I've been a longtime fan of both Johnny Rawls & Dave Keller, appreciating the way they individually have meshed blues and soul into consistently fine music.

While both are outstanding soulful singers in their own right, on this combined effort Rawls and Keller have elevated each other to another blues/soul stratosphere, making Tribute To Soul (Third Street Cigar Records) one of the best albums of the year.

It truly is a delight!

Our co--stars are backed by Keller's regular band of Ira Friedman (keyboards), Alex Budney (bass), and Jay Gleason  (drums), plus guest horn players Paul Johnson, Ben DeLong, and Travis Geiman.

Tribute To Soul is just that. A collection of 11 soul classics and hidden gems, re-magined by these two stalwarts of the genre. Every cut is outstanding as Rawls and Keller consistently trade off vocal lines throughout every song..

Opening the album is the Rick Hall-penned "I'm Qualifed," recorded by Clarence Carter, Jimmy Hughes, The Mighty Soul Drivers, and others. The mid-tempo blues beat carries a heavy dose of Muscle Shoals soul, making it a very fine song to introduce the duo. The horns come in big-time in the intro to the Eddie Floyd classic, "I've Never Found A Girl (To Love Me LIke You Do)." This one's all soul, all day.

The Joe South composition, "Walk A Mile In My Shoes," a hit for Syl Johnson, gets a little funky, with Rawls packing plenty of emotion into his vocal parts over Friedman's subtle piano accompaniment. Keller provides snaky blues guitar on the intro to the Jimmy Hughes hit, "Neighbor, Neighbor," giving the Huey Meaux composition a Cajun blues infusion to the soul.

Friedman's gospel piano introduction precedes the funky up-tempo sounds of the Tommy Tate soul chestnut, "I Remember," with the horns creating a big sound throughout. Keller provides a talking intro to the southern soul/blues sound of "Bad Risk," a George Jackson/Robert Allen Miller composition that was a minor hit for Tyree Neal. This one recalls much of what came out of Malaco Records several decades ago.

Perhaps the biggest soul hit covered is Joe Tex's "Hold What You've Got," with Rawls providing the spoken word advice to the woman that she needs to adhere to the song title. I'll call this rendition soul classic 2.0. The horns are featured prominently on the Iona Adkins up-tempo number, "Make Love To Me Baby."

We stay in the deep south for one of the best cuts here, a slow blues/soul cover of Z.Z. Hill's "The Kind Of Love I Want." Rawls feels especially at home inside this one, and Friedman provides piano accompaniment under the vocals. Equally effective is a slower version of Albert King's classic, "Drowning On Dry Land," with Keller throwing down some very incendiary blues guitar solos.

Putting the wraps on this Tribute To Soul is a funky, up-tempo soul number, "You Didn't Know It But You Had Me," originally recorded by one the lesser appreciated soul masters, James Carr. Rawls and Keller effectively harmonize on vocals at various points in this wonderful song, again showing how they've made each other sound better on all 11 tunes.

Rawls and Keller have teamed up to put out what will undoubtedly be one of the best albums of the year. If you dig the amalgamation of blues and soul like many of us do, then Tribute To Soul is an absolutely essential addition to your collection.

--- Bill Mitchell