Hot Runnin' Soul ~ The Singles 1965-71 [CD]

Paul Kelly is a pretty obscure southern soulman even by the standards of the genre with only a single significant US R&B hit in his career; the surprisingly nuanced and prescient "Stealing In The Name Of The Lord" which criticised money grubbing preachers of the type later personified by the notorious televangelists. That track is on here and it is a minor classic pointedly adopting gospel tropes to get its stinging point across. The good news is that there is much else besides because although Paul Kelly is relatively unknown it doesn't mean the quality of his output was by any means sub-par, in fact with perhaps one or two exceptions (to be expected with a compilation containing 24 tracks) this is superior late 60's gritty soul with lashings of organ'n'horn. The songwriting too is pretty consistently good which makes up for his occasionally non-descript vocalising which is the only factor that I can think held his career back.

The most surprising thing is the sheer variety of styles Kelly tackle; it sure isn't all tortured southern soul ballads (thank God!). There are fast paced stompers which could fit easily onto a Northern Soul compilation, the inevitable gospel soaked balladry (but without the annoying spoken monologues that taint so much of Joe Tex's work from the same period), a couple of smooth Chicago-soul styled songs, some surprisingly funk-tinged tracks from '70 onwards and one "Soul Flow" that does a rather excellent impersonation of an early Funkadelic guitar freak-out! I'd go as far to say there is only a single really sub-par track, "509" which is too 'country-pop' for my liking trying (and failing) to do a Charlie Pride-thing or something.

Therefore KENT who have been on something of a roll recently after coming out of a bit of a fallow patch a few years ago have come out with another top-notch compilation of an unfairly forgotten soulman. This one potentially might appeal to a wider spectrum of listeners due to its variety and consistent quality therefore 60's soul-fans can sign up to this one without hesitation.