‘A Soulful Tale Of Two Cities’ is a two disc package which brings together a whole host of legendary Philadelphia and Detroit soul artists and sees them covering classic tracks from the Philadelphia International and Motown songbooks. Disc one features the Philly artists taking on the Motown hits whereas disc two is all about the Detroit artists getting their chops around the PIR evergreens. Although the production is a touch smooth for my tastes there’s no denying the talent on show with artists such as Bunny Sigler, Major Harris, Barbara Mason, Vincent Montana Jr, George Clinton, Freda Payne, Carolyn Crawford and Bobby Taylor. The better tracks include Jean Carne’s version of ‘Higher Ground’, ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now from Ali ‘Ollie’ Woodson and Lamont Dozier’s take on ‘Close The Door’.
