(Outta Sight)

www.thedynamites.net

No need to wait for tabloid train wreck Amy Winehouse to get her act together and release a new album. There's a more genuine soul revival cooking underground with bona fide singers like Sharon Jones and Charles Walker. Walker-who's been working R&B circles for five decades-is back with his second album with Nashville funk troop The Dynamites, following a scorching debut collaboration Kaboom!

            Burn It Down turns up the heat and delivers a James Brown throwdown that should be the dance-party disc of the year. Walker howls straight from the Apollo hey day, while The Dynamites churn out exhaustively tight grooves. The title track could easily be this generation's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." But while the song's chunky guitar chords and horn blasts look to the past, Walker's outlook is more progressive: "If you don't think we got our message sent, what you say about our first black president?"

            When Walker's not aping the Godfather, he's singing sunny Marvin Gaye seduction ("I Got Love (For You)") or fronting a syncopated Meters'-style jam ("Somebody Stop Me")-all good things for the real soul searcher. 

Standout Tracks: "Burn It Down," "The Third Degree"  JEDD FERRIS