Fresh Baked:
Andre Williams and the New Orleans Hellhounds
Can You Deal With It?
2008 | Bloodshot Records
C-

Andre “Mr. Rhythm” Williams, a mainstay of the Motor City R+B scene for over fifty years and hands-down owner of his own style of “talk-singing,” churns out new new records semi-annually, and to varying degrees. Early hits for the Fortune label, such as “Bacon Fat” and “Jail Bait,” felt like a much bawdier cross between Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and early Motown-era Stevie Wonder. Best renowned for more popular performers’ (such as Ike and Tina Turner and Parliament/Funkadelic) versions of his songs, Williams earned a great deal of money and respect for his songs in the 50s and 60s, spent the 70s and 80s semi-retired and resigned to poverty, then reemerged in the 1990s for a third act varying between hokey and transcendent.

Can You Deal With It?, with its slicker-than-owl-shit production, falls into the former category. And it’s unfortunate, because when Mr. Rhythm’s, well, rhythm stick, is firing on all synapses, an Andre Williams record can sound like a sweaty, grimy dancefloor packed with hedonists bumping and grinding to archaic R+B grooves that reek of sex and never even approach irony. 1999’s country-inflected Red Dirt, which featured the ever-present Sadies as backing band, is the best platter of recent Williams tunes, but 2001’s Bait and Switch (featuring a duet with Rudy Ray Moore, of Dolemite fame) isn’t far behind. Can You Deal With It?, backed by a crackerjack team of New Orleans soul musicians, just doesn’t generate the same sweaty, sexy sound as those earlier, superior efforts.
More on Record Review: Can You Deal With It?