Published on Apr 24, 2000
If Little Willie G. sounds familiar, you probably grew up in the
’60s with his band Thee Midniters and their cover of “Land Of 1,000
Dances.” But times changed, and Willie Garcia went from being
considered one of the best Chicano singers from east Los Angeles to
a man who faced off against his own personal demons and came out on
top. Now an ordained minister, Garcia makes a return to the world
of secular music (with maybe just a smidgen of religion thrown in
from time to time) with
Make Up For The Lost Time.
The title of this disc is rather strange, as you can hear the
roots of Garcia’s musical experience — ’60s r&b/soul — in
almost every track on this disc. Garcia tries to make the music
from his time sound relevant for 2000 — and while the music does
have a crispness to it, you can’t help but think you’ve heard this
all before.
Some of it, of course, you have. There is the Bobby
Womack/Harold Payne-penned track “A World Where No One Cries” that
closes the album. There’s the Aretha Franklin/Ted White composition
“Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream” that Garcia nimbly puts his own
signature on.
But what’s interesting is that the song closest to Garcia’s
roots, “Cultura,” is the best work on
Make Up For The Lost Time. Performed in Spanish, it truly
allows Garcia to revel in his Latino heritage, and the song exudes
an absolute joy that can only be experienced by listening to
it.
That’s not to say that other tracks on this disc aren’t worthy
of your attention. The album opener “Open The Door To Your Heart”
kicks things off well, raising the spirits of the listener and
getting them excited about the music that is to come.
Likewise,tracks like “Come Back Baby” and “Here I Go Again” have
similar effects.
Where
Make Up For The Lost Time eventually stumbles is in two
areas. First, while there is an attempt by Garcia to bring his
sound into the new millenium, tracks like “It’ll Never Be Over For
Me,” “To Be With You” and the title track all sound like they could
have been lifted from any r&b/soul album from the late
’60s-early ’70s. They all have a very Bobby Womack-like sound to
them – and I was hoping for a little more originality.
Second, while this is supposed to be a secular album, Garcia
makes sure he works a little religion into the mix, though he
wisely refrains from turning tracks like “Joy In The Palace,” “(I
Wanna) Testify” and “These Hands (Small But Mighty)” into pure
gospel. There’s enough lyrical ambiguity where you could think
Garcia was singing about the love of a woman. (In all fairness,
only “Joy In The Palace” was even co-written by Garcia.)
Make Up For The Lost Time might be welcomed by some people,
but it’s kind of strange that, for the bulk of the disc, Garcia
tries to live up to the title by musically picking up where he left
off. In retrospect, this might not have been the best move he could
have made.