Solomon Burke
Nashville

He recounted in an interview a few months ago that this record was the culmination of a dream. He said he had always loved country music and debuted with a song ("just out of reach of my open arms") that was—in fact—a country song. But how many dreams can a Legend like Solomon Burke still afford to realize? And why only now—in an era of unusual and acclaimed resurrections—does he decide to release this album?

Of course, by now this Gentleman, as imposing as his glorious career, can truly afford anything: in 2004, when very few would have bet on a return to such high levels, he enchanted the public and critics with an extraordinary album like "Don't give up to me," and now he really seems to be reborn forever, at the age of 66.

Country is not exactly as easy a genre as many might think: often unfairly associated with bar brawls, the most backward sweetness, a "traditionalist" form in its broadest sense, often unjustly underestimated by music lovers who don't believe in its potential, who don't grasp (perhaps due to different musical backgrounds or our geographical location) its lyrical strength.

If in the last two decades we have witnessed a true revolution of the genre (we could cinematographically define it as a Musical Nouvelle Vague) with artists like Smog, Palace, or the transformations of Will Oldham into Bronco Prince Billy, the Songs: Ohia, and so on, it is equally certain that the success of a beautiful album like Springsteen's tribute to a traditional artist like Peter Seeger ("We shall overcome") should give pause. Sure, we live in a schizophrenic period for music, where the overwhelming crisis of the market is antithetical to the workaholic production of these recent years, and it's difficult to draft a year-end ranking, let alone find a musical orientation or a revival placeable in a real musical scene...

"Nashville" is an album that stuns with its honesty, and it certainly wouldn't have been fair, facing a Burke in great shape, to expect anything less. At the Forbidden Temple ("forbidden" for an African American) of traditionalist and "white" popular music, Burke follows in the footsteps of his late friend Ray Charles, who was also frequently fascinated by country. Close to the event, almost in awe, Dolly Parton (who duets with Burke in the splendid "Tomorrow is forever") and Emmylou Harris ("we're gonna hold on"), two of the greatest country Icons of all time, and still Patty Loveless, Patty Griffin, and Gilliam Welch make an appointment.

It's a festival of sounds that involves the "ain't got you" already a hit by Springsteen, and "intro" of the underrated "Tunnel of love" (1987), but it is truly heart-wrenching that involves Burke and his extraordinary voice in ballads like "Valley of tears", "Atta way to go", "Up to the mountain" (perhaps the masterpiece of the album) or "Till I get it right", which many, perhaps not unjustly, have compared to the very first production of Tom Waits. I like to think that tradition can be rediscovered with the superb voice of this "underground" artist who personalizes, reinterprets, and passionately makes this world somewhat "his own."

All emotions we owe to a 66-year-old man, which is even rhetorical to relate to the chronic lack of feeling of so many recent and ephemeral youth phenomena. The whole is produced by Buddy Miller, one of the most celebrated producers of the genre.

A new kid (?) in town.