Martha Reeves - Searching (Vinyl)

Standard Vinyl LP

This is the standard vinyl LP of Searching, Martha Reeves's first album in twenty-two years and her first since Home to You in 2004. The LP carries eleven tracks, six on side A and five on side B, closing with a bonus version of "To Know You Is to Love You." Deko Music issues it alongside an indie-exclusive purple vinyl edition and a CD.

The album was produced in New Orleans by Delfeayo Marsalis and Chris Roe, Reeves's manager. Speaking to Tone Glow, the team described three recording sessions between November 2023 and early 2025, with Reeves flying to New Orleans for each, and a band of session players who had toured with B.B. King and Allen Toussaint. The release notes describe chamber-jazz accompaniment, horns and a restrained rhythm section, mixing standards with material from Reeves's own archive.

The standards include "Mood Indigo," "God Bless the Child" and "Summertime." "To Know You Is to Love You," written by Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright, was issued as the first single. "I Got It Bad" is an unreleased Motown-era recording that surfaced on a 2005 box set; Reeves told Tone Glow it was written by Mickey Stevenson, co-writer of "Dancing in the Street." She wrote "Watch Your Back" herself, picturing her mother at the front door as her father left for work. "Nobody's telling me what to sing or how to sing," she said of the sessions, "and I know music."

Reeves was born in Eufaula, Alabama, in 1941 and came to Motown in Detroit through William "Mickey" Stevenson, who first had her answering the phones at Hitsville USA. She sang lead in Martha Reeves and the Vandellas on "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave," "Quicksand," "Dancing in the Street," "Nowhere to Run" and "Jimmy Mack." The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, "Dancing in the Street" entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and Reeves served on the Detroit City Council from 2005 to 2009 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Intro
2. To Know You Is to Love You
3. Searching
4. Watch Your Back
5. Mood Indigo
6. I Got It Bad

Side B

7. God Bless the Child
8. Summertime
9. The Golden Hour
10. Thank You, Jesus!
11. To Know You Is to Love You (Bonus Version)