But the most appropriate of all may be "The Survivor." It's not simply that Womack has managed to recover his psychic, spiritual and physical health after a period when he was about as far down and out as it's possible to go.  No question that that's important to a man who's seen so many of the people he loved drawn under by drugs, violence and despair.  But there's no questions that the most important part of Womack's survival has been his ability to add new chapters to one of the most fascinating musical stories of its time.

It's a story that began when Womack took the stage with a family gospel group in his native Cleveland and has continued into the nineties when film audiences rediscovered Bobby's masterpiece "Across 110th Street" on the soundtrack of Jackie Brown.  But the center of the story has been Bobby's music.  It began with the great songs of the sixties and seventies: "It's All Over Now", "Looking for a Love", "woman's Gotta Have It', "It's a Midnight Mover", "You're Welcome, Stop on By", "That's the Way I Feel bout Cha", "Love Has Finally Come at Last", and "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much".  It continued into the eighties with The Poet and The Poet II - which match the quality of his classic seventies albums Communication and Understanding.  And Bobby kept the story moving in nineties with the underground classic Resurrection, which featured performances by the Stones, Stevie Wonder, Gerald Albright and Scott McKinetry from Journey.

Womack's life has been a fascinating mixture of hard times and triumphs.  He has had close-up view of the tragic murder of Sam Cooke in a South Central L.A. motel; he watched as Jimi, Janis and Marvin Gaye got swept away, and Sly descended into silence.  He has had to deal with the murder of a brother and the suicide of a son.  at the start of the nineties, after the break up of his second marriage, he found himself literally out on the streets.  Today, happily remarried, he acknowledges his own part in what happened.  "I won't lie, "he says, "I ain't been no saint.  It could have been me instead of Marvin up on the that night shift."

There were enough good moments to make it worthwhile.  Womack sat with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and James Brown in the backrooms of the Apollo Theater; listened while Eric Clapton showed Aretha Franklin that a white boy could play the blues.  He's hung out with the Stones and partied with Rod Steward and Wilson Pickett.  He's testified to the power of love and the Lord with Patti LaBelle and gospel legend Claude Jeter of the Swan Silvertones.  He has traded musical secrets with the Jazz Crusaders, Gabor Szabo and George Benson; with Tony Bennett, Neil Diamond and Chips Moman (the architect of Southern soul).

Through it all, Womack has held close to the  musical vision he learned from Sam Cooke.  It's a vision that combines the social insight of "Across 110th Street" and "Arkansas State Prison" with a deep awareness of the complexities of love; no soul man has ever had a better sense of the female point of view.  But most of all, it's a vision grounded in Womack's unyielding determination to connect directly with audience.  "You can't mail your voice in, "he insists.  "You can either put a song across or you can't.  Some things should should never change when it comes to touching the heart.  The whole thing is to make music feel real.  It's always gonna  go back to that.

It's an approach that continues to attract enthusiastic crowds to Womack's concerts at major venues including L..A.'s Greet Theater and Chicago's United Center.  Among European audiences, he's remained a legend.  Recently, Womack completed work on  video retrospective on his career.  Accompanied only by a piano, bass and his own guitar, Bobby sag and told the fascinating stories behind his songs.  In between concert appearances, he's been back in the studio where he has just finished work on a stirring version of Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and "Time Heals All Wounds", which he considers one of the best songs he has ever written.

At a time when soul music seems primed for a long overdue renaissance, the time is right for Bobby Womack's return to the spotlight. No one is in a better position to let both longtime soul fans and a new generation of listeners looking for a real thing in on the secret of soul.  "I sing my life, "Womack says simply. "Once I've sung a song, that's what happened that day and I'm goin' on with life." Clearly, the song is nowhere near its end.