Bobby Patterson: "It's Just A Matter Of Time"

Sparkling Southern soul on the Paula label.  This is a record you simply never see, and I found the one copy I’ve come across in Boulder, CO, of all places.  Bobby Patterson has a spectacular voice, influenced equally by the belters over at Stax and the uptown soul crooners from Chicago and Detroit, and in addition to his magnificent singing, he produced the whole LP himself, so the sound he creates is all his own.  “Make Sure You Can Handle It,” “Right On Jody,” “How Do You Spell Love” and “The Whole Funky World Is A Ghetto” deliver on the promise of their titles, with detailed soul arrangements and cascading vocals riding a churning, heady funk undercurrent.  Patterson also engages in mellow meditations like “I Get My Groove From You” and “She Don’t Have To See You (To See Through You),” and even throws in a nice exercise for the steppers, “Everything Good To You (Don’t Have To Be Good For You).”  Small label efforts like this are great because they’re very personal, I feel like you get slightly more truth from the artist about who it is they are and what it is they’re about, with none of the pressures, ego-tripping and expectations a more popular artist might face.  Right on Bobby.