It’s almost like
a Southern soul cornucopia throwing goodies at us in recent months. I had the
pleasure of talking to two of the gentlemen that have come up with fine new indie
releases lately, J. Blackfoot and Roy C. I think you’ll find
especially the latter interview quite interesting.
New compilations also give you good vibes, and on that front I contacted Mr. Tommy
Tate for a few words, whereas in the case of the late Luther Ingram I
lifted some of the old comments from my earlier feature.
At the end of
the column there’s also a book review and my top-20 for this year, but the very
first guest of honour this time is none other than Mr. Walter Williams, Sr. of
the O’Jays.
Over fifty years
Walter Williams has been singing together with his Canton, Ohio buddy, Eddie
Levert, first gospel and then doo-wop and soul in the Triumphs, the
Mascots and finally in the O’Jays, and only now, at 66, he has come
up with his first solo album. Walter: “The time wasn’t right earlier. I did
it when I felt it was time. It took three years from start to finish, but now
I couldn’t be happier.”
Walter is
leading on numerous O’Jays records, more than people generally realize. When
asked about his favourite solo spots, he first names Love Train. “I
took the first lead on that. I took the second lead on Back Stabbers.
I think Eddie has the first lead. Then there are Darling, Darling Baby and
For the Love of Money. I took the first lead on that.”
“Our voices are
distinctly different, and this has been over fifty years. I’ve never
understood why people thought that Eddie did most of the leads. Actually Eddie
and I have shared lead on all the O’Jays songs except four. Eddie did by
himself Family Reunion and Let Me Make Love to You, and I did My
Favorite Person and Used to Be My Girl by myself. Eddie has some
ad-libs that he did.”
“What I think
separated Eddie and I, is when his son (Gerald) became popular. He did
things with his son. People seem to have gotten the wrong impression as to he
was the total lead singer. That’s never been a problem with me, because ‘live’
they see me singing these parts and they know I sing these parts. Then again,
I don’t think we sound anything alike. Eddie doesn’t use falsetto in his
singing and I significantly do it. I think this album will set us apart, and
not negatively, but just lets people know that there’s a voice ‘unheard’ but
it’s also the voice they’ve heard in the O’Jays, and although the songs are
different it’s the same voice, and it’s a mature voice.”
Exposed (WE-0801-1)
was released on WE-TWO Music, Inc. “The label was formed in 2001 by my manager
and attorney Rosalind Ray and myself. It is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Rosalind has been managing my career with the O’Jays for ten years, as
well as providing legal counsel for the group.”
For the most
part the set was produced by Walter and Dunn Pearson and they are also
responsible for the highly original and imaginative arrangements. “I’ve known
Dunn since he was fourteen years old. He was a band member for the O’Jays for
a long, long time. Then he went to the Kent State University here in Ohio and learned all about arranging music and working in the studio. He actually left the
band and went out on his own. He got a job doing music for children. Then he
did commercials for awhile. I liked the way he arranged music and I told him I
was doing a solo album that I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time and really
wanted to do different music than what the O’Jays have done.”
Dunn recommended
Butch Jones out of New York to be the engineer for the project, which
allows us to enjoy real musicians at their work. “Most of the music is live
including horns and strings. Some computerized support was used, but we tried
to stay with live instruments.”
There are only
two new songs out of the twelve on display, but all the familiar ones – among
them show tunes, pop hits, standards – are approached from a new and
interesting angle. “I picked all the songs, because I admired them so much.
All of them have been hits, because they have that special something that makes
them great. They have the greatness that started with their writing and gives
an artist the opportunity to really show his skill.”
“My dad, John
Williams, was a singer as well, but he never became a singer that was
well-known or popular in the music business. He was a choir director and deacon
at my church, and he taught me a lot. When I was a kid coming up, he played a
lot Nat Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine and people like that. I
grew up in Canton, Ohio, and we had basically one pop station there years ago,
WHLO, and they played a wide variety of music. They played a lot of pop,
r&b and c&w stuff and a little jazz every now and then, which I grew to
like.”
“So when I did
this album, I was careful to pick the songs that I liked and gave them my
treatment. This album was basically for women. I’m not acting prejudiced
toward men or anything, but if you notice there’s not a lot of fast songs, but
medium-tempo or love ballads. I thought that women would enjoy it.”
The opener, a
soft and atmospheric mid-tempo song called It’s Raining Outside, was
co-written and co-produced by Alfred O. Johnson and the jazzy piano solo
is played by Dennis “DOC” Williams, who’s also the O’Jays’ music
director.
