Warm Passion From Nevilles, Toussaint

Movie theaters aren’t the only places where you’ve got to be wary of sequels. Record stores, too, can sometimes sting you by trying to cash in on poorly designed Volume Twos or even Volume Threes of successful “greatest hits� or “best of� collections.

So, it’s understandable if all those pop fans who were enthralled five years ago by “Treacherous,� Rhino Records’ excellent two-disc retrospective of the Neville Brothers, approach the new “Treacherous, Volume Two� with some skepticism.

This wariness may be compounded by the fact that the Nevilles aren’t one of those groups with a lot of pop-chart success. In fact, only one record with the Neville name ever broke into the national Top 40, at least prior to Aaron Neville’s recent duets with Linda Ronstadt. And that record--Aaron Neville’s classic 1966 ballad “Tell It Like It Is�--was included in the original “Treacherous.�

But don’t let either the absence of the Nevilles from the pop charts or the fear of sequels mislead you. Carl Perkins had only one Top 40 record (“Blue Suede Shoes�) and he’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Nevilles have assembled a far more wide-ranging body of work over the years--more than enough to justify a second volume.

Unlike the first “Treacherous,� Volume Two is a single disc--just 18 songs--but it, too, exudes a warm sense of musical celebration and passion. The material ranges from “Your Time’s Up,� an R&B; tale of romantic revenge featuring a lead vocal by Art Neville and released under the group name the Hawketts, to “Drift Away,� a 1987 reworking of the Dobie Gray hit.

Six of the tracks on “Treacherous, Volume Two� were produced by Allen Toussaint, the widely admired New Orleans songwriter-arranger-producer whose own recording career is saluted in an album from by Reprise Records.

Toussaint’s own recordings--16 of which are included in “The Allen Toussaint Collection�--have been as scarce on the pop charts as the records of the Nevilles, but the music carries an original and appealing stamp.

Rather than the scorching soul associated with Stax Records or the aggressive pop of Motown, Toussaint’s style is built around a smoother, more sophisticated approach that is consistently fresh and inventive. It’s a unique vision that has led such pop hotshots as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon and the Band to his door for assistance on records.

Of the songs in “Collection,� the two best known are probably “Southern Nights,� a No. 1 hit when re-recorded by Glen Campbell in 1977, and “What Do You Want the Girl to Do,� which Boz Scaggs redid for his breakthrough “Silk Degrees� album in 1976.