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LEE "SHOT" WILLIAMS "Shot From The Soul"

"It's Friday" REMIX CONTEST

CD REVIEW from LIVING BLUES magazine

by Jim DeKoster

"Mississippi-born (Lexington, 1938) Lee Shot Williams earned his musical spurs on the Chicago blues scene of the early '60s, but in more recent times he's become a fixture on the southern soul-blues circuit, aided by a series of recordings for Ecko that spanned the period 1996-2006. For his latest release, however, Williams has teamed up with Dylann DeAnna's CDS imprint out of Carlsbad, California, which is fast becoming a player in the soul-blues market, with recent offerings from the likes of Charles Wilson and Stan Mosley.

Six of the tracks on Williams' CDS debut were produced by Wilson with Jimmie Barnett, with Micky Rodgers on guitar; they include well-chosen numbers from the pens of Joe Tex (Leaving You Dinner), James Peterson (Wrong Bed), Travis Haddix (Sexy November) and Catch You In The Truth), John Cummings (Country Woman) and Clayton Knight (Certified Lover). Four more were produced by Floyd Hamberlin, who also contributed the keyboard and rhythm tracks, with Jim Simms on guitar. These include one of the set's strongest tracks, the hard-driving "Friday (Time To Get Paid)", and one of the weakest, "Dirt Road To Your Heart", which suggests that soul balladry isn't Williams' strong suit.

Apart from the infrequent mis-step, Williams is in good form here, and though perhaps a little tougher and blusier than most of his work on Ecko, the sound is still well within the boundaries of mainstream southern soul. In fact, the back cover has it about right when it bills the album as "a southern soul blues funky shake yo thang CD"

CD REVIEW from SOUL EXPRESS

by Heikki Suosalo

  As a singer I’ve always rated Henry Lee quite high, and I sincerely hope there’s a big Southern soul/blues hit waiting for him around the corner, still. His earlier achievements are documented at: Lee Shot Williams – (from Soul Express 3/1997).

  Shot From the Soul (www.cdsrecords.com) was produced by Charles Wilson with Jimmie Barnett (six tracks) and Floyd Hamberlin Jr. (four tracks), and the only living creatures Lee’s having backing him up is a guitar player and a background singer.

  The CD kicks off with a laid-back but brisk John Cummings mover named Country Woman, which is followed by a standard ‘weekend & let’s party’ beater called It’s Friday (Time to Get Paid), and all the party people have voted this song to be the first hit off Lee’s CD.  The two other uptempo cuts are blues romps by Travis Haddix (Sexy November and Catch You in the Truth).

  Among the four mid-pacers there’s a pleading cover of James Peterson’s melodic, story-line song titled Wrong Bed and a rework of Joe Tex’s clever Leaving You Dinner (1976).  There are still two down-tempo tracks on the set, and one of them, Dirt Road to Your Heart, was a big, positive surprise for me.  I’m not always very keen on Floyd Hamberlin’s work, but this touching soul ballad is a small masterpiece and it even has a quite skilfully constructed background.  Lee definitely needs more of these.  But even as such, this was a much better CD than I expected, and I hope it does well for Lee.

Lee "Shot" Williams "Shot From The Soul" (CDS) LISTEN

Review by Steven Alvarez, Blues Critic

*** 1/2 Williams, to me, is one of the champions of modern Southern Soul (aka 'Deep Soul") Blues who with the right break, or right hit song for that matter, could've been as popular as a Z.Z. Hill or Little Milton. "Lee Shot's" (born Henry Lee Williams) career dates back all the way to 1962 when his first 45 was released called "Hello Baby". It, along with it's B-side "I'm Trying", were typical B.B. King-style Blues numbers everybody was cutting then. A series of similar 45s were released throughout the 1960s with only "I Like Your Style" having a lasting impact. He had the powerful Blues voice and personality and he cut contemporary-sounding tracks the market was calling for  (like the Funky 1968 number "I Feel An Urge Coming On") but still no breakout smash. Nevertheless he made a living  and became a legend still.

In the mid 90s he enjoyed a bit of a comeback (if only critically) when Black Magic recorded "Cold Shot", one of Blues music's highlights of 1995. His popularity grew to it's zenith when he began recording regional "chitlin' circuit" hits for Ecko Records ("I'll Take The Risk", "She Made A Freak Out Of Me", "I'm A Nibble Man"). But by 2006 his profile and sales took a dip with the mediocre CD "Starts With A P".But now he's back with a consistently strong CD that'll remind you why he's the "Don of Southern Soul".

"Shot From The Soul"  starts off with four winners in a row. The Sam Cooke rhythm of "Country Woman" hit my ears like a welcome mat. Shot says "Now I got a woman/Her name is Sally Mae Brown/She lives just outside the city/In a little old country town". He proceeds to explain why he loves them country woman. They treat you so sweet, cook you up something nice on the stove and they'll "love you to the rooster crows!".  Next is the anthem "It's Friday (Time To Get Paid)". It's one of those instant classic weekend songs that you can't help but get down with. Writer/Producer Floyd Hamberlin Jr manages to write an even better Delta-blessed Soul Blues tune than his own "Mississippi Boy". Thank God "It's Friday" for sure. Hamberlin is also responsible for another brilliant track on this CD called "Dirt Road To Your Heart", a gut wrenching Deep Soul ballad critics will adore. Backing up to track 3 comes a real treat for me. I've always loved an inexplicably ignored Soul gem by James Peterson called "Wrong Bed!" that you can't find these days without a costly search. Well, you don't have to now because Shot updates the track in glorious fashion on this album. The same could be said of Joe Tex's hilarious "Leaving You Dinner", which gets the Lee Shot treatment here. Shot comes home to find his woman has cooked him up a candlelight dinner. Hmmm, what's this about? Well it turns out to be her "I'm leaving you dinner" to him! She says "Eat you dog! Eat it baby yeah it's your 'I'm leaving you dinner'"! Classic stuff. "Shot From The Soul" is classic Lee Shot Soul (and Blues).

"Shot From The Soul" LISTEN

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