On a smooth and
beautiful cover of I Will Always Love You Regis Liandiorio plays
the violin. “I tried to stay with the melodies, so that they would be
recognizable, but I tried to add Walter Williams in there so that I could put a
special flavour in as well. I could never be able to compete with what Whitney
Houston did to I Will Always Love You, but I love that song and I
love what she did – different from what Dolly Parton did – and put my
signature in there.”
The very jazzy Ain’t
No Sunshine offers a lot of improvisation. It was co-produced by Matthew
Rose. “I love Bill Withers. He’s phenomenal, but he didn’t do Ain’t
No Sunshine the jazzy way. My keyboard player, Matt Rose, brought that
song to me, and he plays keyboards on it. He gave me another twist of how to
do it jazzy and I loved it. I jumped right on it.”
Walter himself
wrote a stop-and-go slowie titled There’s No Doubt. “I wrote this about
twenty years ago. I have to give all the credit to Dunn Pearson for bringing
this to life.” The slow-paced Love Won’t Let Me Wait is a perfect song
for after-hours romancing. It was written by Bobby Eli and Vinnie
Barrett and turned into gold by Major Harris in 1975. It’s followed
by a rather straightforward and rosy version of Love Story. “I always
liked Love Story. It is a very tender song that tells a great story
about love; so expressive!” What a Wonderful World is interpreted in a
similar, smooth way. “I love what Louis Armstrong did with it, but
again I thought I could put my twist on it.”
The Way You
Look Tonight derives already from the Fred Astaire days, and here
Walter incorporates in his jazzy rendition also some scat singing. “I remember
this song from years and years ago, when the Four Lads did it (on their
’56 album, On the Sunny Side of the Street), and then Nat Cole, Andy
Williams, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como did it – I love all these
people. They were really, really good singers.”
Another standard
with a fascinating arrangement is When I Fall in Love, and also the pop
song My Love Does It Good comes alive in Walter’s relaxed treatment; he
almost makes it his own. Nature Boy is again very jazzy with Ken
LeGrand’s sax solo in the middle. Walter must like jazz a lot? “There was
a guy that I really liked, King Pleasure. He was real different in the
way he did jazz. I loved Louis Armstrong. I thought he had a very different
but a very lovable voice... and needless to mention the way he played the
trumpet. I loved Ella Fitzgerald, and I liked the album George
Benson and Earl Klugh did together.”
On the
concluding song, My Way, William is joined by Eddie Levert. “We came
into this business with Eddie as children. I was fifteen, he was sixteen. We
learned a lot of things about writing, publishing, producing... just how this
business was run. After we became adults, we took the reign and started to do
things the way we thought they should be done. The song My Way was very
synonymous with how we did things the way we needed to do to stay in this
business. How I got Eddie involved is that I wanted someone that could do that
operatic note at the very end of the song. That showed a whole different side
of us and probably gave Eddie a shot in the arm of how we can do some serious
singing if given an opportunity. I think that note at the very end put us in a
different category. Eddie was happy to do it, and I think he did a very good
job.”
“I love all the
songs on this CD. What I did is try to perfect all standards. I learned while
observing Stevie Wonder in the studio that you must keep doing the songs
over and over, because, although you may have all the notes right and on key,
you might not have the spirit in the music that makes it magical. Stevie would
do his songs over and over looking for that spirit! In recording I tried to
make sure all my songs had that spirit that makes it magical.”
“I am focused on
doing a major release February 9, 2010. We did a soft release on August 15,
2009 – internet and concert sales – and I must say we are very pleased with the
outcome. The album is being received well and moving without any mainstream
marketing or advertising.”
Walter has so
far named many of his favourites, but there are still more. “I love Sam
Cooke. I love Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and Joe
Williams... not to mention James Brown. My opinion is that the ones
that are very, very talented stand out. Of today’s artists I love Beyoncé,
Mary J and Mariah. All of the great singers always stand out,
because they know how to deliver a song. But I don’t think they really write
songs anymore. They write vamps. Songs have changed. There are no longer
bridges, no choruses, not the way I know a song structure to be. There are
still a few people that do really good songs, but not many. If you noticed, I
didn’t name very many new guys. I think Usher could sing a good song,
but I just don’t hear what I heard from Sam Cooke or from Lou Rawls, who
I really liked, too.”
The O’Jays are
still active. “We’re still touring, and we’re very, very busy. We just came
from South Africa, where people loved us tremendously. It seems like after the
induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 we started to get more
dates and more money and other opportunities. The O’Jays are still doing very
well, but I will go out and do solo dates, too. But it’ll have to be, if this
album empowers me to do that. If it becomes something special as far as
selling quite a bit, of course I will go out and support it.”
