Soul Patrol

Don't know why this keeps happening, but I find myself downloading lots more soul than is the norm. Not because I don't like it, but prolly because you can hear any hit soul or R&B song you want on the radio or on the Muzak in a restaurant if you wait long enough.

In any case, my latest two purchases are Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" and Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music." I recently heard the former during a viewing of "American Gangster" - not the first movie to make use of this tune (check out "Jackie Brown," too). It's a wonderful tale of striving and struggling, all set to spoken work, a few strings and then a great chorus that might do as much for you as "Gotta Fly Now," the theme from "Rocky" - if that sort of thing gets you jazzed up.

As for Arthur Conley? He's basically a one-hit wonder and some folks may confuse this hall-of-fame call-out (he name-checks Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, among others) for Wicked Pickett's "Land of 1000 Dances" - it's just that kind of a novelty. But I've long enjoyed it, and you only hear it once in a blue moon. So that's a good a reason as any to have it on hand.