Whatever You Need is the debut album from 76-year-old North Carolina-based singer/guitarist Johnny Ray Daniels. Patriarch of the Daniels/Vines gospel dynasty. He is best known as the rocking pianist and guitarist behind the award-winning Glorifying Vines Sisters (which stars his wife, Dorothy Vines-Daniels), and for leading Little Willie & the Fantastic Spiritualaires with siblings and friends. His "Somewhere to Lay My Head" appeared on the celebrated Hanging Tree Guitars compilation from Music Maker. He also appeared on ...
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Whatever You Need is the debut album from 76-year-old North Carolina-based singer/guitarist Johnny Ray Daniels. Patriarch of the Daniels/Vines gospel dynasty. He is best known as the rocking pianist and guitarist behind the award-winning Glorifying Vines Sisters (which stars his wife, Dorothy Vines-Daniels), and for leading Little Willie & the Fantastic Spiritualaires with siblings and friends. His "Somewhere to Lay My Head" appeared on the celebrated Hanging Tree Guitars compilation from Music Maker. He also appeared on 2021's Bible & Tire Recording Company's Sacred Soul of North Carolina with his band and solo.Whatever You Need was co-produced by label boss Bruce Watson and guitarist Will Sexton. Daniels recorded it at Memphis' Delta Sonic Sound studio. He is backed by the astonishing Sacred Soul Sound Section: guitarists Sexton and Matt Ross-Spang, bassist Mark Edgar Stuart, organist Rick Steff, and drummer Will McCarley. Backing vocals are provided by son Anthony "Amp" Daniels (Dedicated Men of Zion) and granddaughter KeAmber Daniels. Some of the album's finest moments showcase the call-and-response interplay between the three singers.Daniels opens with the rocking title track. His country guitar vamp choogles atop a shuffling drum kit and organ swells. His vocal melds gospel, Delta blues, and Southern soul as he wails, testifying about God's power and steadfast faithfulness, affirmed rapturously by the chorus at every turn. He turns in an electrifying performance of Lucie Campbell's great gospel standard "Something Within Me." Daniels pushes his crystalline baritone into the red with a shout and growl that recall the late Clarence Fountain. "God Is Able" is rendered as a celebratory altar call. The origin of "I Shall Not Be Moved" dates back to the 19th century as a coded call of resistance among slaves, and was adapted as "We Shall Not Be Moved" during the civil rights era. Daniels and singers stirringly and convincingly embody its entire history as Steff's Muscle Shoals-inspired organ leads them on. "Jesus Is Waiting" is an original. Its haunted, bass-throbbing intro borrows from the Temptations' "I'm Losing You," before Daniels lays out a gritty gospel blues. His first-person protagonist prays to survive surgery after a serious car accident, and the song transforms into a stomping, affirmative anthem to God's healing and compassion. While the nugget "Glory Glory" could inspire a rocking tent revival, "Church Get Ready" is an outlier. Offered at midtempo, it's a call-and-response meditation about the Bible's promised return of Christ, the triumph of eternal life over death, and the healing of all afflictions. No matter your beliefs, the song will lift you up. Accompanied only by Steff's B-3 organ, Daniels and his singers offer raw, powerful expressions of gratitude in closer "Thank You Lord." Whatever You Need is a stellar example of not only Daniels' prowess as a singer and musician, but of his conviction that Southern Black gospel music remains the fertile ground where spiritual inspiration meets and informs the grit, gristle, and struggle of everyday life. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
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