Make a Joyful Noise is the follow-up to 1968's
Living With the Animals. This time out,
Mother Earth neatly divided their joint appreciations for rural and urban American music: à la the thematic "City Side" and "Country Side." The City Side is an R&B workout, powered by a robust horn section and the vocals of Rev. Ron Stallings on burning soul cuts such as "Stop That Train,"
Tracy Nelson's killer performance on Naomi Neville's cooker "What Are You Trying to Do," and sultry read of
Little Willie John's babymaker "Need Your Love So Bad." The Country Side is more subdued, adorned by steel guitars and
Powell St. John's quavering vocals on "I'll Be Moving On" and the strange "The Fly."
Nelson's version of
Doug Sahm's "I Wanna Be Your Mama Again" is her blues-country gospel version of
Hank Williams' honky tonk nugget "You Win Again" (with a fine fiddle solo by
Johnny Gimble). Some of the guest stars on this set include
Boz Scaggs, Hargus Robins,
Ben Keith, D.J. Fontana, and Pete Drake.
Make a Joyful Noise remains an overlooked classic from the Warner Brothers catalog that finally saw CD issue in 2004 by Wounded Bird. ~ J.P. Ollio & Thom Jurek