Long based in New Orleans, Irma Thomas debuted on record in 1959 and made a few minor dents in the pop charts in the mid-’60s, but her greatest success, including a Grammy win, came much later through a string of releases for Rounder Records, beginning in the 1980s. What was going on in the ’70s? A quick burst of recording with noted Atlantic Records’ soul impresario Jerry Wexler that produced one single at the time and later, the release of Full Time Woman: The Lost Cotillion Album. Initially released on CD in 2014 by Real Gone Music, the same label is set to deliver a light blue vinyl edition on March 11.
Irma Thomas has long been anointed as the “The Soul Queen of New Orleans,” a status earned not through big hits (only one of her five charting R&B singles broke the pop Top 20) but due to sheer perseverance, though there was certainly lean times; at one point, after a move from New Orleans to the Bay Area of California post-Hurricane Camille, she took a job at the department store Montgomery Ward.
But for a deeper dive into Thomas’ background, the numerous retrospectives of her early work, and her later career renaissance for Rounder, please consult my review of her 2006 release After the Rain for this very website. Said missive references the 2014 issue of this very release, but Real Gone’s fresh vinyl edition allows for a deeper inspection of its contents.
The first thing to understand is that Full Time Woman, if subtitled as such, is not the retrieval of a proper album but rather the collection of six sessions that took place in 1971–’72. Had the one single Cotillion released, the album’s title track b/w “She’s Taken My Part,” made a significant sales splash, a legit (if likely shorter) LP might’ve actually been released.
It was not to be, however. “Full Time Woman” opens the collection with a solid dose of mid-tempo heart-purge, while the brisker bounce of “She’s Taken My Part” is sequenced third on the side. “In between is “All I Want to Do is Save You” with its appealing blend of electric keyboards and strings, quickly driving home that the label was fully invested in the sessions.
The frankly startling string intro to “Shadows of the Sun” underscores an abundance of stylistic ambition across the sessions. It’s a lovely number, borrowed from the contemporaneous Broadway production Inner City, and an uncovered album maintaining this level of quality would’ve qualified as a revelation back in 2014.
But the mingled funk and sweeping strings of “Waiting for Someone” make clear the sessions were about exploring different avenues. There’s the upbeat horn-laden groove of “Our Love Don’t Come That Easy,” the blend of Supremes-ish sophistication and Aretha-like verve in “Try to Be Thankful,” and the radio announcer at the beginning of “It’s Eleven O’Clock” that gestures to the topical, though the song’s strongest aspect is its high ’70s soul style.
“Could it Be Differently” swings toward the mainstream, while “No Name” dives into the symphonic as befitting the period. Closer “Adam and Eve” ramps up the Diana Ross vibes and sounds nearer to 1976 than ’71-’72. The album also includes a pair of interesting country adaptations in “Fancy” (by Bobby Gentry) and “Tell Me Again” (by Billy Walker), the oft recorded standard “Time After Time,” and a sweet version of “Turn Around and Love You” (originally recorded by Dee Dee Warwick) that effectively showcases Thomas’ investment in the sessions.
Due to its unedited nature deepening a lack of focus, the record does fall a little short of the classic. But there’s not a dud cut in the bunch as this edition of Full Time Woman is a must for the vinyl-loving soul aficionado.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
