Bill Withers

Withers was in his thirties when Just As I Am and Ain't No Sunshine established him as a recording artist in 1971. Years in the Navy and factory work preceded that public breakthrough, with songwriting developing around ordinary employment. Booker T. Jones's production helped put the songs before a large audience, but their concise emotional language was already distinctive. The debut is the essential starting point: it reveals a fully formed perspective arriving in public without the usual story of a teenage star's ascent.