DEEP #1/2025 (April)

 Please find below my review of a new album by a soul-blues singer and harmonica player and a frequent visitor to Europe, Tad Robinson, and a new book by the most recorded background vocalist in the history of black music, Carla L. Benson. Both reviews are supported by interviews.

TAD ROBINSON

 Tad: “When you start out in the blues world, you’re basically trying to imitate your heroes. But the longer you’ve been in the music, then you realize you need to find your own sound. This new record explores different styles. I think I have just learned to be myself and not try to sound like anyone else, but still paying my dues to the traditions of the music, to understand whose music it is and where this music came from. I’m just a journeyman. I’m still out here trying to learn. I’m a student of the music and a fan of the music, more now than I ever was. I try to find my own niche and my own place in the music.”

Tad’s eighth solo album titled Soul in Blue! (Delmark 887) will be released on May 2, 2025. Prior to that in the 1990s he had released two solo albums on Delmark Records. Tad: “I had done five albums with Severn Records in Maryland and I loved the opportunity that David Earl gave me working there. I had great experiences. After the pandemic I started to get interested in doing a new record, but I thought that perhaps I would work closer to home, like in Chicago. So, I approached the new team at Delmark, the President Julia Miller and the artistic director Elbio Barilari. They thought it was a good idea, too, so we ended up switching over to Delmark, and they gave me a lot of creative freedom and we worked together to make the record.”

Tad Robinson. Photo courtesy of Rich Voorhees.

 Tad’s hometown is Greencastle in Indiana with a population around 10,000. “I’ve lived here for thirty years, but now I’m also spending time in North Carolina, where my granddaughters are. Greencastle is a small town. You can walk everywhere, and there’s not a lot of noise. I grew up in New York City and I lived in Chicago for ten years, so I’ve had the city life. For the last years, for quite a while, I’ve lived in a small town. I like cities and I like small towns. I do pretty well wherever I am. Indianapolis is less than an hour away, and that’s a million people, and I do a lot of music in Indianapolis.”

 Tad’s recording career was launched in the 1970s with the Hesitation Blues Band on an album titled Bring It in the Alley (on Jelly Roll Records in 1979). “That was a short-lived band here in Indiana many years ago, but we didn’t really do too much. We opened up for a lot of artists, so I learned a lot. That was my first stepping to the blues.” In the 80s and 90s, Tad had records released also with Big Shoulders and Dave Specter & the Bluebirds.

 Tad is known for touring a lot. “A lot of the work I do is right here in Indianapolis, so those gigs I do and come home and sleep in my own bed. I’m probably home half the time. Outside of the U.S., it’s mostly Western Europe. I’ve done a little in Eastern Europe and of course I do northern countries, Scandinavia. My agent Erkan Özdemir at Low Tone Music, and friends like Jaska Prepula in Finland and Knock-Out Greg Andersson out of the Scandinavian Blues Flames in Sweden have really helped me to get my music out all throughout Europe. Erkan has been working with me probably for about 15 years now. I think I’ve been to Finland four times. I love working with Jaska (bass), Jonne Kulluvaara (guitar) and Tomi Leino (guitar). Finnish blues scene is just so great.”

 “Some blues audiences have turned towards a lot of guitar orientated technique, and what I do is more about songs. I’m focused on songs as opposed to fast and loud guitar. The audience sometimes needs to be exposed to that more, because they’re used to guitar players running the show. I need to compete with that, and sometimes it’s hard to do that, just singing soul and quieter songs.”

Tad Robinson. Photo courtesy of Mark Sheldon.

KEEP IT IN THE VAULT

 “The opening track, Keep It in the Vault, is a song that I wrote about my wife Amy. She’s been always my best friend for many years and she is the person I trust most.” On this hammering blues-rocker Tomi Leino plays guitar. “We were playing the song in Europe together and Tomi began to play a part, and I thought ‘I need to have him play the song in the studio’, because he was playing a very cool, almost Stax label kind of accompaniment. I asked him to record it and he did. He plays the lead and he also plays the solo.” Other musicians on the track include Kevin Anker on keyboards, Paul Holdman on guitar, Brian Yarde on drums and David Murray on bass. This track along with five others were cut at Tranquility Base Studio in Indianapolis, whereas the rest four were cut at Delmark Riverside Studio in Chicago. All ten tracks were produced by Tad and Elbio Barilari.

 Out of Sight and Out of Mind is a slow and poignant soul-blues song with some strong background singing on the track. “They are Devin Thompson and Lorie Smith. Devin recorded an album for Severn (Tales of the Soul in 2020). I’ve known Devin for thirty years. We used to sing in Chicago together, and he’s still in Chicago. When I wrote that song, I thought that Devin could give it some amazing background parts. He did all the background vocals on my last Severn record, Real Street (in 2019). He brought in his friend Lorie Smith to do the backgrounds, which I think are just gorgeous.” Among other musicians on this track there are Chris Vitarello on rhythm guitar, Brandon Meeks on bass and Alberto Marsico on keyboards. Alberto is also one of the co-writers of the song with Tad and John P. Bean.

