Hi Records, Gregg Allman Musicians Get With Soul Man Don Bryant
Seasoned soul man Don Bryant, now 74, will return on Fat Possum Records on 12 May with the album Don’t Give Up On Love. Bryant worked extensively at Hi Records in Memphis and wrote for the label’s Al Green, Otis Clay, O.V. Wright and Syl Johnson as well as Solomon Burke, Albert King and Etta James.
The album is dedicated to Bryant’s wife of 43 years, former Hi star Ann Peebles, of ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’ (which they wrote together) and ‘I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down’ fame. It includes many notable Memphis musicians, including such surviving members of the Hi house band, who worked in their heyday with storied producer Willie Mitchell, as Charles Hodges (organ), Archie “Hubbie” Turner (keyboards) and drummer Howard Grimes.
Marc Franklin and Art Edmaiston, from the Gregg Allman Band, play horns on the record, which also features Joe Restivo (guitar), and bass by Scott Bomar, who produced it at his Electraphonic Recording studio in Memphis with Bruce Watson.
Having cut a number of gospel records in recent times, Don’t Give Up On Love is Bryant’s first chiefly secular album for decades. The ten-song album includes seven new Bryant compositions and such titles as ‘A Nickel And A Nail,’ ‘How Do I Get There?’ and ‘It Was Jealousy.’
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