Loving You More...In the Spirit of Etta James

by Leela James

Overview

After one album for Stax, Leela James returns to Shanachie, the label that facilitated the all-covers set Let's Do It Again. One could be forgiven for glancing at the back of Loving You More...In the Spirit of Etta James, recognizing that all but two songs were once recorded by Etta, and feeling let down that Leela, once more, is leaning on music from an era that predates her birth. After all, her previous album was her best yet and showed that she was coming into her own as a songwriter. However, Loving You More is both reverent and imaginative. It's not just the range of the source material, which roams from the earliest part of Etta's career (including 1961's "At Last" and "Sunday Kind of Love") to the later years (Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby," covered by Etta in 1998). It's also the boldness that comes with the number of drastic rearrangements, the most excellent of which is the transformation of the blues-gospel ballad "I'm Loving You More Every Day" into late-'70s/early-'80s-style soul-disco. The two originals -- "Soul Will Never Die" and "Old School Kind of Love" -- are sturdy enough to be mistaken for covers. Leela honors her hero and, yes, makes nine old songs her own. That's not easy to do. ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	07/31/2012
Label:	Shanachie
UPC:	0016351580221
Rank:	704

Tracks

1. Soul Will Never Die
2. Something's Got a Hold on Me
3. It Hurts Me So Much
4. I'm Loving You More Every Day
5. I'd Rather Go Blind
6. I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby
7. Damn Your Eyes
8. Nobody Loves You Like Me
9. Old School Kind of Love
10. Sunday Kind of Love
11. At Last

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Leela James   Primary Artist,Vocals (Background)
Dan Needham   Drums
Drew Ramsey   Bass,Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Shannon Sanders   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Loeien Babajian   Design
B. Wyrick   Composer
L. Prima   Composer
Monifa Brown   A&R
B. Foster   Composer
Dan Needham   Engineer
Drew Ramsey   Mixing,Editing,Engineer,Producer,Programming
J. Watson   Composer
Shannon Sanders   Editing,Engineer,Producer,Programming
S. Bogard   Composer
Randall Grass   Executive Producer
James Waddell   Mixing
Harvey Fuqua   Composer
Dave Darlington   Mastering
Leela James   Composer,Producer,Executive Producer
Mack Gordon   Composer
S. Rhodes   Composer
Harry Warren   Composer
Kevin Terrell   Photography
Dan Shike   Mastering
Michael Gregory   Editing,Engineer