From Soul Express 2/2005

INTRODUCING … ARCHIE LOVE

  Sincerely Yours (J.E.A. Music/Right Now Records; ‘05) is produced by Archie himself and Sam Fallie.  ”That’s my masterpiece.  That’s my baby.  I co-wrote that with a very good friend of mine and a writer, Mr. Sam Fallie.  He complemented that so well that after the first song it took us only six weeks to make the whole album.”

  ”J.E.A./Right Now Records is currently owned by James Alexander and Larry Dodson of the Bar-Kays.  James is JEA and Larry is Right Now, and they merged.”  The Bar-Kays’ latest CD, The Real Thing, with some fine vocal performances from Shirley Brown and J. Blackfoot was released on the very same label in 2003.

  For package and creative direction and photography one Lillie Love is credited.  ”That’s my wife.  She’s, what we call, a hobby photographer.  I tried to convince her to pursue it professionally.” 

  Archie together with Ann Hines (our interview with her appeared already in our # 5/93 issue) has been backing up J. Blackfoot (we’ve talked to him for our # 6/93 and # 5/95 issues) for many years not only on stage but also on his recent recordings, such as Reality, Stealing Love, Having An Affair and Same Time, Same Place.  Archie has also worked on Ricky B’s and Furious D’s CD’s.  Now J. Blackfoot, aka John Colbert, is doing a duet with Archie on the opening track, a mid-paced toe-tapper with an impressive vocal interplay, called Same Woman.  ”We’re such good friends that when I’m in the studio writing he’s always there to lend a hand.”  John had appeared on one of Archie’s records earlier, on My Only Girl in the early 90s.  One of the writers on Same Woman is E Z Roc.  ”He’s a keyboard player for the Bar-Kays and he has his own solo album.”

  Should’ve Been There For You is a pleading beat ballad and the current single.  “It was from a conversation we were having with a friend.”  One More Song For The Lonely is slow swayer with a blues & rock guitar behind it.  ”That is my favourite.  It’s a little bluesy, but the story is so relative.  A lot of people really got into this song.”

  After a vigorous party song called Hideaway we are treated to a slow two-timing song called Loving On Borrowed Time.  ”It’s the other side of the story.  They’re starting on this one as a new single.” 

  Disco Lady was the first platinum single certified by R.I.I.A. and was accomplished by Johnnie Taylor and Don Davis in 1976.  One of the writers was Harvey Scales.  Archie Love wanted to cover the song.  ”Johnnie Taylor was one of my mentors.  I had a chance to play with him for many years and I remember one concert we did with Johnnie, Tyrone Davis and J. Blackfoot at the Apollo Theater in New York.  That song never left me, and I felt that to do him homage I would do that song.”

  Following a bluesy beater called Who there’s a slowie titled I’m So In Love With You with some Sir Charles Jones influences on it and with our favourite instrument, the vocoder, on the background.  ”That was an experiment.”  Thank You For The Memories is an attractive, pretty and melodic slow song.  ”Me and Sam wrote that song for my wife.  We’ve had so many happy memories together that I just had to put it in a song, and Sam did excellent job in writing that song.”

  Archie Lee Love was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1958 to the family of four sisters and four brothers.  The Love Sisters formed a local gospel quartet but didn’t do any recordings.  Archie names Al Green, B.B. King, Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis his early influences.  ”I was a music mature in school, and one thing led to another.  I had a great love for music.”

  In the 70s Archie moved to Memphis.  ”My first recording was with a group called Freedom Express called Stolen Pleasures (on Spirit 778 in ‘81).  It was a local Memphis label.  My next recording was with a group called The Main Attraction with the RCA label.  Some of us back-up musicians became real close, until we decided ‘well, we might do this on our own’.  We recorded some music and there you have All The Way” (on RCA in ‘86).  One song from that album, Reconsidered, evolved into a small hit (# 69-black) in ‘86.  ”It introduced us to a lot of new people in the music industry.  I was able to further my career with recordings because of that.”

  In The Main Attraction Archie was a co-lead with Eric Shotwell.  ”Eric has a studio and he’s producing right now.”  Tony DeCarlos Black was a keyboard player.  ”Tony works in a casino chain as a music director.  Roosevelt Nickelberry is currently on tour with a blues artist called O.B. Buchana.  Jerry Askew has his own retro group doing a lot of Sam Cooke and all those things.”

  The group was cut down to three (Archie, Eric and Tony) for the Right Choice album on Motown.  ”We did a remake of Tired Of Being Alone by Al Green (# 13-black in ‘88).  We recorded the Right Choice album at the Oceanways Studios in California.  I’ve reunited with Mr. Berry Gordy, because he distributes the label I’m on now.”

  ”After that album I went solo.  I left because I wanted to do a solo album.  The first thing from that album was a single called Love Signs on Tam Records Avenue” (in 1991).  The album, All My Love, came later, and we had an EP from that album.  The next one was Exposed on Soul Street Records” (in 2002).  Archie’s current, third solo album, Sincerely Yours, with a live guitar, bass, and keyboards but drum programming is a pleasant enough southern indie record with many nice tracks on it and with some impressive vocalizing, at times even raspy, from Archie.