(September 9, 2024) Manchester, Georgia-born soul man Alex Harris has a voice that feels like home, sweet home, for soul music lovers and enthusiasts. Flashes of Sam Cooke’s inflections, Johnnie Taylor swag and Bobby Bland vigor with fiery sparks of Solomon Burke are all apparently there. He sings like a kindred spirit of Rev. Al Green, even Cee-Lo Green. And it makes sense, considering his ties with the black church, being raised by a preaching father and performing with his siblings in a family band (A- Boys, later named A7).
Harris was born to sing soul music, and all that experience has helped propel his musical emergence and fully prepared him for this moment: Harris’s 2024 solo debut LP that’s being distributed on Shanachie Entertainment — home to a dazzling catalog of retro R&B and jazz tributes.
There’s another extraordinary epiphany to discover regarding that voice, one that you hear earnestly on the latest single from Back to Us. The song, “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,” is a cover of one of Otis Redding’s often overlooked ballads. Released posthumously by Atlantic as a single and the opening track on The Immortal Otis Redding, the song has been reworked over the years by a wide range of artists like Percy Sledge, Etta James, Gov’t Mule and Paul Rodgers. But it feels extra special hearing this on Harris, a rising talent blessed and fortunate enough to handle such a glorious remake sixty years later.
Steve Cropper, the renowned Stax songwriter and guitarist who produced the original single for the late Otis Redding, had a chance of working with Harris during a recent joint-writing session and gave nothing but high praise for his gift. “It’s easy to get lost listening to Alex Harris sing anything,” he said.
And there are even more epiphanies to discover: Consider that Redding was born in a small town of Dawson, Georgia, located just eighty-five miles away from Harris’s hometown, and that Harris, a Virgo, shares his birthday with the legendary soul titan (September 9). This isn’t just a mere coincidence; this feels spiritual.
One listen to “I’ve Got Dreams” by Alex Harris and hearing the excellent precision of the glorious horn section replicating that sweet Stax nostalgia is all you need to be “soul’d out” by this mighty event. Fans of Gary Clark, Jr., Brittany Howard and St. Paul & the Broken Bones; fall in line!
By J Matthew Cobb
