I Can't Stop

Personnel: Al Green (vocals); Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Charles "Skip" Pitts (guitar); Lester Snell (piano); Robert Clayborne (organ); Leroy Hodges (bass); Steve Potts (drums, congas, percussion); Donna Rhodes, Charlie Chalmers, Sandra Rhodes (background vocals).
The Royal Horns: Andrew Love, Lannie McMillan (tenor saxophone); Jim Spake (baritone saxophone); Scott Thompson (trumpet); Jack Hale (trombone).
The New Memphis Strings: Joan Gilbert, Daniel Gilbert, Gregory Morris, Liza Zurlinden (violin); Anthony Gilbert, Beth Luscombe (viola); Peter Spurbeck, Jonathan Kirkscey (cello).
The big news on Al Green's first proper album of the 21st century is that he finally reunited with producer/arranger Willie Mitchell, the man behind Green's classic '70s albums. Accordingly, Mitchell brought in some of the key musicians from those albums, such as "Teenie" and Leroy Hodges (guitar and bass, respectively), Memphis Horns saxman Andrew Love, and the distinctive vocal trio Rhodes, Chalmers, and Rhodes. Together with Green, they conspire to create a welcome return to the glory days of Memphis soul, full of fire and elegant arrangements in equal measure. As the horns blast out and Green wails, moans, and croons like a man half of his 57 years, the recording missteps of the previous decade seem to vanish into thin air. It seems that Green intends the title of this undeniable comeback album to be quite literal, and we should all be grateful for that.