Ann Peebles [extended]

• Part Time Love [Hi, 1970] A-
• Straight from the Heart [Capitol, 1972] A-
• I Can't Stand the Rain [Hi, 1974] B+
• Tellin' It [Hi, 1975] B-
• If This Is Heaven [Hi, 1977] B
• The Handwriting Is on the Wall [Hi, 1978] B-
• Full Time Love [Bullseye Blues, 1992] **
• Greatest Hits [Hi, 2015] A-
• Live in Memphis [Memphis International, 2022] **

See Also:

• Ann Peebles & the Hi Rhythm Section

Consumer Guide Reviews:

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-

Straight from the Heart [Capitol, 1972]
Why gritty singing like this can't be heard on "progressive" radio when a borderline hysteric like Lydia Pense is an automatic add ought to be investigated by the Civil Rights Commission. "I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home Tonight" is pre-ideological female rage, and the woman shows her sense of roots and prerogatives by coming up with competitive covers on both Bobby Bland and Sam & Dave. Time: 26:08. A-

I Can't Stand the Rain [Hi, 1974]
After two hot albums that didn't sell and a smoldering single that did, Peebles slides into the best-selling Al Green groove and doesn't quite catch fire. Reason: neither her raw honey timbre nor her bright, direct personality give her much access to Green's incendiary guile. Salvation: the Hi rhythm team. B+

Tellin' It [Hi, 1975]
Peebles's small, rough-cut ruby of a voice can't buy her Aretha's kind of time, her hesitant pursuit of a dramatic frame, an artistic self, will never do the duty of a real persona. Which may mean that Willie Mitchell is wrong for her. Not only does this seamless funk deprive her of the sharply accentuated settings her instrument was created for, but his concentration on music to the exclusion of image leaves her singing warmed-over Millie Jackson wife-and-other-woman lyrics with the wan confusion they deserve. B-

If This Is Heaven [Hi, 1977]
Peebles believes heaven is doing it every night after the kids have gone to bed ("I'm So Thankful"), and if only she'd work a little harder on her Mavis Staples impression ("It Must Be Love") she'd make a believer out of me. B

The Handwriting Is on the Wall [Hi, 1978]
More tough talking about sex and love (and sex)--unfalteringly funky, consistently credible, and mildly enjoyable. Great one: "Old Man With Young Ideas." B-

Full Time Love [Bullseye Blues, 1992]
beats the part-time variety in life, but not necessarily in art ("Bouncin' Back," "Fear No Evil," "Miss You") **

Greatest Hits [Hi, 2015]
Beyond the towering Aretha Franklin--plus Etta James and Mavis Staples and if you insist Diana Ross via their respective side doors--soul music was short on heroines. I mean, the outspoken Millie Jackson and after that who? Sure I could pull a few more out of my memory book, as maybe you could yours. But this lean, clean, tough, sweet, lucid St. Louis woman, married 48 years to Memphis native and Hi Records songwriting stalwart Don Bryant though a stroke ended her performing career in 2012, was and remains more memorable than that. Beyond the towering Al Green, she was the most distinctive singer ever to hook up with Hi Rhythm, regarded by many who should know as the equal of the Stax-Volt and Muscle Shoals bands and by more than one as the class of the field. "Part Time Love" was her 1970 breakout. Her 1972 "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" was covered by guess who on her Divine Miss M follow-up. "I Can't Stand the Rain" was her indelible 1973 classic. Too cool to be forgotten. A-

Ann Peebles & the Hi Rhythm Section: Live in Memphis [Memphis International, 2022]
It's 1992, she's 45, Howard Grimes lives, and she wants us to know that "Just because I say I feel like breakin' it up don't necessarily mean that I'm gonna go out there and do it" ("I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home," "I Didn't Take Your Man") **

See Also

• Soul Evolvers [1992-06-16]