Evidence: The Complete Fame Records Masters [Import]

A few years back Honest John's put out a splendid CD featuring some of Candi's Fame material. It was an essential purchase and is much tresured.
Now that superb compilation has been trumped by this wonderful set, featuring all of Candi's standout recordings with Rick Hall in the late 60's/early 70's. Amazingly some of this material hasn't been released before, which you will find hard to comprehend given the quality.
Southern Soul music really doesn't get much better than this and anyone with a love of this style will want to add this to their collection.
The music is a sublime confection of great songs, brilliant musicianship, masterful production and, of course, vocals of the very highest order.
Buy it.

Having for years listened to James Browns funky divas and fine female singers such Aretha franklin, Etta James, Chaka Khan, Bettye LaVette, Mavis Staples ... (the list goes on) and then one day come across a phenomenal female voice like Candi's is just indescribable. She was certainly outstanding in those days! Notice btw that Elvis wrote her a thank you letter for her fine version of his hit "In the ghetto". This 2cd album makes a natural replacement for Honest John's 27 track compilation: "Candi Staton". So don't be sad if you own that album already, simply give it away to someone who likes soul music. You won't regret this purchase since the majority of new released track are just as GREAT as the ones we knew already.
From a true fan -

Picture the scene. It's a sultry, emasculating July night, so much so that activity other than sitting and drinking and talking and eating is too much. There's a studio across the road, and despite the weather there's a female singer, some backing singers and some musicians laying down some Southern soul like their lives depended on it, and being generous souls they've got the doors open, so the music sounds out.

I don't know how effective a verbal picture that is, but in an ideal world that music would be what's on these two discs, because it's frightening.....in the best way. There are forty eight tracks across these two discs and the old `all killers, no filler' chestnut applies, for once. The perennially deluded Mick Hucknell covers "That's How Strong my Love Is" on his current album, which only goes to show he should stick to growing grapes. Staton's reading of the song kills his from the moment she sings `If I were....' which as it happens is but a percentage of the first line of the lyric.

The birds must be real wilful for Staton not to sing them out from the trees on "Mr and Mrs Untrue" where she takes hold of the lyric from the first line and the horns and strings carry her all the way. Hell, I'm going to have to start a new paragraph; the goose bumps are getting too much for this one.

One Elvis Presley did a heartfelt reading of "In the Ghetto" but Staton trumps it. Every word is clearly enunciated so the pathos of the lyric -something which the likes of both Hucknell and Joss Stone would either mangle or simply fail to get- sparkles. The resulting verbal picture is far more vivid than anything this writer could convey.

"Are You Just Building Me Up?" wasn't even released until 2011, by this writer's reckoning some 38 years after it was waxed. Why the delay? As with everything here it's a gem, cut in this case in 3:28 and just one of the 48 reasons for buying this set, which I suggest you do before even before you've finished reading this sentence. You know it makes sense.