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REVEREND AL GREEN Everything's OK Blue Note ****

More than anything else - yes, perhaps even more than Rev Al's extraordinary velvet voice - it's the presence of Willie Mitchell behind the desk that makes every single one of Everything's OK's 48 minutes so joyful. As 2003's quiet triumph I Can't Stop showed, Green and Mitchell are a heritage soul dream team. A Hi! songwriter and producer, Mitchell perfected that classic Green sound on a string of 1970s releases, and the arranger still has an ear for the material that best suits the euphoric span of Green's voice. The filling around each song is spot-on, the swooning strings and bumping horns fixing a Memphis soul sound which sounds timeless in these hands. You'll hear the combination to its best effect on the punchy Magic Road and the raw, stark soul of the title track. Love and happiness, you see, nevergoes out of fashion. www.bluenote.com

Jim Carroll