 Somewhere There’s a Train is a mid-tempo, easily flowing song with a memorable melody. “We kind of put that together with Alex Schultz, who plays guitar and bass, and Alberto Marsico. I wrote the song when I was in Europe and Alberto helped me put the finishing touches on it. He’s on organ and piano on that track.”

(I’M) DOWN TO MY LAST HEARTBREAK

 Deep soul music fans cherish Wilson Pickett’s early soul gem called I’m Down to My Last Heartbreak on Double-L Records in 1963, but here Tad does a sped-up version with the Delmark All-Stars: Roosevelt Purifoy Jr. on organ, Pooky Styx on drums, Larry Williams on bass, Carlos Showers and Mike Wheeler on guitar. “It’s kind of funky. My keyboard player Kevin Anker used to play with the Fabulous Thunderbirds for five or six years, and he also has played with Seth Walker and Delbert McClinton, among others. He kind of reharmonized it and gave it a groovy funkiness. We just didn’t want to copy Wilson Pickett straight out. We wanted to change it.”

 Deeper than You Think is the number one song for soul music fans on this set. This emotional ballad grows towards the end and it features horns – Mark Buselli on trumpet and Rick Cohen on tenor saxophone. “Steve Gomes is a bass player, who has worked with everybody, from T-Bone Walker to John Lee Hooker to the Thunderbirds. He wrote with me many of the tracks on my previous records. He wrote a beautiful song called Rained All Night, which actually received a nomination for the blues song of the year, when it came out (on Back in Style in 2010). He’s just a great writer and a great bass player, so I brought Steve in to record that song that we co-wrote. Kevin Anker wrote some of that as well, but Steve mostly came up with it. The interesting thing about it is that the vamp at the end is about the same length as the whole song. It’s a whole other section of the song. It tells the story.”

IT’S PRIVATE TONIGHT

 Of the ten songs on display, eight are new ones written either by Tad or cowritten by Tad with some of his fellow artists. The other two are covers, and alongside Wilson’s Heartbreak there’s a version of Arthur Adams’ fine ballad, It’s Private Tonight (on Chisa in 1969). “I think it’s just so beautiful. We didn’t really change much. I just love that song. That was the Delmark All-Stars in the studio in Chicago, and we recorded that live there.”

 Keep Your Heart Open for Love is Tad’s up-tempo blues-rock song. “I’m a singer, so I don’t really get caught up too much in categories. I sing whatever comes from my heart. Dave Specter plays wah-wah lead guitar on that. It’s a song with a message. I feel like I’m singing from the perspective of a person, who is being hunted, who is on the run. I felt like writing from the point of view of an immigrant, who is escaping persecution but then comes face to face with other people, who are also trying to persecute him in a new land.”

 Up in the Air is a quick-tempo, bouncing blues number. “I was thinking one day that nothing is solid, nothing is a sure thing. If you have a job, the next day you might not have a job, same with money. Everything is kind of ‘up in the air.’ Nothing is sure. The only thing consistent in my life is my family, and my wife. The only thing I can count on is her.”

 An easy bouncer titled Forgive and Forget leans more on the traditional blues. “It has the repeated line that is characteristic of 12-bar blues. Basically, it’s a straight up shuffle – like a typical Chicago shuffle that they play in clubs. We had a lot of fun with it.”

THIS TIME

 The concluding song named This Time is a softly swaying, atmospheric number. Geraldo De Oliveira plays congas on it. “That was a song that I wrote, and I wrote it on piano. It just kind of came to me. It has a classic soul kind of vibe. It’s just a love song.”

 Tad was raised during the classic soul era. “The voices that I heard, when I was young, were Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Gladys Knight… It wasn’t until later that I heard James Carr, O.V. Wright and Howard Tate. When I was younger, I was listening to the radio, so I heard people like Levi Stubbs and David Ruffin.”

 “Of today’s artists I like John Nemeth, Knock-Out Greg Andersson from Sweden, Johnny Rawls, and there’s a good singer named Greg Nagy; also, some of those blues guys like D.K. Harrel and Sugaray Rayford.”

 “I’m 68 years old. I feel like I’ve been very blessed to do what I’ve been able to do, travel the world singing my own songs. I cherish all the friends that I’ve made worldwide. That’s been a real blessing. My hope for this new record is that people will like it and the door will be open for me to do more gigs. I don’t expect an earthquake of support, but I think that the Delmark label is really loved and respected. I’m really happy to represent the music on their label, and I just want to keep doing what I do. I’m not slowing down. I still have skin in the game.”

https://tadrobinson.com/

(Interview conducted on April 17, 2025; acknowledgements to Tad Robinson and Kevin Johnson).

