AARON NEVILLE SOUNDED LIKE THE LIONEL RICHIE OF THE BLUES FOR 1991`S WARM YOUR HEART

https://youtu.be/BbUmq1VInCs?si=SqUpw-G6sQFd6MIv

Easy listening music is not something I often feature on here, either it`s too well known and commercial or it`s pretty damn ordinary, so it takes a very special easy listening album to make the grade with
me. 

One which does, and one which I unashamedly rate as my all time chill album is Aaron Neville`s WARM YOUR HEART, from 1991.

It was released around the time when Prince released his best album, DIAMONDS AND PEARLS, which despite being a more funk and rock driven affair complimented this terrific soft rock/blues and gospel flavoured gem by Neville in my record collection around that time. 

In place of the lewdness you get from Prince with songs such as the funk rock masterpiece CREAM and the slasher heavy rock guitar of PEACH, both of which are monumentally underated, Neville come
up with a refined and spiritually charged album of polished but soulful tunes, with just the right amount of rock, blues and gospel, the latter courtesy of the goose bump-ish AVE MARIE. 

Of course Neville scored one massive hit off this recording, EVERYBODY PLAYS THE FOOL, kind of like a Lionel Richie in blues mould attempt. 

The lead off track LOUISIANA 1927 gets Neville off to an envious beginning, very much like Keb Mo with the quivering falsetto which Neville was famous for. 

Track 3 is in fact a song which Keb Mo covered on an album of his a few years later, it is called IT FEELS LIKE RAIN, classic polished contemporary blues. 

A VIE DANSANTE takes the listening on a
french flavoured Caribbean reggaey romp, perfect dynamics and once again polished but not overdone production behind it. 

The title track in my opinion is the best song on here, with a bit of blues bias to aid my opinion. Much like IT FEELS LIKE RAIN
but WARM YOUR HEART builds up slowly to an absolute cracker of an instrumental break that features a crisp and toe tapping exhibition of no nonsense brilliant honky tonk piano. 

I BID YOU GOODNIGHT and DONT GO PLEASE STAY displays Neville`s more romantic and touchy feely side, soulful but still with a bluesy pastoral kind of edge. 

WARM YOUR HEART was very much the
same format as Steve Winwood`s gem BACK
IN THE HIGH LIFE from 1986, an unofficial
supergroup album. 

Spare me from having to tell you the names of all the famous guest artists who appeared on it, but I would be erring in my judgement if I didn`t mention Linda Ronstadt, Dr. John, Rita Coolidge and Ry Cooder, amongst many other fine session musicians. 

Dr. John, the wildly eccentric and flamboyant piano man from New Orleans, is the one who put in that brilliant effort on the the title track`s instrumental break.