Can You Deal With It?

Can You Deal With It? Is but the latest chapter in the saga of Andre Williams, the venerable Soul journeyman who can look back proudly on nearly five decades of seminal rhythm and blues mayhem. Though he never experienced widespread commercial success Andre Williams was a prime mover on the Detroit R&B scene throughout the sixties and seventies, performing on countless soul sides whose titles (“The Pearl,” “Pig Snoots,” and “Jailbait”) hint at their lurid contents, while simultaneously writing and producing such classics as The Five Du-tones’ “Shake a Tail Feather” and Alvin Cash’s “Twine Time.” In the mid-nineties Williams’ records were rediscovered by a generation of punk informed, noise hungry R&B fans, and his career was resuscitated by In The Red Records. Can You Deal With It? Is Williams’ tenth record since his mid-nineties reemergence and contains nine brief but powerful blasts of hardscrabble R&B. Though his voice has deteriorated with the passage of time, his vocals have gained in gritty authority whatever they may have lost in tunefulness. The countrified, leering strut of “Pray For Your Daughter” and the fuzz soaked glory of “Can You Deal With It?” are ample proof that the composer of “Sweet Little Pussy Cat” has not yet lost his touch.