BLACK BOOKCASE

JOURNEY INTO LOVE

 The very name of the author, Carla L. Benson, may lead some soul music fans to believe that now we can read about hidden incidents on the Philly music scene, details about creative processes, about studio sessions, rehearsals, world-famous artists, musicians and perhaps even about some scandalous and shocking liaisons that have been kept as a secret up to this point – and to a degree, that assumption holds true. However, Carla’s book, Journey into Love (450 pages; ISBN 979-8-9920370-6-7), doesn’t delve into music very deeply, but instead concentrates on dealings and relations between three women, who have known each other ever since their childhood days in Camden, New Jersey, and who became leading ladies in their line of work in the 1970s. Known as The Sweethearts of Sigma – Tom Moulton came up with the name – or later simply The Sweeties, Carla Benson, Barbara Ingram and Evette Benton are by far the most recorded background singers in the history of black music, so that’s why it was strange, to say the least, that they were not included in the 2013 documentary about background vocalists titled 20 Feet from Stardom. True, those three ladies never wanted to be big stars, but still the fact remains that predominant background vocalists were not presented in a movie about background singers!

 If you didn’t know that everything on these pages has actually happened, you could read this book like a fiction. Carla’s writing is quite literary and very analytic. Her descriptions are very detailed – sometimes perhaps even too detailed – and characterization of people goes psychologically very deep. I guess her free style of writing and avoiding strict statistics in her text explain the lack of index and any kind of discography in this book. With only short references to artists and business people, there’s no need for index, and considering the trio has sung on hundreds and hundreds of records, discography would take too many pages. There are around dozen pages with black & white photos, though.

 Born in October, 1953, Carla tells both funny and tragic stories about her childhood and formative years. In many cases these stories lead to lessons for Carla to learn and remember, and those lessons – altogether forty-seven - are printed in bold here. When Carla was two, her parents divorced and she didn’t get along with her new stepfather, but she found joy in a dance school two years later. The first record to make a big impact on her was Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles’ Down the Aisle in 1963. The next significant steps in singing were The Walter Young Choral Ensemble and the performance in the Ted Mack Amateur Hour in New York in the late 1960s.

 Carla, her cousin Barbara and Evette auditioned for Thom Bell in 1972, and soon they were singing background not only on most of Thom’s productions, but practically on records by every Philadelphia International Records (PIR) artist in the 1970s. Their very first session was with Leon Huff on Joe Simon’s Pool of Bad Luck, and of the ones they were on, Carla’s personal favourite is I’ll Be Around by the Spinners.

 Carla mentions briefly some of the artists and producers they worked with. Bunny Sigler, Billy Paul, Bobby Eli, Dee Dee Sharp Gamble and Gladys Knight are among those, who get high points, but Luther Vandross, Harold Melvin and Jimmy BIshop scored less. The Sweeties quickly earned a good reputation, because they were reliable, learned quickly and were very talented. Barbara was best on the business side, Evette as an organizer and Carla in putting the music together. The triumphal march, however, came to a standstill, when Kenny Gamble replaced the Sweeties with the Jones Girls, as a result of one of Barbara’s back-stabbing operations. Unfortunately, Barbara was scheming against the girls quite often and with dismal results. Their last PIR record was Patti LaBelle’s If Only You Knew. The Sweeties were featured – although mostly uncredited – on many hits by the Salsoul Orchestra, the Ritchie Family and on numerous disco smashes, and they still toured with Patti for about five years in the 1980s. They did a tour also in Europe, and once were even confronted with menacing violence in Germany; as a matter of fact, close to a possible terrorist attack.

 In music business tight and long-standing cooperation often leads into a romantic relationship, and here Carla openly reveals the names of each girl’s boyfriends at different times, including some from the very top of Philly music business. Carla’s two big loves on-and-off were Victor Carstarphen and Larry Floyd, the father of her first son.

 Barbara died from cancer in 1994, and we lost Evette to Covid in 2021. In October in 2023 the Sweeties were inducted into the Camden Walk of Fame. Carla finishes her book at the mid-1990s, when the Sweeties definitively ceased to exist. Since then, Carla has performed as a wedding singer, toured with the Funk Brothers, has appeared in musicals and also released solo records, as well as having worked as a teacher. She has told me about some of those activities in the two interviews I’ve conducted with her (https://www.soulexpress.net/deep6_2014.htm#carlabenson), and the rest you can search on her website at https://carlabenson.org/home

 “The story about three little black girls from Camden” is an easy and interesting read, and it’s self-published! Carla: “It is a love story, peppered with language I discovered is alive and well everywhere, even at the highest level of business and government in particular and not just in ‘the streets.’  I have been so completely consumed with the writing and publishing of the book for the past 18 months that I’ve done little else. I am concentrating my efforts now on the promotion and marketing aspect and it too is all-consuming, but it’s simply the continuation of my labour of love and my ‘Journey into Love.’”

© Heikki Suosalo