Now! was actually comprised largely of 1967-1968 singles, filled out by three cuts which made their first appearance on this LP. It's loosey-goosey late-'60s blues-soul crossover, with a sassy attitude and adroit combinations of stinging blues guitar, strutting vocals, soulful horns, and organ, never heard better than on "I'm a Drifter." Actually, the record sounds better than much of his slightly earlier '60s Kent stuff because it's not as unduly repetitious, though it's filled out with cover versions of familiar tunes like "Funky Broadway," "Let's Go Get Stoned," and "Everyday I Have the Blues." Perhaps it wasn't cutting edge as far as late-'60s soul went, but it had some of the rawness of '50s electric blues and some of the slickness of late-'60s soul brass, and B.B. King-like horn charts, and the combination usually clicked. All of the tracks from Now! are on the Ace CD compilation The Final Kent Years, which also includes his 1978 album Lovemaker, a 1972 single, and three previously unissued cuts from around the time of the Now! sessions.
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