REVIEWSWillie Wright, ‘Telling the Truth’

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• SPIN Rating:7 of 10

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Release Date: January 25, 2011
Label: Numero Group

A singer-songwriter with bar residencies in 1960s -- '70s New York, Boston, and adopted home Nantucket, Wright followed a hard-to-pigeonhole folk-soul muse reminiscent of Bill Withers and Gordon Lightfoot. But labels didn't know how to market him in a still racially polarized environment; hence, 1977's Telling the Truth was made at Variety Recordings, New York's cheapest studio -- in exchange for a cheesy radio-style ad (included here). Warm, soulful, occasionally political, Wright was a private-press gem who deserved more.