Fat Possum releases a Monster TKO of rock and soul from one of Detroit’s best-kept musical secrets. Nathaniel Mayer hit the R&B charts as a teenager in the early ‘60s before tumbling headlong into obscurity for the next three decades; miraculously, he’s emerged from the haze with his funk motor still running hot, which sets this greasy-delicious platter co-produced by ex-Detroit Cobra Jeff Meier to burning on every tune. Though his sandpaper rasp of a voice makes Miles Davis sound like Philip Bailey, he can still rip it up on the houseparty numbers (“You Gotta Work,” the atomic opener “I Wanna Dance With You”), and lay out a midnight croon for slow dances like “You are the One.” And when the terrain turns rocky, as on a swaggering workout through John Lennon’s “I Found Out,” Mayer’s growl turns positively deadly – enough to give Fat Possum’s resident mean muthafuckin man, T-Model Ford, a run for his money. I Just Want To Be Held is double-barreled soul from one of its toughest survivors. __________________________________________________

-Paul Gaita