Meanwhile you
can support this classy, intimate and musically high-class album and also visit
www.walterwilliamssr.com.
(Interview conducted on December 03, 2009; acknowledgements to Tee Brown and
Donnell Clarke).
The 8-CD strong Southern
soul section gets off to a good start with the second fruition of Latimore’s
and Henry Stone’sre-collaboration titled All About the
Rhythm and the Blues (LatStone Rec., LTS 1002-2; www.henrystonemusic.com) , and I’m
sincerely happy to report that this album is a vast improvement to last year’s Back
‘Atcha, which wasn’t that bad, either; especially the first half of it. Produced
by Benny Latimore himself, the other featured musicians besides him are George
“Chocolate” Perry and Warren “Roach” Thompson.
One of the
familiar songs on the set is Drown in My Own Tears and it suits
Latimore’s agonized interpretation well, but then those awful fake horns creep
in and ruin a perfect setting. Luckily that happens only on this one track.
We heard
Latimore’s version of Everyday I Have the Blues already on his ’74
Glades album More, More, More, and again on this CD he comes up with a
jazzy, slowly swinging and strongly improvised performance, which continues as
an almost instrumental number on the next track called Pass the Piano Blues.
Every Day Is a Beautiful Day is a melodic and sunshiny slow song, which
Latimore wrote already for his Latt Is Back CD on Brittney in 2003.
There are a lot
of songs, which are cast in the same mould as Latimore’s signature gem, Let’s
Straighten It Out, and that can’t be bad, can it? A smooth and slow,
autobiographic floater called City Life is one of them and a slightly
bluesy plea named Don’t Give up on Our Love is another. The closest to Straighten...
we get on Singing and Playing the Blues, while Mr. Right Now is
a bit faster.
Around the
World, an almost hypnotic slowie, is the first hit, whereas Obama and
the Fat Man is a mellow mover about a certain talk show host. I’m really
glad that Latimore is back where we want him to be.
Willie shows his
soft side on Love, Romance & Respect (EndZone/C & C
Entertainment; www.willieclayton.com).
Half of the fourteen tracks on display are romantic, late-night love songs.
Mostly written by Willie and Darrell Taylor and produced by the latter,
the tunes include Dance the Nite Away, an Isley Brothers type of
a sensual mellow mover, I Need to Know, a soft beat-ballad in an Al
Green bag, and more similar serenades such as Good Woman, Good Man, Love
to You – Omar Cunningham is singing background on both - and
Special to Me. Put It on Me is a very slow and misty song.
Programming is done
skilfully throughout the CD with the exception of drum machine having been
mixed too upfront on certain tracks. Willie’s nephew, Dave Hollister,
visits on a more contemporary slowie titled We Both Grown, and Willie
revisits a song he recorded over twenty years ago, The Best Years of My
Life, an intense ballad written and originally cut by General Crook.
The foot-tapping
Some Kind of Wonderful and the so-so Shake Your Money Maker are
the only uptempo cuts this time. Personal favourites are the pretty and moody My
Everything and the gentle and wistful Where Were You. Willie and
his music age well, and also the public seems to appreciate his sound more and
more, since this has evolved into a # 1 Southern soul CD recently.
John Colbert (www.myspace.com/jblkfoot) continues his
collaboration with Larry Dodson and Archie Love, who are the
producers on Woof Woof Meow (JEA25), and among the writers,
arrangers and players you can still spot such familiar names as Sam Fallie,
EZ Roc, Thomas Bingham and Morris J. Jay: “I’m really happy with
them, and I’ve been doing things with them for quite awhile.” Besides great
singing and good melodies, on this CD real instruments and background vocals
create a deliciously full sound.
Meow, the
opening beat-ballad about solving cat problems, became quite a hit for Jay. “A
friend of mine wrote that for me. He’s always wanted to write for me, and he’s
had the song for quite awhile. I told Larry ‘hey man, I think this is a pretty
catchy song and we should do it’. His name is Luke Jones. He’s a good
writer. As a matter of fact, he’ll be writing some things on my next album.”
The driving Stay
out of My Lane is followed by a poignant soul ballad called Mr. Bus
Driver, which many have compared to Jay’s biggest hit, Taxi. “That’s
our next single. I think it’s a good song. You can tell there are real horns
on that one, no mechanical horns.”
After a hooky
mid-pacer titled Keep Your Phone Turned On comes another hit song
besides Meow, a clever story and a duet with David Brinston named
Dirty Woman. “David’s record company called me and let me hear the
song, and I liked it. They wanted me to do it with David Brinston. I know
David. He’s a good friend of mine, so I decided I will do the song.”
