Let It Shine

Thankfully, Roscoe Shelton emerged from his retirement from the music business in a big way with the release of Let It Shine. He was starting to land on the R&B charts in the late '60s when a series of labels folded out from under him. This is a big-time R&B disc that should put him back in the spotlight in a well-deserved way. Right from the solid, uptempo R&B groove of the opener "Lady (Your Man's Runnin' 'Round)" to the restrained depth of hurt on "Hard to Be Alone," this disc is cookin' and percolatin'. Shelton has a voice that goes right to the apogee of the proper feeling of a song; his early days of doing lead vocals for the Fairfield Four, a popular gospel quartet, hold him in good stead. Let It Shine comes about as close as you get to the depth and truth of feeling in gospel on an R&B disc since someone of Sam Cooke's ilk was recording. Listen to him confess to being wrong on "I Was Wrong! Played with Love," and plead with the feeling of one who knows he has blown the best thing he ever had. What made this a more interesting disc is the fact that he wrote all the tunes but one. The backing band is also the band on another Black Top release, but they know how to play, and as a unit they are mighty impressive. This is one of the finest R&B discs to come out in a long time. Pick it up, it won't disappoint.