…..Six CDs into a stellar career (seven including 2014’s Home for the Holidays), Anthony Hamilton’s spent a decade building a reservoir of hearty, slow-burning soul grooves, modern in theme yet brimming with traditional grown-man sentiments cloaked in the ambience of the ‘lived-in’ and the ‘down-home.’ It’s been years—four and some change—since Back to Love, and the recent seismic upheavals Hamilton’s experienced since then (three additional sons, a DWI arrest and the dissolution of his marriage to Tarsha McMillian-Hamilton) seep through every track. A lesser performer would’ve fumbled the emotions that Hamilton’s ….Feelin’ displays, but he and his longtime collaborator, Mark Batson, along with Salaam Remi and James Poyser, provide a firm support wall for Anthony to rail against. In ways you were expecting and others that couldn’t be anticipated, Hamilton serves up heaping helpings of country, R&B and some blues that are raw, edgy, intimate and cathartic.

Anthony Hamilton’s reverence for the Lord and the ladies is prominent throughout: love at first sight and its hallelujah’ effects are what he’s sharing in the raucous opener, “Save Me”—-if “mile-long legs and a mighty backside” can get a man into the pew, who are we to judge? “Amen,” his first single, is more unabashed praise for the good lady he’s found, “from the bed to the store/ from the church, to the job, best thing I know” and anyone who’s cautious about the possibilities of new union can relate to the title track, a Stylistics-esque throwback with doo-woping accompaniment by The Hamiltones imploring the doubtful (“…are you afraid of what we’re building? Tell me what you’re feeling/ Don’t be afraid…..”) to move forward in faith.

Stretching is how growth occurs, and Hamilton is certainly achieving that here: “Ever Seen Heaven” is crisp and downright ‘new-agey’…..(please

to read the full review at soultracks.com)