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Stan Mosley - Soul Resurrection
Stan Mosley is clearly making up for lost time. The graveled voiced Southern Soul singer broke into show business in 1969. He spent the 1970s and 80s moving between his hometown of Chicago and East St. Louis, performing in groups, working as the backing band for Southern Soul singer Shirley Brown, and as a highly regarded soul singer in his hometown of Chicago. Yet, Mosley, who figures that he had opened for or performed in some of the same venues as that era’s most famous names, had never released a record of his own.
By the mid and late 1980s, it appeared that Mosley never would release a record under his own name. He had grown disenchanted with a music industry that increasingly turned its back on southern soul, and walked away from the business to sing for the Lord in Chicago. Mosley returned to the business in the early 1990s, determined to put his talent on display and into the hands of music lovers.
Stan Mosley - Soul Resurrection
Stan Mosley is clearly making up for lost time. The graveled voiced Southern Soul singer broke into show business in 1969. He spent the 1970s and 80s moving between his hometown of Chicago and East St. Louis, performing in groups, working as the backing band for Southern Soul singer Shirley Brown, and as a highly regarded soul singer in his hometown of Chicago. Yet, Mosley, who figures that he had opened for or performed in some of the same venues as that era’s most famous names, had never released a record of his own.
By the mid and late 1980s, it appeared that Mosley never would release a record under his own name. He had grown disenchanted with a music industry that increasingly turned its back on southern soul, and walked away from the business to sing for the Lord in Chicago. Mosley returned to the business in the early 1990s, determined to put his talent on display and into the hands of music lovers.
It took a while, but by the end of that decade Mosley released a string of solid releases on Southern Soul and blues labels such as Malaco and Mardi Gras Records. By the start of this decade, Mosley was performing live, but not putting out new music until he was recruited to the lineup of the 2016 Porretta Soul Festival in Italy.
That performance created the momentum for Mosley to return to the studio. He created his own label, Soul Singer Entertainment, and recruited TSOP guitarist and producer Bobby Eli and producer Paul Richmond to make the album Soul Resurrection – a strong project that features 12 tracks. That album is set to drop in early March.
Ten of the album’s 12 tracks are originals, with the exceptions being two versions of the McFadden and Whitehead classic “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.” Mosley puts his unique vocal and lyrical stamp on the Southern Soul subject matter of men or women tripping out, men and women standing strong together or a guy giving love advice to someone who needs it badly.
Perhaps the best of a solid set of tunes is “Tell Him,” a number that finds Mosley telling a woman that the best way to make sure that her man gives the kind of loving that she wants is to tell him what kind of loving she wants. “If you ain’t getting what you want in bed/Remember a closed mouth is never fed/Tell him the that you like your love.”
Mosley, an excellent musical storyteller, adopts the role of the aggrieved spouse on “My Problem,” a bouncy mid-tempo funk/blues number that where he lets his woman know he has found some evidence that lets him know that it’s not him, it’s her. “You Oughta Be With Me” sports a Memphis Soul sound with those Hi Records horns and that Stax bass line on a track that finds him telling the object of his desire that it’s not her, it’s that other guy.
“Let’s Fall In Love” fuses piano work that gives the number a jazzy swing with bass line that will send steppers to the dance floor. The track tells the story of a man who realizes that the relationship with his woman had fallen into a rut, and he wants to convince her that he is willing to do what it takes to rekindle the fire. “It took a long time for us to get this way/We fell in love baby seems like yesterday/But something went wrong and we fell apart/Come on honey open up your heart.”
It’s been a long time coming for this talented artist, and that is something that he realizes.
Mosley opens up his take on “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now,” by saying “it’s my time now.” With Soul Resurrection, Mosley proves that it’s indeed his time, and he is ready for his close-up. Highly Recommended.
By Howard Dukes