Blue-Eyed Soul and Brown-Eyed Rock: Macy Gray and Shelby Lynne

TEN YEARS AGO I found myself sitting in a London hotel with Tommy Couch, boss of Malaco Records, a Mississippi label which was busy resuscitating the flagging careers of such R&B and soul veterans as Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Johnnie Taylor and Denise LaSalle. At one point in the conversation I asked Couch what he thought of Seven Year Itch, the comeback album Etta James had recently recorded for Island with producer Barry Beckett.