Lovers and
Friends is an emotive soul ballad, whereas on yet another pet song, a
beat-ballad called No Ordinary Pussy Cat, Jay is joined by Ms. Jody.
“We called Ms. Jody and she was real happy to do it, and I’m glad she did. I
don’t know why the guys just write on cats and dogs, but if I like it I’ll sing
it. I guess we’ll be getting back to the ladies now. I know this will be the
last cat or dog song that I do.”
More Than a
Woman is one of those intense and truly soulful ballads that Jay always
excels on and it’s also his own favourite on this set alongside Mr. Bus
Driver and Meow. “Pussy Cat Remix” of Meow features The
Duchess. “That’s Archie Love’s daughter, and that’s how we hooked up,
through Archie. I was really happy to do it, because I’ve known Duchess since
she was a young kid.”
The downtempo Stealing
Love first appeared on Jay’s similarly titled album on Basix in ’98. “Stealing
Love never had the really big boost, so we just put it on there. We did
this album really quickly, because this is the last album that I’ll be doing
with Larry Dodson and this company. I’m now with another company called Uptown
Records, based in Memphis, and with a young man in that company by the name of Roy
Hughes, so I’ll be doing my next album on his label. It’ll come out next
year.”
The final song,
a hooky mid-pacer named Lil House, Big Party, comes from an excellent
album the Soul Children released last year, Still Standing. “We
put it here, because I did the song just about myself. The Soul Children still
work together in the same line-up, and we do some things off and on. Anytime
somebody calls us, we’re ready to go.”
If you have any
doubts about vitality of Southern soul, please do yourself a favour and listen
to this Jay’s latest CD. You can read more about Jay and the Soul Children at http://www.soulexpress.net/soulchildren.htm.
(Interview conducted on December 03, 2009).
Dirty Woman,
the aforementioned duet with J. Blackfoot, appears also on David’s fourth Ecko
CD titled cleverly - Dirty Woman (ECD 1117; www.eckorecords.com). The other ten
songs were written by the producer, John Ward, and Gerard Rayborn, with
Raymond Moore assisting on three tunes.
David (www.myspace.com/lovemaker001)
with his distinctive tenor is at ease on both fast and slow tracks. A hypnotic
opener called Something I Want belongs to the former category and at the
end of the CD you can listen to a remix of the same song, but now featuring Ms.
Jody, too. Other quick-pacers include You Caught Me With My Drawers
Off, Back Up Man, I’m Faithful to My Baby and – as the title hints - I
Came to the Party.
Tempo comes down
on the laid-back I Finally Got a Good Woman, the begging Give It to
Me, the bluesy When I Put the Icing on the Cake and the longing I’m
Still Waiting. After his previous party CD, David now concentrates on more
- what you could call – middle-of-the-road Southern soul.
It’s My
Time (ECD 1119) is O.B.’s seventh Ecko release and just about his third
within one year, so I think he’s doing quite well in the circuit (www.myspace.com/obbuchana1).
Produced by John Ward, the CD offers mainly catchy and perky dancers, which are
all quite melodic foot-tappers. The most feel-good and infectious ones are Groove
Thang, We Know It’s Wrong, Ooh Wee! and Did You Put Your Foot in It?,
the first single and a duet with Mr. Sam. You can watch the video at www.eckorecords.com -> click “Soul
Blues Report” and scroll down a little.
Among the four
slowies there’s a melancholy tear-jerker named Looks like It’s Over,
written by Frederick Hicks. John Ward: “Frederick is from Jackson, MS. He has written one other song that O.B. recorded. That song was from O.B.’s Goin’
Back Home CD, and it was called Come and Get it While He’s Gone. He
has recorded a CD on himself and he was shopping that around trying to get a
deal.” The title song, It’s My Time, is a softer ballad, while a duet
with Ms. Jody titled One Way Love appeared already on Ms. Jody’s second
Ecko album. The rest of the songs are new ones. This is another solid set
from O.B. and one that certainly doesn’t lack soulful singing.
Only a few moons
ago we had a chance to enjoy an album titled Roy C. Live (www.soulexpress.net/deep309.htm#royc),
and soon after that Mr. Hammond released his next studio album, Don’t Let
Our Love Die (Three Gems, TG 134), but it wasn’t as readily available
as the live set, but that situation is about to change soon. While waiting for
it to appear for sale on the internet, you can order it right away at “Carolina
Record Distributors”, 229 Augusta Highway, P.O. Box 838, Allendale, SC 29810,
U.S.A.; PH: 803-584 3704 and fax: 803-584 2050; carolinarecords@aol.com.
