NO. 9.(The Talk of the Town; microphone used to record vocalist Al Green)(Interview)

Recently, Blue Note released "I Can't Stop," the Reverend Al Green's first secular album in almost a decade, and only his second recording with the producer Willie Mitchell since 1976. The songs that Green collaborated on with Mitchell in the early seventies, including "Let's Stay Together" and "Love and Happiness," are some of the most stirring soul recordings ever made. These days, Green, who has been the pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis since 1976, tends to credit his worldly successes to the Lord, but Mitchell knows better. "The reason Al has to come back to me, the reason that he sounds so good when he gets in my studio, is because of No. 9," Mitchell said the other day, from his home in Memphis.

"Man, Willie, he's talking too much," Green said. He was in his car, speaking on a cell phone, his voice loud and raspy. "He's giving away our secret recipe. That's our eleven herbs and spices. We need to keep that under wraps."

No. 9 is the microphone that Mitchell first used to record Green, more than three decades ago. He hasn't allowed anyone to sing into it since. "Willie loves that mike, man, he does," Green said. "It sounds full and it sounds wholesome. Every time I come down there, he takes No. 9 down off the shelf and out of that same box and polishes it just like a baby.

"I'm not learned in sound. But I know that we got some magic going. Like on 'Ayyyyyyyyye, I'm so in loooove with yooouuuuu' "--Al Green on the line, ladies and gentlemen--"I sing like that, in his studio on that mike, and Willie tells me, 'Now, that's what Al Green sounds like. Damn.' 'Let's' "--an encore!--" 'let's stay together. Lovin' you whether, whether times are good or bad, happy or sad.' Now, that's Al Green."

"When I first ...