Tommie Young

Do You Still Feel the Same Way?

Sometimes a neglected masterpiece gets dusted off:

Tommie Young’s debut album exemplifies brilliantly producer Bobby Patterson’s ability to tap every conceivable soul style under the Southern sun. But despite a finely crafted collection of Strickland-Patterson compositions the real star of this enterprise is Young herself. Gifted with a vibrant, supple, gospel strength voice, Young almost naturally evokes Aretha six years ago [this is being written in 1973]. Confronted with such obvious talent, Patterson has responded with 11 industrious cops, based on appropriate models. Some tunes recall Aretha in Muscle Shoals, several others Betty Wright in Miami. The result? A great pseudo-Aretha hit single {“Do You Still Feel the Same way?”} and some spiffy pseudo-Wright {“You Can Only Do Wrong So Long”} All of this stuff gets energized by Young’s faultless vocal ability: She has the skill as well as taste to interpret the right sources with genuine feeling. This record seems a paragon of consistency: not one obvious reject in the pack of 11 songs: An impressive (if totally derivative) tour de force.

--- Jim Miller in Rolling Stone


What a joy to discover this great album reissued. It was among the unheralded of the marvelous crop of the classic female RnB in the early 70s: Denise LaSalle, Laura Lee, and Ann Peebles to name some of the heralded. Ms. Young’s career was too brief at least in the secular world. She went back to Church.

She left behind this wonderful gem of an album that is what it is: a true slice of classic rhythm and blues. Two other impressive cuts are “Hit N Run Lover” and the impeccable pseudo-spiritual “Everybody’s Got A Little Devil in Their Soul.”

*****
ALSO:

The current buzz of contemporary music at the stores is the international duo of Amadou and Mariam which is a truly joyful experience. More about this soon.