There’s also a new DVD in the pipeline, and in addition to that Roy is also currently working
with his old group, Mark IV. Roy: “I hope to have the group and many
other artists with new CDs in the coming year. The Mark IV has two new
members.”
Roy produced, arranged and wrote all fourteen songs on the set, which has the running time
exceeding 60 minutes. Although horns and strings are synthesized, there are
live players in the rhythm section. Jonathan Burton plays bass, keys
and guitar, Kelvin Cloud is on keys and Anthony Hanes on drums. Roy is particular about drums, as he writes in the liner notes: “If you look back into the
history of Africa, you will find that’s where the drum was first originated. The
drum beat is an art form that we cannot afford to lose, and I pledge to always
use real drums in my music. Being an artist in the music business for 52
years, I say to the young people always use real drums in their music.” On
some of the tracks Roy also uses back-up singers, two girls and three males – Decora
Dean and Flip, and Jonathan Burton, Kelvin Cloud and Roy himself.
Roy has usually put a song or two with a strong social message on his albums, and this
record is no exception. The opening beat-ballad called Good Ole’ America deals, among other things, with slavery and lists examples still from today. Roy: “Good Ole America was written because of my growing up here in America, seeing and living the life of a black boy in Georgia. What white people need to know is
the truth about the African black man. Rome was ruled by black Africans, when Rome fell. Rome was built by black folk and governed by black folk. When Hannibal came down with his 37 elephants and 150 000 soldiers, he was trying to
maintain black control. At that time white folk were trying to overthrow the
government. When the first white took over, he couldn’t read. He was
illiterate. If they’d tell the truth, black folk wouldn’t be hated the way we
are. They lied so much. The Catholic religion was founded by black Africans.
The original bible was written by black Africans, before the pyramids were
built.”
Another
beat-ballad titled We’re in This Thing Together touches such diverse
subjects as the atomic bomb, jealousy, homeless and hungry people. “I did a
song about Einstein. He was grown, when he came from Germany to America and he was working as a clerk. So how can he be a scientist? The black man that
built the atomic bomb was Lloyd Albert Quarterman, and they didn’t
mention it anywhere in school books. It’s like a religion. Religion is
nothing but a lie. How could you have Adam and Eve six thousand years ago, and
the pyramids were built thirteen thousand years ago? All this stuff is
unravelled, but it’s very difficult for people to believe this, because they’ve
been indoctrinated for so many years with a lie.”
On a mid-tempo track named Feet Back on the Ground Roy shares some of his personal
experiences about administration and losing a building. “People think that
black folk like each other, but black folk actually hate each other. This is
because of the indoctrination we’ve had over the years. We’ve got a religion
with no black folk in it. Last supper – no black folk. It’s just sad. When
you grow up with that and then you got the education system teaching you
everything good about white folk, then there’s nothing else to believe but to
think the white way.”
“I was in a house one evening with a friend of mine. His mother was black, well-off,
living in a white neighbourhood. She saw a moving van coming in and she said
‘oh, new neighbours’. When the van got closer, she saw black folk getting out
and she said ‘oh, my god, they’re robbing the neighbourhood’. Now these people
could have had more money than she had, and a white family coming in could have
been on welfare.”
“Feet Back on
the Ground was written about six black city council people. I owned a
building and I was going to put there a mini-mall and Roy C Museum upstairs. It was going to be a beautiful place, and for nine years they blocked me. I
get a letter in 2003 saying that I no longer was the legal owner, but they
still collected my taxes all the way up to 2008. Finally they took it. It was
fraudulently taken away from me, so I’m trying to go to court now to sue them.”
Most of the
other songs on the CD are haunting and laid-back mid-tempo or slower Roy C
compositions about relationships between a man and a woman – If I Could Read
Your Mind, One Way Love Affair, We’re on a “Merry-go-round”, You Say You’re
Leaving and All of My Life I’ve Loved Just You. Actually the only
one to remind you of some of those earlier Roy C torch ballads is the poignant I’ve
Been Losing Everytime. “I changed up, because things are moving fast and
people are catching hell, so you don’t need to give them a sad song.”
We’re Gonna
Make Some Love is a catchy, fast ditty and a loose mid-pacer titled Ain’t
Gonna Take No for an Answer is the only song that dates back to the 70s,
when Roy wrote it for Dynamite Singletary. The mid-tempo title song, Don’t
Let Our Love Die, is Roy’s own favourite on the set and it has a Caribbean beat to it. “I get it from within me, because I used to play drums when I first
started. It was just me and my guitar player, and we could get people on the
dance-floor. I guess it’s just genetic heritage.”
