Soul Searchin' (LP)

Soul Searchin is the fourth and definitive instalment in Jimmy Barnes' tribute to the music that made him want to be a singer in the first place.

SOUL SEARCHIN' is Jimmy Barnes searching out the people and places and forgotten songs that helped shape him as an artist. The ultimate result is a thumping set of great classic soul songs from the '50s and '60s that most of us have never heard before.

SOUL SEARCHIN' is the sound of Jimmy Barnes claiming these forgotten gems as his own, recorded in Nashville at one of the traditional homes of soul, the legendary Grand Victor Studio, with Jimmy backed by one of the greatest soul ensembles ever assembled.

"I've called this new album SOUL SEARCHIN' because it's been one of those years, in more ways than one!" says Jimmy, who spent much of the past year writing his soon-to-be-released autobiography, in between his usual hectic solo show schedule and recording and touring with Cold Chisel.

"We wanted to record a final instalment to the soul set as I'd originally done SOUL DEEP in 1991, which was more Motown; and then SOUL DEEPER [2000], which was Memphis-based; and then a kind of prequel THE RHYTHM AND THE BLUES [2009], which was where soul came from."

"The idea was to find more obscure soul songs that people may not have heard - the diamonds in the rough," says Jim. "I was just looking and looking for songs that for one reason or another were skipped over or they were too hard for radio or the singer was cross-eyed - for whatever reason, these songs were missed."

"I landed in Nashville the night before, bad sleep because of jetlag, went to the studio, walked in and started cutting tracks. And from track one I realised these guys were pulling me to the top of my game. It was amazing. We were expecting to get maybe one, two tracks a day; there were a couple of days we got five tracks. It was just phenomenal. I started singing and it felt like I'd been singing these songs all my life."

On top of all this, Kevin Shirley organised guest appearances by some legendary figures of the original soul scene. Lauded songwriter Dan Penn joins Jimmy on a remake of one of his own classics, "The Dark End of the Street". It wasn't until Penn was in the studio that Jimmy realised his special guest also co-wrote two of the other songs featured on SOUL SEARCHIN' - the brooding album-closer "Rainbow Road" and "I Worship the Ground You Walk On", which here features a cameo by another legend in Steve Cropper, best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. He also acted as the producer of many of those records and was later a member of the Blues Brothers band.

And to finish it all off, a very special session with none other than the original Memphis Boys, who feature on a huge ballad called "If Loving You Is a Crime (I'll Always Be Guilty)".

"Making this album was as good as it gets for me. It was such a great experience."

The end result: SOUL SEARCHIN' is a grand soul album by any measure. It's the soul record Jimmy Barnes has been readying himself to make for 25 years. Backed by some of the best players on the planet, Jimmy ventures beyond the standards of trad soul and R&B to uncover a selection of forgotten gems that he very much makes his own.

The search is over. The latest and last word in soul.