Bill Withers - Just As I Am

"…This doesn't sound like a debut because it is backed up by years of song writing and a mature, soulful voice that is honest and warm. This is a superb album for the quality of songs, singing and a backing that contained Stephen Stills (guitar), Donald 'Duck' Dunn (bass) and Jim Keltner (drums) among others…This is a beautiful sounding LP and Speakers Corner has done a superb job as ever. Bill's Greatest Hits sounds pale by comparison." Recording = 9/10; Music = 10/10 – Jason Kennedy, Hi-Fi+, Issue 56

By the time Bill Withers made this, his debut recording, he'd already served for many years in the US Navy, had a job as a milkman and installed toilets in jets for American airplane construction companies. All the while, he bombarded record companies with self-produced demo tapes that landed in the dustbin. In 1971 came his breakthrough when the successful producer Booker T. Jones hauled him onboard and sent him into the studio with guitarist Stephen Stills, drummer Al Jackson and bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn. In his debut album, Withers demonstrates his universal, mature competence as a singer, composer and performer, which was hardly surpassed in his later recordings.