Don’t Let
Our Love Die is a reliable, solid Roy C set with not a dud on display,
and vocally Roy is as strong as ever. At this point he still has a couple of
other issues that he’s not too happy about. “A lot of people have been taking
my stuff, just like Impeach the President. This guy, Aaron Fuchs
from Tuff City, has made about five million dollars on my song, and I got from
him less than 90 000 dollars.”
“I got a store
here in this town. Less than a hundred have come into this store out of this
town in five years. I get people coming in from other towns, so something is
wrong. I did a song Something’s Wrong with Us, with black people. I
know what it is. It’s the religion and the education system. Those things are
very dangerous to black people, if they don’t balance it off with the truth.
You have to learn about yourself to be proud.” (Interview conducted on
December 01, 2009).
http://www.soulexpress.net/royc_discography.htm.
On the cover of
the CD it reads in block letters Debut CD, and that would have
been a great title! Then I noticed that in small they’ve added Rising
from the Ashes (AE Entertainment), which I think is the official name
after all. Andrew comes out of Gary, Indiana, but this CD was cut in Flushing, MI. Andrew wrote almost all of the songs together with Simeo Overall,
who’s the main producer.
Andrew has a
light tenor, which may suit today’s trends, but his voice is too weak for such
demanding songs as Jimmy Hughes’ Steal Away. There are only two
dancers among the ten tracks – Silver Fox could be the drawer – and the
slower songs unfortunately tend to be too drowsy and occasional contemporary
elements don’t help. The romantic How You Feel about Me and the
experimental Make up Love are the two exceptions. Add to that machines,
and - sorry - I’m not very exhilarated.
On I’m in
Love with a Man I Can’t Stand (CDC 1028; www.cdsrecords.com) it reads “Produced
& Performed by Carl Marshall.” Some of my regular readers may
remember how I feel about Carl’s banal dancers and poor use of machines, so I
skip his upbeat stuff on this CD altogether; except that on some tracks the
“horn” sound is pure torture.
He can come up
with decent ballads, though, such as I’m with You Baby and the more
melodic and touching Don’t Ever Leave Me Again, which is spiced up by Gary
Brown’s sax solo. Queen of the Blues is Nellie’s emotional tribute
to one of her idols, Koko Taylor.
I’ve enjoyed
Nellie’s earlier work with Floyd Hamberlin, and here they collaborate on
a soothing soul ballad named Let’s Get It Poppin’. Floyd’s song, MOD (Man
on Drugs), was available already on Nellie’s previous CD. I like Nellie’s
voice and her singing style, and wish her a better production in the future (http://nellietravis.com and www.soulexpress.net/nellietravis.htm).
All of the Southern soul indie releases above are available at www.intodeepmusic.com.
When
Hearts Grow Cold (Soulscape, SSCD 7019; 78 min!; liners by John
Ridley; www.garryjcape.com)
features 20 previously unreleased tracks that Tommy cut as demos for Malaco in
the late 80s and early 90s either at Malaco or at Muscle Shoals studios.
Tommy wrote or
co-wrote all the songs except five but demoed them as well as a “guide voice”.
Among those five there were a simple and emotional mid-pacer called Lonely
Lady, the bluesy Ain’t No Love for Sale and the bouncy Lay Love
Aside - the last twofor Bobby Bland. There are also a couple
of sub-standard cuts here and four with machines, but it doesn’t count up to much
compared to the quantity and quality of the rest of the tracks.
You’re Making
My Dreams Come True is a romantic beat ballad that Tommy sings with a lady,
but unfortunately he doesn’t remember her name anymore. A similar song titled I’ve
Got to Have Your Love Tonight went to Bobby Bland again. Johnnie Taylor
cut the haunting Everything’s out in the Open first, and Otis
Clay did a marvellous job on another slowie named Gonna Take My Heart’s
Advice.
Of the more
upbeat songs, Midnight Run - a title tune for one of Bobby Bland’s
Malaco albums – has a light reggae beat to it, You Want Me to Do is a
melodic dancer, Uptown Woman is a story-telling mover and Out of
Sight, Out of Mind is a catchy but very soulful ditty – Tommy: “I thought I
did that for Stax.”
One of the
highlights on this CD is the title tune, a poignant and beautiful soul ballad,
which Tommy remembers as Bobby Bland’s cut but wasn’t aware of Otis Clay’s and Candi
Staton’s covers. Both Bobby and Otis recorded another pretty and melodic
ballad called I Can Take You to Heaven Tonight, whereas Dorothy Moore
cut Feel the Love, a country-soul song. Little Milton showed
his tender side on The Woman I Love, and Johnnie Taylor turned emotional
on the pretty That’s Just a Woman’s Way.
