He’s a preacher’s son gone rogue, but John Wesley Myers aka James Leg has never completely forsaken his roots. In fact he celebrates it through a whiskey-soak growl and an over-amped Fender Rhodes. And there are times when he comes all the way home.
“Up Above My Head,” an advance track from James Leg’s upcoming LP Below The Belt (September 4, 2015, Alive Naturalsound Records), is one of those times. An earnest cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s gospel tune, Leg surrounds his piano and snarling testifying with an auditorium full of chorus singers and a righteous, guttural blues harp.
This is part of a ten-track set of numbers that follows up on a powerful soul, rock and gospel of his Solitary Pleasure debut and his ass-kicking Painkillers pairing with Left Left Cruiser.
“Up Above My Head” goes to show that the delicious duality of James Leg that which enables him to make a satanically inspired, raucous noise for Saturday night can also deliver divinely inspired, sweet music for Sunday morning.
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