William Bell - This Is Where I Live (2016) [Official Digital Download]

Legendary soul singer and songwriter William Bell has returned to his original home, Stax Records, for the appropriately titled This Is Where I Live, his first major release in almost four decades, out June 3rd, 2016. Known for writing and performing several soul standards – 'You Don’t Miss Your Water,” 'Private Number,” 'Every Day Will Be Like a Holiday,” and 'I Forgot To Be Your Lover” among them – Bell co-wrote most of the songs on This Is Where I Live with GRAMMY-winner John Leventhal, who also produced the album. Additional co-writing contributors are Marc Cohn, Rosanne Cash, Cory Chisel and Scott Bomar.

This Is Where I Live features newly-penned liner notes by music historian and author Peter Guralnick, who observes that the album 'convey[s] home truths from a perspective of age and experience that might not always have been readily apparent to a younger man.” The performances, likewise, are assured and subtle, yet simmering with tension.

'At my age,” says Bell, who is 76, 'I've had a lot of experience, and I know what my limitations are, what my faults are as a human being, and I utilize that. When I approach a lyric or a melody, I'm brutally honest.”

That approach is immediately apparent on album opener 'The Three of Me,” which features a classic William Bell conceit as he catalogs the different sides of a man who has loved and lost. NPR notes that 'age becomes Bell's voice, which is still sweet and unwaveringly earnest; befitting the song's conceit, he sings harmony with himself. It's a pleasure to once again hear his reliable romanticism arranged astride the earthy simplicity of horns, Hammond organ and unfussy guitar riffs.'

Tracklist:

01. The Three of Me
02. The House Always Wins
03. Poison in the Well
04. I Will Take Care of You
05. Born Under a Bad Sign
06. All Your Stories
07. Walking on a Tightrope
08. This Is Where I Live
09. More Rooms
10. All the Things You Can't Remember
11. Mississippi-Arkansas Bridge
12. People Want to Go Home



All thanks go to the original releaser