A Piece of Your Soul
A Piece of Your Soul is the second album by the American blues rock band Storyville, released in 1996. It was chosen as the album of the year at the Austin Music Awards. The album peaked at No. 5 on "Billboard"'s Blues Albums chart; it remained on the chart for more than half a year. Its first single was "Good Day for the Blues", which was a radio hit. Storyville promoted the album by opening for the Allman Brothers Band on some West Coast tour dates. Production. The album was produced by David Z.  All five bandmembers contributed to the songwriting; fellow Austin musicians, including Doyle Bramhall II, helped as well. Reese Wynans played organ on "A Piece of Your Soul". Compared to the debut, frontman Malford Milligan's work on the album was influenced more by soul music than by the blues. Critical reception. The "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" called the album "a broad and colorful pallet of soulful laments ('Don't Make Me Cry'), hard-driving rockers ('Bitter Rain'), and bluesy ballads ('Blind Side')." "The Indianapolis Star" wrote: "A little blues, a little country, a little R&B, a little gospel ... Storyville handles  all the elements masterfully." The "Sun Sentinel" labeled "Don't Make Me Cry" "a slow burn of desert rat guitar and lazy back-beat drums." "The Baltimore Sun" determined that the album's best songs "use the blues vocabulary to express some decidedly non-traditional ideas." The "Austin American-Statesman" concluded that "though "A Piece of Your Soul" doesn't hold up well to critical analysis, with such well-worn titles as 'Solid Ground', 'Blind Side' and 'Luck Runs Out' providing a road map to the commonplace, there's no denying how good it sounds." AllMusic deemed it "a gritty  Texas blues record, but it's delivered with enough rock & roll savvy to crossover into the mainstream."