Personnel: Chris Bruce (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Greg Leisz (dobro); Allen Toussaint (piano); Patrick Warren (keyboards); David Piltch (upright bass, electric bass); Jay Bellerose (drums, percussion); Darryl Phinnessee, Jim Gilstrap, Niki Haris, Jean McClain (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Ryan Freeland.
Liner Note Author: Monica Coates.
Recording information: The Garfield House, South Pasadena, CA (04/19/2010-04/23/2010).
Photographer: Sarah A. Friedman.
Aaron Neville, at 69 years of age, marks 50 years of recording with his 2010 gospel album, I Know I've Been Changed, employing as part of his backup band the producer of his first session back in 1960, Allen Toussaint. This is a traditional gospel set, full of familiar old songs and spirituals, and Toussaint's piano, redolent of New Orleans R&B, is the dominant musical instrument in the small-band arrangements of tracks produced by Joe Henry. Henry has gone for an easygoing, rootsy sound, the better to support Neville's immediately identifiable high-tenor vocals, which, as usual, break into expressive falsetto notes at unexpected moments. Many of these songs are usually heard as rave-ups to stir the faithful from their pews, but Neville, making his first gospel recording since 2003's Believe, and thus his first since Hurricane Katrina, is naturally a singer full of vulnerability rather than triumph, and there is often a mournful tone to the performances. One exception is the version of "You Got to Move," which, paced by Toussaint's rolling pattern, is given more buoyancy than it sometimes has. But that is followed by a slow, mournful "Oh Freedom," a reading that places emphasis on its chorus, "Before I'd be a slave/I'd be buried in my grave/And go home to my Lord/And be free." It would be easy to imagine the displaced residents of the Ninth Ward singing along with Neville on "I'm So Glad," a song with a deceptively cheery title, "I'm so glad that trouble don't last always," adding "Oh, my Lord, what shall I do?" An answer might be to have faith, which seems to be the conclusion of the next and final song, "There's a God Somewhere." On I Know I've Been Changed, Neville seems to be imploring God to come back to New Orleans. ~ William Ruhlmann
Professional Reviews
Down Beat (p.59) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Neville uses his distinct vibrato-laden voice to present the sanctified words of 'I Am A Pilgrim' and 11 more pew-and-pulpit favorites..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.99) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The material slides from uptempo celebration to pensive ballad, Neville never preachy, only reverent."
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Reviews
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"I Know I've Been Changed" is Aaron's 3rd gospel album, following "Devotion" (2000) and "Believe" (2003).
It is very different from the 2 previous, however, as it is very much a natural recording, with lots of blues
and early gospel influences. Allen Toussaint is featured on many tracks with his trademark piano artistry.
Aaron performs songs originated by the Staple Singers, Sam Cooke, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Bill Broonzy,
Odetta, Dorothy Love Coates and more - a very deep and personal spiritual set of songs.
Aaron's home in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005,
and his wife of 47 years died of cancer in January of 2007.
This new recording seems to be peaceful, joyful, and maybe a little weary
in it's celebration of salvation and final reward.
There's a message of living for God and also longing for a time when there will be "trouble no more".
On the album cover, Aaron quotes St. Augustine: "He who sings, prays twice."
That is an obvious truth when the one and only Aaron Neville sings as he does here.
Excellent liner notes by Monica A. Coates, and album production by Joe Henry.
(The liner notes say there is a bonus track of "Touched By The Hem Of His Garment",
but the song is not the disc I purchased.)
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