Consumer Guide Album

Ann Peebles: Part Time Love [Hi, 1970]
Suggesting what we already knew: that good soul music is more a matter of faith than of fashion. Wilson Pickett may have lost his, but this twenty-three-year-old is just beginning to testify. Her background is gospel and her dynamic blues, the perfect combination, and even when the songs aren't first-rate, which they usually are, her lean, slightly burred timbre meshes with the incredibly spirited Memphis music (Memphis is where even session men believe) to intensify their meaning. Among my faves: "Give Me Some Credit" (downhome girl-group) and "It's Your Thing" (it's hers, bro). I just wish there were a dozen songs instead of ten. Time: 26:59. A−