MUSCLE SHOALS, AL (Conqueroo/ www.conqueroo.com) -
Bobby Purify, whose rich, melodious voice enhanced hits by the duo
James &
Bobby Purify, has come out of retirement with the help of producer and songwriter Dan Penn and several legendary players of the American Soul era. The resulting album, titled Better to Have It, is due to hit the streets July 19 on Proper American Recordings, distributed by Ryko Distribution.
In recording the album, Purify surrounded himself with an R&B brain trust. Penn produced the album, and co-wrote 12 new songs specifically for it with Carson Whitsett and Hoy 'Bucky' Lindsey. The album also features one new Purify original, 'What's Old To You.' Key members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (Spooner Oldham, keyboards;
David Hood, bass; Jimmie Johnson, guitar) and others, such as Carson Whitsett of Malaco fame, keyboards; along with Reggie Young of Memphis, lead guitar; and Wayne Jackson of the
Memphis Horns; came together at Dandy Studio in Nashville on a 16-track analog tape recorder. Legendary producer Jerry Wexler provided sleeve notes. If ever there existed a fertile environment to make a great soul record, this was it.
James &
Bobby Purify were best known for hits like 'I'm Your Puppet' and 'Shake A Tail Feather.' Ben Moore (this 'Bobby''s real name) was actually the third singer to bear the
Bobby Purify mantle and has retained the name for more than 30 years. But his own career as a big-voiced R&B singer has its own pedigree – as a member of Muscle Shoals Fame stalwarts Ben & Spence, and previously as a member of The Tams and Jimmy Tig & the Rounders. When
Bobby Purify No 2 (Robert Lee Dickey) left show business about the time Spence left for New York, Ben Moore was tapped to replace him in 1971. The 'new'
James &
Bobby Purify scored a 1975 British hit with a remake of 'I'm Your Puppet.' Soon thereafter James, beset with legal troubles, disappeared from the scene.
Ben Moore went on to record several albums in his own right and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance for the album He Believes In Me. He continued to work steadily into the ‘80s both as Ben Moore and
Bobby Purify, quitting the tour circuit only after he went blind in 1998. After several inspirational phone conversations with Ray Charles, Moore eventually began to sing in his local church. And in 2002, he appeared as
Bobby Purify once again in a PBS soul music special featuring Aretha Franklin, Jerry Butler, Lou Rawls and other friends. Earlier that year, he met Bucky Lindsey who reconnected him with Dan Penn after 40 years, resulting in Better To Have It—Purify's first commercial recording in more than a decade.
As Jerry Wexler says in his liner notes: 'The main quality of
Bobby Purify here is his glorious God-given voice: rich, big, melodious and intense – and so convincing because there is sincerity and motivation in every note and meticulous concern for the lyrics; the meaning of the words, the emotion that the songwriters intended to convey.'
