★★★★
- Be My Husband: 👍🏻
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out: 👍🏻
- End of the Line: 🤷♂️
- Trouble In Mind: 👍🏻
- Tell Me More and More and Then Some: 👍🏻
- Chilly Winds Don’t Blow: 👍🏻
- Ain’t No Use: 👍🏻
- Strange Fruit: 👎🏻
- Sinnerman: 👍🏻
I heard a super short blurb of Sinnerman on the radio this afternoon on my way home from the gym, and it’s so unmistakeable that I immediately recognized it even though I was already scanning past the station that was playing it. I immediately knew what I was going to listen to today.
Nina Simone is one of those artists whom I’ve always intended to explore beyond the handful of tracks I know well. But for whatever reason I never got around to doing it. So in a sense, she is a big part of the inspiration for this project. Making it a real shame it took me two months to actually listen to one of her albums. The closest I’ve come yet is Lauryn Hill referencing her on a track on The Score.
I really enjoyed this album. The intro of the first track really shocked me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a rhythm section quite like the one that starts Be My Husband. I will say though that it sounded like there were some production issues either in the recording or in the digitization or somewhere. It almost sounded like the mic got bumped a couple times during Be My Husband, and there were other imperfections in other songs. While they were disappointing, they were mostly tolerable. Although another surprise for me was how “new” this album is. I had it in my head that she was putting out albums earlier than 1965, but I chose this album specifically because it’s the first recording of her Sinnerman. Given that it’s only about 4 years older than Let It Bleed, which I listened to yesterday, I’m surprised to hear those issues.
