Irma Thomas: "In Between Tears"

Swamp Dogg (Jerry Williams, Jr.) in full effect, this time working with New Orleans soul royalty Irma Thomas.  Williams and Thomas make quite a team, with Thomas’s voice expertly conveying the inherent, sometimes even despondent, pain that was always such a major part of the Dogg’s material.  I’m sure Swamp brought some of that pain on himself; he’s using a female vocalist as his sounding board here, but his song titles reveal the truth of his situations—“She’ll Never Be Your Wife,” “What’s So Wrong With You Loving Me,” “You’re The Dog (I Do The Barking Myself).”  This LP is, in some ways, similar to another Swamp-produced gem I discussed in a previous post, Doris Duke’s “I’m A Loser,” although it generally has a happier, more uplifting energy than that heartbroken song cycle, despite the cynical names of the tunes themselves.  While I said earlier that Thomas knows how to sing pain, she also has a stronger voice than Doris Duke, and the confluence of that strength with a more upbeat set of songs from Swamp Dogg leads the listener to ponder that Irma Thomas will fare much better than Duke in the heartbreak category, and will come out okay in the end, despite her troubles.  Everything that is great about the “Tears” record can be found in the lovely title cut, in the unflinchingly honest “These Four Walls,” and in the epic, 12-plus-minutes “Medley:  Coming From Behind/Wish Someone Would Care,” where Thomas’s vocals have to be heard to be believed, singing, pleading and shouting with enough power to tear the heavens themselves apart.  Swamp Dogg and Irma Thomas crafted something special with this album; this is a re-discovery of dramatic and inspiring proportions.