Ann Peebles: I Can’t Stand The Rain (LP, Pure Pleasure)

Classic southern soul with sweet Memphis sound. Peebles’ voice aches and swoons across these songs backed by a band featuring Howard Grimes on drums, Jack Hale on trombone, Charles Hodges on keyboards, and more!

Perhaps because seven out of the ten songs here were written by Ann (in collaboration with her husband, singer-songwriter Donald Bryant, and seberal others), I Can’t Stand the Rain feels like her most personal album. It’s quieter, less aggressive than much of Ann’s previous work, but no less assured. With her marbelous raw honey voice – so wispy sweet it breaks, then so full and hard it’s chilling – she can be both tough and tender, sometimes in the same song. But whether heartbroken or joyous, righteously vengeful or disillusioned, Peebles always has a strength, a personal fire that makes each song glow from deep inside.

“This wonderful album, originally released in 1974 on the Memphis-based Hi Records label, deserved a wider audience than it ended up getting at the time. It played to Ann Peebles’ great strength, her poised and sultry voice, and surrounded by the sparse, easy funkiness of the trademark Hi rhythm section and producer Willie Mitchell’s perfect use of horns and strings, she sings like a resilient but disappointed angel on this impressive set of songs about the darker side of love. Her best song is here, the eccentric but brilliant “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” along with a marvelous version of Joe Simon’s “(You Keep Me) Hangin’ On,” and perfect readings of a pair of Earl Randle songs, “If We Can’t Trust Each Other” and “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down.” Peebles sings her heart out, and with those somehow bright-sounding Hi grooves behind her, it all comes together to make a classic album of dark, bouncy, and beautiful Southern soul.” – Steve