If your lucky, once or twice in a decade, a CD will come along that makes you drop whatever your doing, turn off the ball game, cancel the trip to the health club and let the sink overflow. This reissue mes amis is such an item. Spencer Wiggins was a labelmate of James Carr at Goldwax in Memphis, and he waxed a clutch of well-crafted deep soul sides in the late 1960s. Unmistakably gospel trained, Wiggins (brother of Percy Wiggins, another fine recording artist) was a product of the Memphis soul club circuit.

Mysteriously, none of his singles charted, but they stand along side of the best sides recorded by Carr, Otis Redding, William Bell or O. V. Wright. Raw emotion made Wiggins’ singles (he never had an album) appealing, as he sounded as if he lived every song he recorded. This is especially evident on the opening track, “Once In A While (Is Better Than Not At All),” a tale of hit-and-run, cheating lovers. Loneliness and failed romance is the theme of “Old Friend (You Ask Me If I Miss Her),” a record that was very big in New Orleans, which garnered Wiggins numerous gigs at the ILA on Claiborne Avenue. Misery and desperation weren’t Wiggins only companion, though, as he musters hope on, “Poor Man’s Son” and humor on “He Too Old.” Wiggins was also able to cover a song and turn it into his own vehicle and he does this on “Sweet Sixteen” and “I Never Loved a Woman (The Way I Love You)” the male take on Aretha’s hit. The arrangements and band behind Wiggins are simply brilliant, driving Wiggins constantly, but he always delivers. If you’ve got even an ounce of soul in your body, you’ll realize in an instant Wiggins is the real deal.