Album: Solomon Burke & De Dijk, Hold on Tight (The One/Universal)

Solomon Burke's final album was recorded in Belgium with De Dijk, the Dutch equivalent of The Dap-Tones, a showband devoted to the soul tradition.

Indeed, it's adaptations of the group's original repertoire that furnish the album material, none more potent than the title-track opener, a smouldering Southern soul number on a theme of fellowship and perseverance, on which Burke's declamatory delivery is eerily haunted by the ghostly backing vocals. De Dijk handle the more muscular grooves confidently – the bustling soul-rocker "I Gotta Be with You" sounds like Solomon's influence on the Stones coming full-circle back to him – and add variety with the Latin tinge on "Good for Nothing" and the accordion and Mariachi trumpet of "My Rose Saved from the Street", but Burke's presence remains as commanding as ever even when the material sags.

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