremendously refreshing comeback album. It's refreshing in every sense of the word. It's sound is refreshing and intimate. It's refreshing that a soul album on a soul artist, legendary or not, (But in particular a legendary one) is just that, soulful. Recorded live in the studio with a great cast of musicians, this album should bring deserved attention to the small Fat Possum record label in Oxford, MS. The songs on this album were all proudly contributed to Burke by some of the most respected people in the business. Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and Brian Wilson are just the most famous of the lot. Morrison's songs are two of the better ones on the album, particularly "Fast Train". Both have Morrison written all over them, and in fact, he's using them on his upcoming outing. Like Morrison, Waits's, Wilson's, and Costello's songs are also instantly recognizable as theirs. Bob Dylan submits what is probably the most generic song on the album. Another highlight is the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil/Brenda Russell written "None Of Us Are Free". The two aforementioned titles, as well as the rest of the album, are graced by a superlative organ player in Rudy Copeland. Copeland, who is blind, is the organist at the church where Burke pastors. The title cut is written by songwriting cohorts Dan Penn and Carson Whitsett, along with Hoy Lindsey. Penn wanted to write an Otis Redding type ballad and had wanted to use the title "Don't Give Up On Me". Whitsett sat down and started laying down Otis like chord changes and the result, in my opinion, is a song that sounds like a classic '60s country soul hit. Copeland's playful interplay with Burke is uniquely splendid. To say Burke sounds great would be an understatement. His voice is smooth and strong. The Joe Henry produced ensemble deliver a package that should be titled "Don't Give Up On Music."


The Real Deal   August 22, 2002
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Somewhere in your music collection you most likely have a Soul compilation. In all probability you will find a song on it called 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love' by Solomon Burke. Well surprise, unlike most of the people on that compilation Solomon Burke is not dead and he is still a working Soul Man, and while some may feel that there isn't a crowd pleaser like 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love' on the CD(although 'None of Us Are Free' comes pretty close), the album is filled with great songs by some of the best songwriters of the past century, which showcase a singer who not only has an incredible range, but is as equally at home doing a song by Tom Waits as he is one by Brian Wilson. We live in a time when the word 'great' is overused to the point of meaninglessness and unfortunately this applies particularly to what is written and said about music, but Solomon Burke is unqualifiedly a 'great singer' and this is an excellent album that deserves to outsell anything that has been in the charts for quite some time. If you've ever listened to that Soul compilation of yours and thought: "They don't make music like this anymore," then you need to get this album because 'they' just did. This is not to say that this is an exercise in nostalgia because it is not. This is a sophisticated album that shows that Burke has matured and developed with the course of time, despite being out of the gaze of the mainstream music media and record buying public for so long. This is not a modern record because of it's production (it was recorded live in a studio in four days), but because of the richness and variety of the material Burke makes his own. The songs are bound together by the soul of a man who knows how to give everything to a song, and does. This is the real deal.