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Nathaniel Mayer - Why Don't You Give It to Me (2007)

Track listing:
  1. Why Don't You Give It to Me 5:07
  2. White Dress 3:29
  3. I'm a Lonely Man 4:38
  4. Please Don't Drop the Bomb 2:39
  5. Everywhere I Go 3:38
  6. What Would You Do 3:28
  7. Doin' It 8:51
  8. Why Dontcha Show Me 7:02
  9. Dancing Mood 3:06

Notes

Following his critically acclaimed comeback album "I Just Want To Be Held" (Fat Possum 2004), Detroit soul legend NATHANIEL MAYER's new album "Why Don't You Give It to Me?" sounds like the record he should have made in 1970. This time production was the team effort of Matthew Smith (Outrageous Cherry), Dan Auerbach (Black Keys), and Dave Shettler (SSM/The Sights), all simultaneously turning knobs, grabbing faders, and switching various boxes on and off. Troy Gregory (Dirtbombs) played bass. The result is soul music with a psychedelic rock n' roll heart that has as much in common with the Stooges and MC5 as it does with Nathaniel's R&B contemporaries like Jackie Wilson, Marvin Gaye, and the Miracles.

This son of Detroit has recorded what is easily the best album of his career and very possibly one of the best rock/blues/soul/psychedelic albums I've ever heard. Why Don't You Give It To Me? was born after the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach, and Mayer performed together at NYC's Knitting Factory and decided that they should take their scintillating steaming cauldron of music into the recording studio. Recorded in Mayer's hometown of Detroit and produced by Matthew Smith, Dan Auerbach, and Dave Shettler this album is so great, so interesting, and so difficult to categorize.


Mayer opens with the pure funk and his trademark howls in the title song, and then immediately moves the listener out of complacency and into the intense rockabilly inspired "White Dress". He pays homage to his blues roots with the classic sound of "Please Don't Drop the Bomb" and then surprises yet again with the opening jazzy riffs of "Doin' It". The reggae inspired island beat of "Dancing Move" is reminiscent of UB40. It's as though Hendrix, the Stooges, James Brown, RL Burnside, the Stray Cats, and UB40 all came together in a "best of" blend. This is an eclectic mix that works in the hands of this masterful vocalist.