Wheedle’s Groove, Kearney Barton

Don’t call it a comeback; they’ve been here for years. “Here” being Seattle, and “they” being the players who feature on the excellent 2004 collection Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75, which showcased the mostly forgotten (and often quite good) R&B acts from the Emerald City. So for Light in the Attic, the hometown label that put the compilation out, re-connecting with a number of those same players and singers was a risk — you never know if one-time music heroes will retain their chops. But Kearney Barton — named for the album’s engineer, and featuring a handful of appearances by those stellar out-of-towners the Muscle Shoals Horns — is a breezy gem, latter-day retro-funk that a label like Daptone would be happy to call its own.

The songs are a savvy mix of originals and covers. “Babyback,” written by Hammond B3 organist Ron Buford and guitarist Johnny Horn, kicks the album off with a near-psychedelic intro before stepping into a lithe, handclap-driven groove; along with vocalist Ural Thomas, they pen the good-humored “H.O.E.,” which stands for “house of entertainment.” But it's the outside compositions that especially shine: Belgian jazz-funker Marc Moulin’s early-’70s “Humpty Dumpty” is given grease by Overton Berry’s piano and Stefan Nelson’s Wurlitzer organ and Fender Rhodes electric piano, and Calvin Law declaims the Stone Roses‘ “Fools Gold” like an early-’70s Stax bluesman while the Muscle Shoals Horns answer his call. Best of all — and certainly aptest given the project’s provenance — is Soundgarden’s “Jesus Christ Pose,” which Pastor Pat Wright and the Total Experience Gospel Choir turn into the righteous soul sermon it was always meant to be.