deep soul classic

James Carr - 1966 - You Got My Mind Messed Up
James Carr was working on an assembly line, making tables, in Tennessee when he began recording for Goldwax Records. This is his first album and in my opinion his greatest. He would record one more follow-up album, A Man Needs a Woman, before his bipolar disorder began to interfere too much with his career and he was forced into retirement (that is, until the 1990s when he recorded two "comeback" albums). He later died in 2001, in a Tennessee nursing home, at the age of 58.

This album is the real deal--dripping with raw passion and grit. It's nothing short of outstanding in its emotional depth and soul. An essential album in anyone's collection. If you listen to this album from beginning to end and you are not moved, it probably means you're a robot.