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They say they don't make 'em like they used to, but in one case they sure do: Leela James' new album Let's Do it Again (Shanachie) is a throwback to the gritty glory days of Ann Peebles and Betty Wright - whose "Clean Up Woman" leads off the record - James and her band cut live in four days.

Also featuring a script-flipping versions of James Brown's "This Is a Man's World," the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" and Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," it's the best pure soul record Rocks Off has heard in a long, long while. James' next album of original material is due early next year on Concord/Stax Records, the perfect label for this latter-day soul shouter.The South Central L.A. native, who moved to Houston a couple of years ago, visited the Press office earlier this week.

Rocks Off: How is your original material different from what's on this record?

Leela James: It's original, so in that sense it's different. A lot of it is written by myself and some of the other people I work with. It's still very soulful. I'm a soul singer, I'm a singer with soul, so you get the soul. I would say the main difference is it's original, because you're still going to get a lot of the same elements. Maybe not as much live instrumentation as on the Shanachie project, because that was just myself and my band. It was all live.