(Third Street Cigar Records, CD, digital)
Jeez, summer’s creeping along with no relief from cruel gas prices. How many of you have had to alter or even cancel vacation plans because of this?
I’m no travel agent, and I don’t have any boffo ideas about affordable destinations. But I do have one remarkable and inexpensive itinerary that’s well within your budget.
You’ll be visiting Memphis, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, Philly and selected spots across the Deep South. Your mode of transportation? The new album Tribute to Soul.
Your tour guides are Mississippian Johnny Rawls and Montpelier’s Dave Keller, two highly accomplished and much-revered artists who’ve recorded this joyful celebration of old-school soul music from the times and places where it first blossomed.
The perhaps unlikely pair are close friends with established solo careers whose partnership began when Keller spontaneously sat in with Rawls at a Vermont festival in 2010. Rawls, 75, received early tutelage from Joe Tex and Z.Z. Hill and spent years as music director for O.V. Wright. Rawls has released many recordings on his own and won several Blues Music Awards and Living Blues Awards.
Keller, a generation younger, is a New Englander who was infected with the blues in his early twenties. He worked with Ronnie Earl, Mighty Sam McClain and gospel organist Brother Bob White and, over the course of many solo releases, has earned four Blues Music Award nominations.
Since their first meeting, Rawls and Keller have performed hundreds of exuberantly received gigs together; Tribute to Soul is their first collaborative album. The impetus for recording was an inspired concept — to highlight obscure tunes by criminally overlooked singers who lacked only a lightning bolt from Lady Luck to have achieved bigger success.
Tex, Hill and Wright are covered, along with Tommy Tate, James Carr, Benny Latimore, Little Johnny Taylor, Willie Hightower and Jimmy Hughes. If these names aren’t familiar to you, well, that’s sort of the point. Rawls and Keller are not just contemporary soul stars; they’re also fanboys and archivists — and sharing their knowledge is a fine gesture that should open a lot of ears and hearts.
Across 11 taut and punchy tunes, Rawls delivers passionate vocal melodies like a Chautauqua tent preacher sipping from a secret bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Keller’s wasp-sting guitar lines and support vocals are equally powerful. The Vermont musician’s touring band — keyboardist Ira Friedman, bassist Alex Budney and drummer Jay Gleason — provide a sweat-dripping studio foundation, with Paul Johnson (tenor and baritone saxophones), Ben DeLong (trumpet) and Travis Geiman (trombone) adding sonic exclamation points.
There isn’t a weak cut on the record, but it’s worth noting “I’m Qualified,” a call-and-response strut written by Rick Hall and originally recorded by Otis Clay that sets the tone in exuberant fashion. The lament “Hold On to What You’ve Got,” by Tex, with its melancholy arpeggiated piano and Rawls’ spoken-word lyrics, offers experiential “been there/lost that” wisdom. And “Neighbor, Neighbor,” a Jimmy Hughes tune, serves as a cocky warning to those who ought to be minding their own business.
You’ll find your own favorite moments, of course. That’s what going on vacation is all about. Fasten your seat belt. Tribute to Soul is cued up and ready to blast off. Have a great trip!
Tribute to Soul is available at davekeller.bandcamp.com. Keller plays Shelburne Farms on Wednesday, July 15.
This article appears in July 15 • 2026.
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