Hi Records kept the Memphis soul flame burning after Otis Redding's death and the subsequent collapse of the city's Stax label. Al Green was Hi producer Willie Mitchell's ace in the hole. But Hi, like Stax, had a roster of artists who largely failed to get the attention they deserved. The most powerfully original of these were Ann Peebles and Otis Clay. Hi hits of the early Seventies included Clay's "Trying to Live My Life Without You"; Peebles's scorchers were "(I'm Gonna) Tear Your Playhouse Down," "Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home" and one of John Lennon's favorite songs, "I Can't Stand the Rain," among others. But tastes changed, and running an independent label became tough. With
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Al Green's retreat into the ministry, Hi's days were numbered.
Thanks to Rounder's blues label, Bullseye Blues, Peebles and Clay have new albums out. Each disc underscores the crucial importance of good songs in this kind of stripped-down, overtly emotional music making. In this regard Peebles is fortunate; her long-lasting marriage to former Hi staff songwriter Don Bryant has yielded, in her words, "boxes and boxes of songs," and the pair still wasn't satisfied. For Full Time Love, Peebles, Bryant and Peebles's guitarist Thomas Bingham worked out new material especially for the sessions, and the singer chose her covers well.
Peebles's small but steely voice has grown stronger, richer and more sinuous in the twenty-odd years since her last album. She has always been one of the subtlest of soul singers, bending and twisting notes only when it makes sense in the context of the song and using crowd-pleasing octave jumps and gospel melisma with restraint. If she alters a song, chances are she'll alter the melody line, like a superior jazz singer, or convey shifts in meaning with changes in vocal texture. Full Time Love offers nothing aggressive, just heartfelt and to-the-point singing, with equally committed-sounding backing by guitarist Bingham, the original Hi rhythm section (Charles Hodges on keyboards, LeRoy Hodges on bass and Howard Grimes on drums, minus guitarist Teenie Hodges) and the Memphis Horns. Oh – and exceptional musical artistry as well.
The same band and the same producer (Ron Levy) are responsible for Otis Clay's I'll Treat You Right, and while a singer of Clay's stature is incapable of making a truly bad album, this one is far from his best. There's a tendency toward smoothed edges and sterility in the sound of the instruments (present also on Peebles's disc, but not as noticeably). And the songs, except for Teenie Hodges's great shaking "Love Bone" and one or two others, are simply ordinary. Anyone could have sung them.
Clay has recorded quite a few masterful songs, from his late-Sixties string of soul hits for One-derful to "Trying to Live My Life Without You." In person, he's a barn burner; on a good night, he could be the most electric soul singer alive. But his vocals are muted b
