Marcel Smith Everybody Needs Love Little Village Foundation

A couple of months ago, we reviewed Marcel Smith’s superb 2023 release, From My Soul, which encouraged the folks at Blues Bytes to backtrack to Smith’s earlier (2018) release for Little Village Foundation, Everybody Needs Love. As mentioned a couple of months ago,

Smith got his start singing gospel and studying the music of some of the genre’s greatest quartets before branching out into soul and R&B. On this first release, Smith touches on all those genres with terrific results.

The glorious title track, first recorded by the Temptations in the mid-’60s, will raise goose bumps with Smith’s testifying and the The Sons of the Soul Revivers’ gospel-flavored background vocals. The Sons figure prominently on “What A Friend (We Have In Jesus),” which keeps things in a spiritual direction. It’s obvious Smith has done his homework on all the gospel greats of the past, and his guitar playing is just terrific. If this one doesn’t light your fire, your wood must be wet.

“Keep Movin’ On” is one of three songs that Smith covers from Sam Cooke’s repertoire. Sharing lead vocals with labelmate Wee Willie Walker, Smith gives this one a lighter touch than the previous songs, capturing the essence of Cooke’s vocal charms very well. “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” is an unusual choice, but Smith delivers a heartfelt performance with a moving narration to begin the song.

The second Cooke song, “Hold Me,” has a gentle reggae rhythm with horns. It’s followed by Bobby Womack’s “Where There’s A Will There’s A Way,” demonstrating Smith’s vocal versatility as he moves from the smooth Cooke croon of the previous tune to the gritty Womack delivery. The gospel feel of the previous tune continues with the powerful “Poor Man’s Struggle,” which features potent backing vocals from the Sons of the Soul Revivers, and the third Sam Cooke song, “That’s Heaven To Me” (from his Soul Stirrers days).

There’s also a funky read of the gospel classic, “This Little Light Of Mine,” featuring Little Village founder Jim Pugh on keyboards, along with the Sons of the Soul Revivers and harmonica from guest Rick Estrin. “Harry Hippie” was written for Womack by Jim Ford as a tribute to Womack’s brother, starting out as a carefree, humorous tribute, but turned poignant when Harry Womack was killed by his girlfriend. Smith’s wistful version captures the melancholy likely felt by Womack after the turn of events in 1974.

The inspiring “Pressing On” features that wonderful Magnatone guitar from Smith, who teams again with the Sons of the Soul Revivers with dynamite results. The closing track is a wistful reading of Nat King Cole’s reflective “Looking Back.”

I hate that I missed Everybody Needs Love the first time around, but I’m ecstatic that I was able to backtrack and check it out. If you enjoyed Marcel Smith’s recent release, From My Soul, then you need to backtrack and check out Everybody Needs Love for yourself. You can thank me later.

--- Graham Clarke