Young Hearts Run Free

Who's Hunting Now? - Release Date: Spring 2009

http://www.candi-staton.com/



Southern soul is back and so is its First Lady - Candi Staton, who racked up 16 grits and gravy R&B/Pop hits between 1969-1974 such as the Grammy-nominated “In the Ghetto” and the swamp boogie of “I’m Just A Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin’).” After detours into disco during Jimmy Carter’s administration and a twenty-year return to the gospel of her youth, Staton is back on the path that first established her name. She’s also back with the follow-up to her acclaimed 2006 Honest Jons/EMI CD His Hands - her first secular LP in 24 years. Featuring tunes by noted songwriters such as Will Oldham, Mary Gauthier, Dann Penn, and Staton herself - the new project Who’s Hurting Now? is a defiant, brutal musical storybook on the ups and downs of love and life.

The set opens with “Breaking Down Slow,” a smoldering ballad first recorded by Lee Roy Parnell and Bonnie Bramlett in 2001. Co-written by Dann Penn (who co-wrote Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman” and Staton’s 1969 gem “Another Man’s Woman”), this track pops with the earthy nostalgia of Staton’s hallowed, Rick Hall-produced Fame recordings. “That’s my kind of music - gut bucket blues,” Staton giggles. “I loved singing that. It was given to me by Mark Ainley at Honest Jons. I didn’t understand what it meant until I lived with it for a few days. There were other things on my mind but the guy in the song keeps doing things to win this woman over and she resists him. She’s probably been hurt before and is hesitant about another relationship but he keeps pursuing her and she eventually breaks down and gives in to him. I thought it was a song about weakness at first and I didn’t want to sing anything about weakness. I had done enough of that at Fame.”

Clearly, Staton shows no weakness on the sly title track, “Who’s Hurting Now?” that boasts a funky `60s vibe reminiscent of Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. The song began as collaboration with the British dance duo, Groove Armada, in 2006. “They sent me two instrumental tracks and asked me to write the lyrics,” she recalls. “I hear words when I hear music and the words I heard were `who’s hurting now?’” The duo used Staton’s voice and lyrics but totally transformed the song from an African tribal-styled vamp into a sophisticated club song with a new title, “Paris” for their hit CD Soundboy Rock. “What Andy and Tom did to it was really nice,” Staton says. “But, no one would recognize it was the same song. Since they changed the name and since I liked the demo so much, we decided to do it for this project.”

Honest Jon’s Mark Ainley and producer Mark Nevers searched near and far for both new and vintage songs to add to the album. Friends sent Ainley tapes of obscure soul and country songs while Nevers called upon his Nashville songwriting buddies. Ainley found Bonnie Raitt’s 1973 recording of “I Feel the Same” and presented it to Staton. “I loved that right off,” she says with a chuckle. “That’s my kind of song. It’s just the blues. I listened back at it and I had to pat myself on the back. I did a pretty good on that if I do say so myself.”