Preacher's Passion, Showman's Instincts
By JON PARELES, nytimes.com

Solomon Burke made his presence known before he stepped onstage at Joe's Pub on Thursday night. A golden throne sat among his musicians, and Mr. Burke's voice came through a wireless microphone, moaning a blues about lost love and soul food. He was wearing a cowboy hat when he settled his considerable bulk into his throne and took charge of his band, calling for the horn section to play without microphones in the small room.

Now and then he sang without a microphone as well, letting his voice swell to fill the club.

Mr. Burke is a definitive soul singer, testifying his way through songs with a preacher's fervor and a showman's timing. The bite of his early-1960's soul hits, like "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" and "Cry to Me," was directly imitated by a young Mick Jagger, though Mr. Burke had more nuance then and now. He has repeatedly moved between gospel and secular music, and he has been an undertaker and the bishop of a network of 168 churches. Mr. Burke is now in his 60's; his voice and charisma are undiminished.

He can be conversational or overpowering; he can summon drollery or desperation. Every line of a song becomes a small drama of confidences and crescendos, of pauses and payoffs, of gliding lines and percussive interjections. He purred low notes, casually scat-sang, swooped operatically upward or chopped a phrase into individual words. As he sang, he also commented between the lines, stepping back from the song only to plunge back into it with undiminished conviction.

His New York appearances coincide with the release of "Don't Give Up on Me" (Fat Possum/Epitaph), an album of previously unreleased songs written by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and others. He got around to two of them on Thursday: the pleas and promises of the title song, by the Memphis soul songwriter Dan Penn, and Van Morrison's "Fast Train," about temptation and survival. Between songs Mr. Burke preached the secret to marriage ("No matter how wrong your wife may be, she is always right") and enumerated his 21 children, 64 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. He handed out red roses to female admirers.

The tight schedule at Joe's Pub limited Mr. Burke's leisurely set. He got around to country songs turned obsessional — "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Down in the Valley" — and to soul ballads like "Beautiful Brown Eyes," which he updated by mentioning a cellphone.

But his time ran out as he turned uptempo with "Everybody Needs Somebody," not quite completing the arc with the full-scale, gospel-charged finale that was certainly in him.

Thanks to Martin Foyle