Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis
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Southern Roots: Back Home in Memphis | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1973 | |||
Recorded | Trans-Maximus Studios, Memphis, Tennessee | |||
Genre | Rock, soul, gospel | |||
Label | Mercury | |||
Producer | Huey P. Meaux | |||
Jerry Lee Lewis chronology | ||||
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Southern Roots: Back Home in Memphis is an album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on Mercury Records in 1973.
Background
Southern Roots: Back Home in Memphis was touted as a "comeback" album for Lewis, which was misleading at best; Lewis had been enjoying enormous success on the country music charts since 1968, scoring 15 top 10 hits (including four chart toppers) and selling out concerts on the road.[citation needed] In addition, although the title implies a return to his rock and roll roots, Lewis had enjoyed his highest pop charting album since 1973 with The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists, a collaboration with British rockers that had been released earlier in the year and had reached number 37. His singles "Me and Bobby McGee" had also grazed the top 40 (peaking at #40, 1972).[1] As Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic observed, "Apart from the gospel closer, country has been consciously removed from the menu, a move that feels like the producer's choice, since Lewis' performances aren't all that much different or more impassioned than what came before...Jerry Lee doesn't sound relieved to be in this setting; he simply sounds like himself, barrelling through a set of songs as he twists them to suit his needs."[2]
Recording and reception
Produced by
Southern Roots did make the Billboard country albums chart, peaking at number 6.[citation needed] The album garnered Lewis a lot of publicity and good will, and he remained a huge in-demand performer, appearing on the ABC series In Concert and the now classic late-night TV series The Midnight Special. As recounted in Bragg's 2014 biography, when Lewis played the Roxy in Los Angeles a month.
Track listing
- "Meat Man" (Mack Vickery)
- "When a Man Loves a Woman" (Calvin Lewis, Andrew Wright)
- "Hold On! I'm Comin'" (Isaac Hayes, David Porter)
- "Just a Little Bit" (Rosco Gordon)
- "Born to Be a Loser" (Karen Carpenter, Richard Carpenter)
- "The Haunted House" (Bob Geddins)
- ")
- "The Revolutionary Man" (Doug Sahm)
- "Big Blue Diamonds" (Kit Carson)
- "That Old Bourbon Street Church" (Mack Vickery)
Personnel
- Jerry Lee Lewis - vocals, piano
- Tony Joe White, Carl Perkins, James Tarbutton, Kenny Lovelace, Paul Cannon, Steve Cropper - guitar
- Charles Owens - steel guitar
- Donald Dunn, Herman "Hawk" Hawkins, Tommy Cathey - bass
- J.L. "Marty" Morrison - organ
- Augie Meyers - Vox organ
- Al Jackson Jr., Joel Williams, Robert "Tarp" Tarrant - drums
- Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr. - percussion
- Mack Vickery - harmonica
- Bill Taylor, Mark Lindsay (ex. Paul Revere & the Raiders, saxophone), Russ Carlton - horns
- Memphis Horns: Andrew Love, Ed Logan, Jack Hale, James Mitchell, Wayne Jackson- horns
- Sugar Sweets - backing vocals
References
External links
- Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis at Discogs (list of releases)