Memphis (Bonus Track Version)

Though his long career has sent him in different directions, Boz Scaggs always returns to the sweet soul music that's closest to his heart. Here, drummer Steve Jordan gathered The Memphis Horns, bassist Willie Weeks, guitarist Ray Parker Jr., and keyboardist Spooner Oldham to Willie Mitchell's Royal Recording Studio in Memphis, and in three days they cut this exemplary soul album. The late Willie DeVille's "Mixed Up Shook Up Girl" slides in perfectly near Al Green's "So Good to Be Here" and Moon Martin's "Cadillac Walk," which had been covered by DeVille's band Mink DeVille back in 1977. "Rainy Night in Georgia" is given a slow, orchestrated performance that brings out the song's pathos. The folk and blues chestnut "Corrina, Corrina" also gets a thoughtful and restrained interpretation that shows off the nuance in Scaggs' phrasings. Having toured in recent years with Michael McDonald and Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Scaggs eases into the Dan's "Pearl of the Quarter." The best thing to do with a great singer is let him sing a great song.