William Bell: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

September 6, 2016 by RACHEL HORN When we invited William Bell to the Tiny Desk, we looked forward to witnessing part of a veteran soul hitmaker s journey back to the spotlight. Bell is known for writing and performing several of the R B classics that emerged from Memphis Stax Records in the 1960s, You Don t Miss Your Water and Everybody Loves A Winner among them. After decades away from Stax and away from sizable record labels entirely he returned to his old label home earlier this year to release This Is Where I Live. So we were ready to be won over by Bell s rich, expressive voice and bandleader s charm; we were prepared for emotionally dense songs that say a lot in only a few words. We just didn t expect so much yellow. Bell, who s 77 and now makes his home in Atlanta, worked suavely through two new songs from This Is Where I Live. The title track follows an autobiographical structure common among soul singers of a certain age (see: Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Aaron Neville). It narrates the