Soul Archive

Al Green: He Is the Light - For a lot of people, Al Green is the sophisticated version of Barry White. Consider the songs he released in the early 1970s: "Tired of Being Alone," "Let's Stay Together,"

Alicia Keys - I usually make fun of Valentine’s Day. It’s too depressing to do anything else. All those couples jammed into restaurants. All those roses. All that chocolate. All those wasted trips

Alternate Roots: Somewhere in America - Another school shooting is like another Trump outrage --- you get numb. But last night I started to watch a video taken inside a Florida classroom as the killer shot

Amy Winehouse - It's damn rare that a three-minute pop confection digs under your skin, lyrics sticking to the tip of your tongue, a mental itch clawing at you

Ann Peebles: I Can’t Stand the Rain - One of the pleasures of loving music is stumbling upon a CD so good it's like a greatest hits compilation. "I Can't Stand the Rain" the 1973 release by Ann Peebles,

Aretha Franklin: 30 Greatest Hits - GUEST BUTLER JOE DEPRETA is a New York strategist, author, and essayist. He has written authoritatively for Head Butler on Sgt Pepper’s 50th Anniversary, John Lennon and Don Henley, and

Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace - In 1972, when she was 29, Aretha Franklin made a concert film. Sydney Pollack -- who had directed one noteworthy film (“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”) and would go on

Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul - Aretha was in our lives for so long we stopped putting her into heavy rotation. Then came the Kennedy Center Honors, Once again Aretha was a trending topic. When she

Beth Hart - BETH HART ON TOUR: The last time I saw her, I wrote that she raised Joplin from the dead, honored Aretha, nodded in passing to Etta, and then drove on

Corinne Bailey Rae - I don't watch “Grey's Anatomy.” I don't follow the pop charts, I don't watch awards shows. So it wasn't until I went to see Peter O'Toole

Curtis Mayfield - Joe Biden's crew smartly played "Keep on Pushing" at the announcement of Kamala Harris as his running mate. But who remembers 1972? In that year, Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack to “Superfly”

Eli “Paperboy” Reed - Every summer has a song. I knew “Nights Like This” was the soundtrack of Summer 2016 the first time I heard it. The ingredients were all in place: hot streets, “feeling

Elvis Presley: Ultimate Gospel - This is about Elvis Presley’s Ultimate Gospel. [For the Amazon MP 3 download, click here. To get it frrom iTunes, click here.] How I came to think about Elvis is connected

Gabriels: “Love and Hate in a Different Time” - I didn’t watch Jimmy Kimmel in August. Or Jools Holland on the BBC in June. So it wasn’t until “Love and Hate in a Different Time” interrupted a set of

Holly Gleason on Prince: “Like the snake in the garden, he gave us an apple that tasted like music… and sex… and love.” - em>An artist dies, and only then, as we step back, do we start to see him/her whole. So it was with Bowie, so now with Prince. Small as a refugee,

Hozier & Mavis Staples: Nina Cried Power - It's not the waking, it's the rising It is the grounding of a foot uncompromising It's not forgoeing of the lie It's not the opening of eyes It's not the waking, it's the

Ike & Tina Turner: River Deep Mountain High - "River Deep Mountain High" --- the song ranked #33 on Rolling Stone's list of "500 Best Songs of All Time" --- is credited to Ike & Tina Turner. But don't

James Brown - James Brown really was "the hardest-working man in show business." In his early 70s, he was still playing as many as 300 concert dates a year

Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - The funniest moment I've seen on film or TV recently appeared in a commercial for Dos Equis beer. It's in the new "Most Interesting Man in the World" series, and it

Krishna Das: Trust in the Heart - I write about Krishna Das every chance I get --- here’s the primer, and then there’s this and this and this and this and this --- because his chants work