New Religion

Personnel: Jimmy James (vocals); Count Miller (vocals); Wallace "Red Rat" Wilson (guitar); Milton James, Nat Frederick (saxophone); Carl Noel (organ); Rupert Balgobin (drums).
With a healthy handful of singles behind them, and already ripping up the live circuit in London, it was no surprise when Jimmy James & the Vagabonds snapped heads with their 1966 debut, The New Religion, rounding out earlier releases with further forays into classic American-styled R&B. Bands with similar tastes were a dime a dozen in the States. But in England, where James' influences were flavored with Brit-influenced R&B (albeit an R&B-peppered with James' Jamaican roots), they had the stage to themselves. Earlier recordings "Hi Diddley Dee Dum Dum (It's a Good Good Feeling)" and the sweet, slower-tempoed "Come to Me Softly," which scored the band their belated first U.S. hit in 1968, are highly stylized and emphatic examples of just how smooth this band could be. Rounding up the Vagabonds' early singles output is the percussive, but slightly lackluster, "This Heart of Mine," which just doesn't match the sparkle of the rest of this set. There, James and the Vagabonds proved equally competent at covers, handling versions of the era's heaviest hitters with enthusiastic aplomb. James smoothes and softens his vocals on the Temptations' "It's Growing," giving the string arrangements a run for their money, while the Tony Clarke classic "Ain't Love Good (Ain't Love Proud)" is live and rollicking. Although the band's real depth would come in the following years, and while many regard them as a better live act than studio band, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds' debut was a slick slab of hybridized R&B that wowed the Crown's country. ~ Amy Hanson