Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 10/10/2006
It was much to
soul singer
Spanky Wilson's surprise -- she didn't realize she had had such an impact -- when British multi-instrumentalist/producer
Will Holland contacted her in her Los Angeles home in 2004, professing his love of her music and wondering if she'd collaborate with him. Still, she agreed to go the studio, and together they did two songs,
"Don't Joke with a Hungry Man" and
"When You're Through," for
Holland's solo project,
Quantic, on the album
Mishaps Happening. That collaboration worked out so well that they decided to make an entire record together, this time with
Holland's full band,
the Quantic Soul Orchestra.
Wilson's lovely voice is the centerpiece of
I'm Thankful, and it does show a bit of its age, but only in the best of ways, deepening it and giving it an added measure of credibility and authenticity while still preserving its expressiveness and strength. Attesting to
Wilson's tremendous ability is the fact that the record is very intimately and sparsely produced, making it seem as if the singer is almost in the room right with the you, the sometimes raspy and breathy line endings audible in that professional, practiced way. The band, which plays
J.B.'s-inspired tight
funk riffs, occasionally branching into modern
jazz horn solos or even wah-wahed guitars, often uses a modern dancefloor-esque beat (in both versions of
"Don't Joke with a Hungry Man," for example, which are different from the
Quantic one), which makes sense as
Holland is an able
electronica producer as well as composer (besides the cover of
Bo Diddley's
"You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," all the pieces on the album are completely written and arranged by him). But the music here is still
funk, horns and all, and since the drums are always live, there's still a nice organic sense about it. The
neo-soul "That's How It Was," which reflects upon Hurricane Katrina, is touching and affecting, and as
Wilson sings, "Now people are talking 'bout a need for a change/Hoping and fighting for power exchange/Thank heavens for life, but not for the pain/Thousands of tears just washed away in that rain," there's a real emotion and tenderness in her voice that comes through clearly and honestly. Because
I'm Thankful is about clarity and avoiding pretension, it's about rhythm and groove, it's about playing
soul music for its own sake, which makes it a very successful album, a great melding of two talented artists -- and an introduction to
Spanky Wilson for many who haven't heard her before, and
need to -- and a lot of fun.
~Marisa Brown, All Music Guide
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