Saturday, November 12, 2005

The Southern Soul of Aware

John Edwards - Careful Man

John Edwards' greatest fame came as the long-time lead singer of The Spinners following the departure of Phillippe Wynne (Edwards' vocals graced the group's last mega-hit, "Working My Way Back To You / Forgive Me Girl"). Prior to that time, however, Edwards' country funk vocals graced some excellent recordings on labels such as Weis and the notorious Atlanta label, Aware Records (I'll defer to Brian Poust's excellent "Georgia Soul" blog to discuss the very interesting story of Aware and its owner, Michael Thevis).

Today's track was his biggest solo hit and is, strangely enough, least indicative of his vocal talents. "Careful Man" is mainly a monologue about fidelity and jealousy. The song was written by Jimmy Lewis, whose metier was straight-talking songs about relationships (at this time, Lewis was working for Michael Thevis as a writer and an artist (on Thevis' Hotlanta label); in a later post I'll discuss his outstanding work from that period). Edwards acquits himself well with the song, though, getting the band involved toward the end for some gold old-fashioned dozens playing.

No comments: