Love Will Shine and Be Our Moon Above

• Fontella Bass, “Leave It in the Hands of Love” (buy here)

Her voice is big & commanding but also confident enough not to stand too far out in front of the band. She’s nestled back there in the mix, amid the horns, flanked by the bongos & the tambourine, so all of them come at you together & before you know it you’re in the middle of it yourself, you don’t know which side of you the bass is coming from. Not that it’s frantic (the guitar solo rises slow like smoke). Just cozy tight.