JACKIE PAYNE STEVE EDMONSON BAND "OVERNIGHT SENSATION" Source: Blues Revue Magazine Date: 08/2008 Writer: Bill Dahl

Having cut his pounding debut single, “Go Go Train,” for Houston producer Huey P. Meaux back in 1965, veteran vocalist Jackie Payne is anything but an overnight sensation.

He knows it, too. That’s the whole concept behind the title track of this classy new collection, his second release for Delta Groove in partnership with guitarist Steve Edmonson. Here, Payne pays tribute to his early mentors and friends, from T-Bone Walker and Johnny Copeland to Albert Collins and Johnny Otis. But this isn’t a mere laundry list: It works very well as a song, Payne letting us know in no uncertain terms that he’s paid his dues.

What’s uncommon about the Bay Area-based pairing of Payne and Edmonson (son of Travis Edmonson, half of the folk duo Bud & Travis) is the way they so convincingly alternate between gutsy blues (“I Got a Mind To Go to Chicago,” Gene Barge’s “Mother-in-Law Blues”) and surging soul (“Take a Chance On Me,” “Midnight Friend”). Few contemporary aggregations sound so totally at home tying together the two genres. Edmonson is a crisp, concise lead guitarist who never overplays, and his band cooks eloquently in either style, the Sweet Meet Horns adding punchy interjections that inevitably fit the mood.

Payne and Edmonson are prolific songwriters, sometimes collaborating with other band members to contribute such highlights as the elegantly swinging “Uptown Woman Downtown Man,” the bluesy “Bag Full of Doorknobs,” and the driving “No Money, No Honey,” which sounds like Seventies Hi label fare. A nine-minute-plus medley of Rodger Collins’ “She’s Looking Good” and Eddie Floyd’s “I’ve Never Found a Girl” is the only misstep; the songs aren’t closely enough related in tempo or lyrics to justify the combination. Payne’s intense Southern soul delivery really resonates on the album’s closer, Charlie Rich’s deeply moving “Feel Like Going Home.” No overnight sensation, the blues/soul tandem of Payne and Edmonson is a formidable one.