Gerald McClendon – Can’t Nobody Stop Me Now
Format: CD
Label: Delta Roots Records
Releasedatum: 12 juni 2020
Chicago-born singer/songwriter/performer Gerald McClendon earned the moniker “The Soul Keeper” by being one of the most versatile and dynamic R&B and soul stylists “The City of the Big Shoulders” has to offer. He has a voice with tremendous range that draws instant comparisons to other great singers such as Otis Redding, Ben E. King, Marvin Gaye, Z.Z. Hill, and Wilson Pickett. He is a master storyteller and provocateur, who will entice and entertain.
McClendon’s latest release, “Can’t Nobody Stop Me Now,” is a collection of a dozen new songs about love and lust, fatal attractions and heartfelt devotions that will tug at your heartstrings and lure your feet onto the dance floor. For the 2020 Delta Roots Records release, McClendon teamed up with the claimed producer Twist Turner to record at Sound Studios in the heart of Chicago. The duo employed a team that included Art Love on bass, three great guitar players, Herb Walker, Joe Burba and Mike Wydra, and three keyboardists, Roosevelt Purifoy, Sumito Aryioshi and Brian James, along with Skinny Williams on saxophone and John “Boom” Brumbach on trumpet. Turner, who has worked with over 40 Grammy winning artists, laid down the drum tracks as well as handling producer duties.
The album opens with the horn-driven title track ‘Can’t Nobody Stop Me Now’ with McClendon laying out his plan to leave the past and hard times behind him, take control and fulfill his dream. The blazing tenor sax of Skinny Williams introduces the passion play ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ with McClendon pouring his heart out on the dramatic blues number. He then demonstrates that he is versed in the art of persuasion on the smooth R&B tune ‘Groove On Tonight.’
Williams delivers another great solo on the desperate ballad ‘She Don’t Love Me Anymore.’ Taking cues from his mentor Z.Z. Hill, McClendon chastises a bad girl on the bumpin’ ‘Runnin’ Wild,’ then channels Bobby “Blue” Bland on the piano-driven track ‘It’s Over Now.’ He spells out his manly attributes on the cheeky track ‘Mr. Wrong,’ before sharing more testimony to his selfreliance on the uplifting number ‘I Started Over.’
McClendon expresses his vulnerability on the delicate hymn, ’You Can’t Take My Love,’ and the haunting love song ‘Why Can’t We Be Together.’ The tawdry tale of a man in the doghouse, ‘Cut You Once,’ plays out over an easy funk groove with hot-horn jabs. The team then pulls out all the stops for the dramatic finale ‘I Think About You’ unleashing sweeping horns and churning Hammond B3.
Website: Gerald McClendon