Can You Deal With It

In 1998, at the age of 62, Andre Williams launched a new career as the Dirtiest Old Man in Rock & Roll with the gloriously lewd album Silky, and ten years later Williams just keeps getting dirtier, and just as importantly he seems to be having even more fun with it as he follows the good groove into his eighth decade. Many years of hard living are clearly audible in Williams' voice on the album Can You Deal with It?, which pairs him up with a band of ragged but right R&B mavens called the New Orleans Hellhounds, but if his instrument is a bit rough around the edges, the spirit is not just willing but raring to go, and this set manages to fuse the crazed, hallucinogenic rent-party vibe of Silky and The Black Godfather with full-strength soul and old-school funk backdrops that bring Williams' music of the '60s and '70s into the present day. Williams has made plenty of albums that are louder and crazier, but it's been a long time since he grooved as hard as he does on "Your Woman" and "If You Leave Me," and the rowdy country-soul vibe of "Pray for You Daughter" and "Rosalie" sounds downright playful, a quality that hasn't always been at the forefront of Mr. Rhythm's work. "Never Had a Problem" blatantly borrows its hook from "Should I Stay or Should I Go," but it manages to rock even harder than the Clash's variation on this theme, and "Can't Take 'Em Off" would make the ideal theme song for some particularly kinky and imaginative exotic dancer. The band (which includes whacked-out keyboard genius Mr. Quintron) grooves with gusto on these sessions, but it's Andre Williams who really brings this show to life, and whether he's moaning, laughing, scolding, or pleading, he's the raunchiest senior citizen on the face of the Earth and he's inviting you to one wild party on Can You Deal with It? The AARP ain't got nothin' on this man. ~ Mark Deming