On this fine
compilation you can hear the original takes on all of these songs and -
needless to say - the singing is excellent. When I called Tommy, he still
wasn’t aware of this release but was clearly delighted. He didn’t remember all
the songs and didn’t recall who ended up recording some of them. “I wrote so
many songs”, he said laughingly.
For a few years
now Tommy is residing in a nursing center in Jackson, Mississippi, and he’s
bound to a wheelchair, but other than that “I’m doing fine.” Surprising news is
that practically not any of those artists that he used to work with throughout
the years has visited him. “That’s very strange, but Dorothy Moore visited a
couple of years ago.”
“I thank
everybody for listening to my music and I thank them for buying my product. If
I could, I’d write some more because there’s still capacity” (laughing).
Let’s
Steal Away to the Hideaway & Do You Love Somebody (CDKEND 328; 21
tracks, 77 min.; liners by Tony Rounce; www.acerecords.com) is the last CD in the
fine Kent series of Luther’s KoKo recordings. His two last albums for the
label date back to 1976 and ’77, and for this compilation between those Muscle
Shoals albums Kent squeezed the missing “version 2” of Luther’s longing ’72 ballad, I’ll Love You until the End.
Let’s Steal
Away to the Hideaway (# 33-soul)is a pleading ballad with a
powerful chorus, and although most of the songs on this album are credited to
Luther Ingram and Johnny Baylor, it didn’t tally with reality. Luther:
“my brother Tommy wrote Let’s Steal Away to the Hideaway.” Tommy
Ingram was one of the G-Men, who worked with Luther in the late 60s,
but only after Luther’s I Spy (For the FBI) single was released on Smash
in ’66. The album contains many similar ballads in the best Southern soul
tradition – That’s the Way Love Is, I’m Gonna Be the Best Thing, All That
Shines, What Goes Around Comes Around and Your Love Is Something Special.”
A beater called I
like the Feeling became the next single (# 35-soul) after Hideaway.
Luther: “My brother Richard came up with that song.” Richard Ingram was
together with Luther and four other singers a member of a gospel group called the
Midwest Crusaders. They started out in the late 40s and later transformed
into the Gardenians, who cut their first secular record on Federal in
1956 with Luther on lead (www.soulexpress.net/lutheringram_discography.htm).
Another one of Luther’s brothers, Archie Ingram, sang in those same
groups and he’s the one who actually wrote a heavy bouncer titled I’ve Got
Your Love in My Life for this album.
A funky number
named It’s Too Much was in reality composed by Luther’s sister, Daisy
Ingram. Daisy: “Since everybody in the family writes and sings, we’ve
always had boatloads of songs... We thought nothing of giving Luther songs to
aid whatever endeavour he was involved in. This is something we grew up
doing. We had always functioned this way... We did background for Luther in
many varied settings.” (Soul Express # 2/2004: Luther Ingram).
Hideaway is
a truly fine soul album and you can’t criticize Do You Love Somebody,
either, although it’s not as intense and piercing as its predecessor. Mostly up-
and mid-tempo cuts fail this time, except Get to Me (# 41-soul) and Sorry.
The title track, a haunting and laid-back mid-tempo swayer, became the biggest
hit for Luther in almost five years (# 13-soul). A beat-ballad called How I
Miss My Baby was put on the flip side. Trying to Find My Love is a
melodic floater and Faces a meandering, meditating ballad.
Luther: “after
that (KoKo) I just kinda retired. I carried on with music, but on a lesser
scale.” In the 80s and 90s Luther still had releases on Platinum Plus,
Profile, Urgent/Ichiban and High Stacks.
Chicago was still the recording metropolis between 1958 and ’64, the period that is covered
on Birth of Soul/Special Chicago Edition (CDKEND 322; 24 tracks,
59 min.). The music varies from doowop to fledgling soul and it’s infused with
a lot of pop from teenage anguish to happy-go-lucky. Bill Dahl has
written extensive liner notes with a short bio on each artist. The compiler, Tony
Rounce, hasn’t settled for obvious choices, but has picked up b-sides,
recordings before the artist’s heyday and samples from lesser-known acts.
I assume there
are many that will purchase this CD for only one track, the opening demo of For
Your Precious Love by Jerry Butler & the Impressions, which is
released here for the first time. For the rest of us, there are still many
more interesting tracks, such as a “weeping” ballad called I’ll Weep No More
by Betty Everett (on Cobra in ’59) or a doowopish pop tune titled Senorita
I Love You by the Impressions (on Abner in ’59). Etta James and
Harvey Fuqua sing My Heart Cries, a simple ballad released on
Chess in ’60, and Jerry Butler revisits for a tender, slow song named Isle
of Sirens (Vee-Jay ’61).
