“I was ostracised from the music community when I was 21 (on marrying Barbra Cooke, Sam Cooke’s widow). I feel like after 45 years Damon has welcomed me back in.”
Damon Albarn, together with XL Records head honcho Richard Russell (who also produced the career-revitalizing final album of Gil Scott Heron), has produced the latest album by fellow Gorillaz collaborator and living soul legend Bobby Womack. Personally, I know very little of the story behind mr. Womack’s ostracization, but any man recording and writing a song like ‘Across a 110th Street‘ will forever earn my respect.
Hearing the first single (above) and the songs in the short ‘behind the scenes’ documentary (below) makes it clear that the elder soul man is not simply trying to recreate his past sound but infuses it with a sparse modern take that’s very fitting for his raspy voice. The willingness to take risks like that is an admirable quality in a musician and in a little over ten minutes these two videos have managed to make this release one of the upcoming records I’m looking forward to the most in the coming months.
The Bravest Man In The Universe drops June 12th.
