This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Not many singers leave a four-decade gap between their first single and their debut CD. Of course, Nathaniel Mayer is not like many other singers. Not by a long shot.
Amazingly, the Detroit soul man who cut the cult hit Village of Love in 1964 hasn’t lost a step on I Just Want To Be Held, a short-fused firecracker of a disc. Gifted with a sandpapery rasp that’s equal parts old Captain Beefheart and young James Brown, the 60-year-old Mayer kicks butt and takes names like a man 40 years his junior. And to make things even better, on these 10 cuts he does it while a scrappy band bash out crunchy little nuggets of groovy garage-soul and punky R&B, spiked with honking horns and percolating Hammond lines for a dash of soul nostalgia and authenticity. I, for one, am already looking forward to his sophomore album — which oughta be due sometime around, what, 2044?
