There are plenty of things to like about soulman Curtis Salgado‘s latest album Fine By Me (Little Village), with some of the biggest highlights including a swinging, soulful cover of O.V. Wright’s “Gonna Forget About You” that has Salgado joined by Robert Cray on both vocals and guitar (returning the favor for Salgado’s supporting vocals when Cray recorded the track on his 1980 debut album Who’s Been Talkin’), along with Little Village founder and executive director Jim Pugh on B3 organ & piano, Jerry Jemmott on bass, Kid Andersen on guitar and Derek “D’Mar” Martin on drums; the deep, powerful gospel of “Hear the Lonely Hearts” featuring the backing harmonies of The Sons of The Soul Revivers; and a crawling “You Give The Blues A Bad Name” that includes some stinging guitar from Anson Funderburgh, terrific piano from Loren Gold and great horns.
But perhaps there’s nothing better here than the groovy “Better Things to Lie About” that comes just one song in, complete with gritty, all-out vocals and rich harmonica from Salgado, some more of those slick horns, both guitar and keyboards from Kid Andersen and drums from D’Mar, among other backers.
But don’t just take our word for it: go ahead and give “Better Things to Lie About” a listen here, and then check out some of those other tracks too.
And, if you like what you hear, dive a bit deeper into the album, which also includes such clever numbers as the opening “My Girl’s a Nut”, the breezy, dream-sequenced title track, a greasy “Cheap Stuff” and a fast-chugging “The Big Chagrin” that helps to put things into perspective with such lyrics as “Everybody take a big deep breath” and its sprightly piano, harmonica and horns.
Part of the inspiration for the Blues Brothers act back in the day, Salgado still puts on a, well, pretty Fine show, as evidenced by this latest offering!