Soul singer Mighty Sam McClain knows what it's like to inflame a crowd at the Apollo Theater – and to pick through trash for his supper. McClain's saga since the mid-'60s, when his cover of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" put him on the gravy train for a few years, has been a hard-luck story. Lost in the music-business shuffle, he took a long ride down, bottoming out on the streets of New Orleans in 1982. Dogged persistence and vocal prowess got McClain through, and he has reassembled the bare bones of a career, mostly gigging in the Northeast to make the monthly rent on his spartanlike digs in Boston's student-heavy Fenway neighborhood.

Now, at 50, he's made his first studio album. Buddy Guy and the late Arthur Alexander are getting all the fuss, but it's Give It Up to Love that's the R&B comeback of the year. From the redclay rumble that pours out of his belly to the angelic melisma that glides him into "Got to Have Your Love," the Louisiana-born McClain comes off as the great torchbearer of deep soul, that beautiful Southern sound perfected by Otis Redding and Bobby "Blue" Bland.

McClain joyfully labors in their shadow. On "Here I Go Falling in Love Again," he sings like Redding's long-lost brother, deliberately constricting his range. And he happily admits that the guttural asides he uses to drive a phrase dead into your heart are a direct cop from his idol Bland. What puts McClain in the spotlight is his sheer power and empathy for lyrics. He'll squeeze each syllable of a heartbreaker like Carlene Carter's lamentation "Too Proud" until it pops like a geode, revealing every sparkle of humanity that goes into building a life for two, only to see it collapse.

Another thing that has pulled McClain through poverty's storm is his frequent conversations with the Lord – fitting, since he began singing in his mother's gospel choir at age 4. The dialogue continues. McClain prays for strength and the gift of love; the Maker responds on "Child of the Mighty Mighty," channeling "Keep your eyes on me/Lean on me" into McClain's ad libs at song's end. Now it's up to God to deliver, because with Give It Up to Love, McClain certainly has.

Give It Up to Love is available from Audioquest Music, Box 30601, San Clemente, CA 92674. (RS 667)

TED DROZDOWSKI