Books one brought to southern soul singer? (4)
I believe the answer is:
otis
'soul singer?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'books one brought to southern' is the wordplay.
'books' becomes 'OT' (Old Testament).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'brought to' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'ot'+'i'+'s'='OTIS'
(Other definitions for otis that I've seen before include "Lift man" , "Miss -- Regrets, Cole Porter song" , "---- Redding, 1941-67, soul singer" , "- - Redding (soul music star)" , "Company providing lifts" .)