Candi Staton CD Review
Candi Staton
His Hands
(Astralwerks)
Beyond cottage industry at this point, the return-to-recording phenomenon brings us back to soul veteran Candi Staton.
It’s hard to tell what started all this (Buena Vista Social Club? Fat Possum Records?), but the late ’90s and ’00s might go down as the age of the Medicare-eligible star. Johnny Cash’s recordings with Rick Rubin are unequivocally the gold standard, but the past 18 months alone we’ve re-welcomed Bettye LaVette, another Solomon Burke disc, Mavis Staples, Neil Diamond, and Kris Kristofferson to the rootsy fold. Is it out of hand?
In the late ’60s, Staton was the “First Lady Of Southern Soul” before morphing into a disco diva and then a Grammy-winning gospel artist. That first avenue is what she tries to revive on *His Hands*, but it’s all three phases that contribute. His Hands is too controlled, too clean, too gunshy. It’s gospel of the radio versus gospel of the church choir; you can hear Staton reading through the songs without ever letting loose the way she did nearly 40 years ago in Fame Studios. Of course Solomon Burke, whose “Cry To Me” Staton revisits, had the likes of Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello contribute songs to his album. But it isn’t the songs that are the problem here (which range from Merle Haggard to Will Oldham), it’s the performance.
— Steve Forstneger
Click here for a Real Audio sample of “When Will I.”
