Consumer Guide Album

Nolan: No Apologies [Lizard, 1970]
A black singer whose idiom is rock-influenced soul (or vice versa) turns Randy Newman's "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield" into a song about smoldering sharecropper unrest (well, sort of ) and finds good ones by David Blue (well, sort of) and Booker T. Plus writing wise, witty, rocking songs of his own, songs that belong in this company, many of them about racial identity. Formally, this is the Rod Stewart strategy, and the artistic achievement is comparable. But does he have Stewart's backing on the radio or in the express? Well, no. A-