By Matt Wild
What does it mean when a musician releases an eponymous album decades into their career? For Milwaukee music icon Paul Cebar, it apparently means that the album is his best work yet.
Cebar’s 40-plus-year history in Milwaukee music could fill volumes. There’s his role as ambassador and hep-cat conduit for vintage R&B, soul, roots, and Afro-Caribbean music. There’s his work with The R&B Cadets, the Milwaukeeans, and Tomorrow Sound. There’s his constant presence at Summerfest and every other Fest on the Milwaukee summer calendar. And there’s his “Way Back Home” show on 91.7 WMSE, celebrating 35 years in 2025. “Paul is such an inspiration to me, and he’s such a great artist himself,” Bonnie Raitt said at a 2023 Riverside Theater show, “but man, that radio show, I listen to it every week. It’s killer.”
Which brings us to the eponymous Paul Cebar, Cebar’s first full-length record since 2014’s Fine Rude Thing. It’s just as wide-ranging and globally attuned as the man himself. The one-two opening punch of “When We Sing” and “We Sure Got Enough” is deliriously jubilant, Cebar at his most soulful and get-up-and-dance crowd-pleasing. “We bring a lot together when we sing,” he croons on the former song (originally written for The Blind Boys Of Alabama.) There’s real joy emanating from these tracks.
Elsewhere, the lovely “Sunday Ride” mellows things out for an autumnal road trip, while “Keep On (Lookin’ Like That)” goes full doo-wop. Want some early Elvis Costello-esque garage rock? There’s the terrific “Didn’t Bring It Up.” Want some ’60s-esque folk? Try “If You Lead Me.” How about a little reggae? Stick around for “Hold Out Hope.” Want all of the above mixed into one potent cocktail of genre-spanning songwriting and musicianship? Go ahead and enjoy the rest of the album. (“Back In The Wind” is a rough-and-tumble highlight, and acoustic closer “Dreaming Back” is both heavenly and heartbreaking.)
Paul Cebar features a stellar cast of supporting players from past projects (Mike Fredrickson, Reggie Bordeaux, Bob Jennings), old friends from New Orleans (Derek Huston, Charlie Halloran), a new collaborators from Chicago (Doug Corcoran, Scott Ligon, producer/engineer Alex Hall). But it’s the man behind the record’s name who serves as the main attraction: impossibly eclectic, impossibly cool, his voice smooth and warm and full of life.
“This one’s really where I’m at. This is me,” Cebar says of the album. We’re lucky to have it. We’re lucky to have him.