Aaron Neville at The Coach House

Until now, its been easy to separate Aaron Nevilles career into two separate but equal strains: the funky stuff hes favored when working with his esteemed band of brothers, and the angelic balladry you associate with him when hes punching his own time card as a solo artist. Casual fans might admit they dont know much -- to borrow a phrase -- about Nevilles musical center, but theyve perceived a certain split in his career. An education is about to be provided, then, in the form of Apache, a solo album that makes the case for Aaron Neville as the most holistic of soul men. Its hard Rs arguably the most distinctive vocal stylist on the planet to tell it like it is...

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Until now, its been easy to separate Aaron Nevilles career into two separate but equal strains: the funky stuff hes favored when working with his esteemed band of brothers, and the angelic balladry you associate with him when hes punching his own time card as a solo artist. Casual fans might admit they dont know much -- to borrow a phrase -- about Nevilles musical center, but theyve perceived a certain split in his career. An education is about to be provided, then, in the form of Apache, a solo album that makes the case for Aaron Neville as the most holistic of soul men. Its hard Rs arguably the most distinctive vocal stylist on the planet to tell it like it is. Apache also reflects Nevilles social and spiritual concerns, marking only the second time in his 56-year recording career that hes co-written nearly an entire albums worth of material. The words are straight out of a poetry journal he began keeping in the 1970s, which more recently migrated to his iPhone. The music was written and produced by a pair of collaborators well known to enthusiasts of the retro-soul scene, Eric Krasno (guitarist for the groups Soulive and Rustic) and Dave Gutter (frontman for the Rustic Overtones). Together, theyve come up with a modern/revivalist marvel harking back to a golden age that produced classics like Marvin Gayes Whats Goin On (which Neville just happens to reference in the eco-conscious Fragile World). I call it The Other Side of Aaron, says the 75-year-old legend, offering an alternative album title, because people know me from doing the ballads and New Orleans stuff. Theyre getting another feel of Aaron -- a record that touches on the mystic gumbo of Yellow Moon and sheer sweetness of Everybody Plays the Fool while diverging toward a third path weve never quite heard from Neville in the studio. And as much as he wants to surprise long-time fans with it, he says hes hoping that a lot of other people that might not even know me get turned on to it. Which is far from unimaginable: Its easy to picture a 20-year-old listening to the tracks that feature the Dap-King horns and wondering who this new guy is whos following in the tradition of Amy Winehouse.

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