Alabama songwriter Dan Penn spent his formative musical years out of the limelight, penning successful songs for acts that ranged from soul legends Aretha Franklin and Solomon Burke to country legend Ronnie Milsap, as well as the Box Tops' biggest '60's hits, "The Letter" and "Cry Like a Baby." This 1994 sophomore release of Penn as performer came a mere 31 years after his solo bow. Recorded in the familiar confines of Muscles Shoals studios, where so many of Penn's songs were turned into R&B legend over the decades, it's nonetheless a brave album that finds Penn's loose, low-key vocal charms offering good-natured lesser-known works such as "Memphis Women and Chicken," while also challenging a few more familiar hits with an insider's attention to nuance and subtlety. "I'm Your Puppet" is stripped of James and Bobby Purify's precious pop sheen, while "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Dark End of the Street" become soulful confessionals.