Etta James - The Right Time (1992)

The late Jamesetta Hawkins - known to the world as Etta James - was a lady who could belt out the blues like no other woman could. Her high octane vocal chords possessed a lot of horsepower, but she always added just the right amount of nuance, and that made her the perfect blueswoman.

In 1992 James worked with legendary producer Jerry Wexler for the second time to make The Right Time, an album that should be a classic. The sessions took place at Alabama's renowned Muscle Shoals Studios.

The band Wexler and James assembled comported themselves as the all-stars they truly were. The lineup included Lucky Peterson, Jimmy Johnson and Stax's Steve Cropper on guitars. Alto saxman Hank Crawford anchored the horn section. The sax solos, probably by Crawford, are outstanding. 

Steve Ferrone - famous for his work with Tom Petty and the Average White Band - manned the drums, and Willie Weeks handled the bass as part of the superb rhythm section. 

James is not known as a songwriter and she shares just one co-write here ("Let It Rock"), but she mines terrific material from some of the great blues and R&B artists in the business. Cropper's "Ninety-Nine and a Half Won't Do" - originally composed for Wilson Pickett - is a perfect tune for the soulster. Allen Toussaint's "Give It Up" is a magnificent duet with Steve Winwood who reminds us how good of a blue-eyed soul singer he truly is. Other standouts include "Wet Match," "You're Taking Up Another Man's Place," and a Ray Charles cover, "Night Time is The Right Time."

AllMusic Guide criticized The Right Time for being too slick. Perhaps, the presence of barely noticeable synthesizers on eight of the eleven tracks give it a little bit more of a modern sheen than the old school blues masters would have been able to provide, but to my ears the digital electronics never interfere with the music at all. This is real music played by real musicians.

AMG's Bill Dahl gave the album a two-star rating, yet they give James' first and most famous Chess LP, At Last!, five stars, the website's rarely used rating for best of a genre. On that old record from 1960 her singing is outstanding, but it sounds quite dated because she is backed by production and arrangements that are typical of pre-Beatles pop music. The tracks are full of tinkling pianos and vocal choruses that sound like the Ray Conniff singers, and there are too many pre-rock standards that James is wasting her voice on instead of exploring her roots. But, I'm quibbling. At Last! went to #12 on Billboard's Top Catalog Album chart and it introduced her to a much wider audience. 

The Right Time is modern blues played and sung with every ounce of gusto the participants had available to them. Don't let any detractors tell you otherwise.