"I’ll Get Along Somehow" - Ruth Brown
Recorded in New York, May 25, 1949
Another vocal jazz ballad from Ruth Brown, so those expecting something like "Teardrops From My Eyes" or "5-10-15 Hours" need to be a bit more patient. At this point, the label was still playing it safe, and since "So Long" was quite a commercial success (#6 on the R&B charts), they were going to have Ruth sing a couple more songs like it. The bad news is that "I'll Get Along Somehow" does not have the same level of vocal invention as its predecessor, which is not really her fault: the song itself does not lend itself to much diversity of emotional expression.
Yet, Ruth can bring so much energy to her performances that she can make these stiff standards sound fresh and alive, burning with a believable passion that we normally expect from the likes of Nina Simone nearly a decade later. Even if this sort of music puts you to sleep, the song's ending alone is worth the whole trip: a massive vocal blowout where Ruth sustains those final notes to leave a crater in her listener's mind. In a way, she is already singing and performing with the mindset of a soul singer, ditching the restraint of the pre-war generation for deeply personal, gritty, and honest deliveries. That's what makes these early songs of hers still quite treasurable: her vocal inspiration, confidence, and versatility are all there, but since the material given is not to her strengths, she bends and forces them to obey her command. No wonder, in less than a year, Ruth Brown would get those tough and kickass R&B songs that she was born to sing.
Verdict: Excellent
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