Soul Man
Anthony Hamilton releases a spiritually conscious album marketed to sinners
by Makkada B. Selah and Makkada Selah
Anthony Hamilton isn’t an R&B singer; he’s a gospel singer who has crossed over into the genre but retained the Word—a singer in R&B, but not of it. Sure, he sounds alternately like Bobby Womack and Al Green, but he isn’t singing their subject matter. Even when Green got religion, it was late in his career and he wasn’t able to bring the Lord’s message into as large a mainstream and secular audience as his earlier hits. With Ain’t Nobody Worryin’, however, Hamilton, a North Carolina native who’d been singing in church since the age of 10, has produced a spiritually conscious R&B record successfully marketed to an audience of sinners.
See, soul men have long had their women—lots of them. But, Hamilton’s only got one: his wife, singer Tarsha McMillian, referred to as “his life” in “Can’t Let Go.” He alludes to her in just about every song on the album; she even joins him in song on the ballad “Preacher’s Daughter.” Hamilton’s ditching of the R&B sex-symbol playboy image, and presentation of himself as a family man—the kind who opens doors for women and walks them home at the end of the night—has set him apart.
And even if it’s not her specifically he’s channeling, the message is the same. Take “Sista Big Bones,” the song produced by Mark Batson, a throwback to Stevie Wonder’s ’70s organ period. The speaker admires the protagonist for her intelligence and because she “goes into work everyday,” and has “confidence in her walk and her style,” not her bust size. He wants to take her “on a nice date,” not to his hotel suite. The speaker isn’t running game here; nor is he insincere or demeaning when he addresses the “sweet Southern thing” he compared to a Cadillac in the song “Southern Stuff.” He’s holding hands and “talking family.” No other R&B singer in today’s marketplace advocates monogamy and responsible relationships consistently, song after song.
“Ain’t Nobody Worryin’ ” is Hamilton’s exceptional centerpiece track. “Ain’t nobody worryin’ / When the shots fly high and the siren starts to ring,” Hamilton begins, outlining some of the country’s current maladies. “Ain’t nobody worryin’ / When the kids die young and the mothers are suffering /Ain’t nobody praying / When they bend down low all they doing is tying their shoe string / The homeless have nowhere to turn / When their stomach starts to burn cause they ain’t got food to eat,” the verse continues. Hamilton quotes Ray Charles’ repeated phrasing “no more,” from “Hit the Road Jack” in the chorus. The chord changes coupled with Hamilton’s vocal delivery may evoke Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” but this might be the best R&B song calling for social justice since “What’s Going On?”
“Pass Me Over,” a piano-driven gospel march, rides on the success of John Legend’s and Alicia Keys’ recent ballads to draw the unconverted. And with surprises like the roots reggae stomp “Everybody,” Hamilton references the gospel of Jamaica to inject a party vibe into a song of hope.
But it’s Hamilton’s effective translation of gospel into terms R&B folks can understand that has his ministry flourishing. On the album’s finale, “I Know What Love’s All About,” Hamilton stops singing altogether and starts preaching over the vamp like a pastor in the pulpit of a country chapel. He’s trotting on the rhythm as the old folks call it, testifying: “Church on Sunday morning, eventually I’m saving money / Sending my life in a new direction / Now I’m friends with my old man again / Standing here wearing this wedding band / I can say I know love.”
But it’s Hamilton’s effective translation of gospel into terms R&B folks can understand that has his ministry flourishing. On the album’s finale, “I Know What Love’s All About,” Hamilton stops singing altogether and starts preaching over the vamp like a pastor in the pulpit of a country chapel. He’s trotting on the rhythm as the old folks call it, testifying: “Church on Sunday morning, eventually I’m saving money / Sending my life in a new direction / Now I’m friends with my old man again / Standing here wearing this wedding band / I can say I know love.”
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