Southern Child

Little Richard planned to release Southern Child as his second album for Reprise, going so far as to pose milking a cow for its cover shot. Reprise Records shelved the record for reasons that were unclear at the time and have since been lost to time, putting out The Second Coming in its place in September 1972. When Rhino Handmade released King of Rock & Roll: The Complete Reprise Recordings in 2005, they excavated the unreleased album, along with some outtakes. Fifteen years later, Omnivore released Southern Child as a stand-alone album, making it easier to appreciate the scrapped platter on its own terms. Reuniting with his original producer Bumps Blackwell, Little Richard concocted a country-funk gumbo, a bit of a musical departure whose adventurous nature was underscored by how he had songwriting credits on the entire album -- a rarity for Richard. This means at the height of the great rock & roll revival of the early 1970s, Little Richard pushed into modern territory, making swampy, ribald down-home funk. Sometimes, he leans heavily into classic country -- Last Years Race Horse (Cant Run in This Years Race) is a stylized barroom weeper, the title track is fueled by Richards exaggerated twang -- but the striking thing about Southern Child is how, even when the music sounds backwoods, it feels freshly funky, an album where city and country, funk and rock & roll, country music and soul all exist on the same plane. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine