James 'The Sleeping Giant' Winfield - The Sleeping Giant

Styles : Soul Blues, R&B
Released : 2007

01 - Lonely, Lonely, Nights
02 - Flip, Flop, Fly
03 - Now You Know
04 - Sick and Tired
05 - I Waited Too Long

06 - I Don't Take It So Hard

07 - I'm Tore Down

08 - The Things That I've Used to Do
09 - Hallelujah, I Love Her So
10 - Precious Lord

The record, the rhythm and blues singer's first single, dates to the mid-1960s. Copies are exceedingly rare; this one, a gift from a WWOZ-FM disc jockey in 2005, is his only copy.

Until this year, it was not just Winfield's first, but his only, recording. After 40 years of repairing cars, he finally returned to a studio and cut "Lonely Lonely Nights," his first-ever full length album. Tonight at Ernie K-Doe's Mother-in-Law Lounge, James "The Sleeping Giant" Winfield, 64, makes his debut as a headliner, for an 8 p.m. CD release party.

James Winfield has spent his life around New Orleans R&B. He’s hung out the Dew Drop Inn. He worked alongside Lee Dorsey at Dorsey’s body shop. He had one single in the late 1960s for the obscure New Orleans Trend label. When that failed to make noise, he gave up music until he learned bass guitar after his 50th birthday. Winfield’s new record, Lonely, Lonely Nights, shows a confidence and ease with New Orleans music. He has a warm voice with the slight hint of a rasp or falsetto when he wants it. His song selection runs the gamut from Earl King’s “Lonely Lonely Nights” to Chris Kenner’s “Sick and Tired,” to the ending “Precious Lord.” However, there is little to distinguish this studio effort. The arrangements are standard. The sound of the recording is neither particularly modern nor J&M Studios vintage. The listener is left wishing that Winfield would show more emotion such as the catch in his voice in “Lonely Lonely Nights” or the soft yelp during “The Things I Used to Do.” The band also suffers from the same malady by not reaching for something a little more intense or beyond the relative, not-bad-but-not-particularly-inspiring level of playing that is exhibited here. This is a good record in a style that few people in or out of New Orleans are pursuing, but neither the band nor Winfield live up to the level of company Winfield has kept, nor the praise that OffBeat’s Jeff Hannusch’s informative liner notes suggest it merits.

Original CD from sussex