Rosco Gordon’s
Let ‘Em Try is a post-doowop ballad, whereas the Radiants show
off their uninhibited style already as early as in ’62 on Father Knows Best.
The Chanteurs is Eugene Record’s first group that still in ’63
was very much enchanted by the Drifters on You’ve Got a Great Love.
Etta James’ delivery is quite soulful on a longing ballad called Waiting for
Charlie to Come Home, and the Dells cheer you up on the
food-stomping Hi Diddley Dee Dum Dum (It’s a Good Good Feelin’) on Argo
in ’63. Sugar Pie DeSanto’s big-voiced, emotive ballad My Baby’s Got
Soul remained in the can at the time.
Other featured
artist on this illustrative compilation are Major Lance, Don & Bob, Jan
Bradley, the Accents, the Sheppards, Wade Flemons, the Kavetts, Gerald Sims
& the Daylighters, Barbara Lewis, the Drew-Vels, Dee Clark and Gene
Chandler.
Ann belongs to
the category of “how can such a petite girl make so much noise”, and most of
the songs – written by Ann, Dave and Rony Darrell – are aimed at dance floors
and, as far as I know, cherished in northern circles – especially What
Should I Do. Among the musically mediocre stompers and dancers there’s the
slowish title track and one other mellower tune, The Smile on Your Face. Ann
passed away in 2003.
Grace
& Savour (Shout 56; 20 tracks, 75 min!; liners by Clive Richardson;
www.shoutrecords.co.uk) pairs up
the two albums – People (1969) and Trustmaker (’74) – that
were the next ones to follow the Tymes’ four Parkway albums between 1963 and
’65.
The main
producer on People is Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner, and the album features
five show & movie tunes, which belong to the easy listening category but
which are also dressed in inventive arrangements by Richard Rome; on The
Look of Love they even get jazzy. The title tune was transformed into a
joyful dancer and on the U.K. charts it peaked at # 16 in January 1969. There were also pop tunes - such as Wichita Lineman, The Way of the
Crowd and Those Were the Days – and an impressive, bluesy cover of God
Bless the Child. An energetic toe-tapper called The Love that you’re
Looking For is a new song.
Billy Jackson
produced the Trustmaker album, and he even leads on the
irresistible, pulsating title track. The set kicks off with the sparkling Someway,
Somehow I’m keeping you, but for European listeners the light and sunshiny Ms
Grace must be the number one song, and it actually reached that position in
the U.K. in December 1974. The four ballads on the set are all fascinating.
There’s the bittersweet The Crutch, the darkish Are You Lookin’ (originally
titled The Hooker), the soft The Sha-La Bandit and the pretty and
soothing North Hills – all beautifully interpreted by their main lead
singer, George Williams.
Grace
& Savour is a thoroughly enjoyable set and comes highly recommended.
You can read Al “Ceasar” Berry’s comments on some of those songs at http://www.soulexpress.net/tymes2.htm.
Incidentally, Al is recovering from a quadruple heart bypass surgery on
November 17.
Something
to Remember/The Casablanca Sessions (Shout 58; 18 tracks, 75 min.;
liners by Clive Richardson, opening words by Sharon Davis) combines the
two albums the Four Tops cut for Casablanca between their ABC and re-Motown
stints – Tonight (1981) and One More Mountain (’82) –
both produced by David Wolfert from the pop side of music.
The opener on Tonight
is an irresistible bouncer called When She Was My Girl, which became
the biggest hit for the group in eight years (# 1-soul, # 11-pop) and which
always will be compared to the O’Jays’ Use Ta Be My Girl (’78). Don’t
Walk Away is a riveting scorcher and Let Me Set You Free (#
71-soul), Something to Remember as well as a speeded-up version of Stevie
Wonder’s All I Do belong to the same basket.
The most glowing
slowies are the romantic and memorable Tonight I’m Gonna Love You All Over and
the achingly beautiful I’ll Never Leave Again. Tonight was a
pleasant album and a welcome return for the group, but unfortunately the
follow-up, One More Mountain, didn’t live up to expectations. It had
too many average and even sub-standard songs and the production was
superficial.
The first
double-sided single was promising, as it paired up a poppy, melodic mover named
Sad Hearts and a tender version of I Believe in You and Me, which
in later years would become almost like one of the signature songs for the
group. Both sides peaked at # 40-soul on Billboard’s charts. Besides those
two there’s only one more personal favourite on the album, the pretty and also
quite powerful Whatever It Is. However, for the fans of poppy soul and
Levi’s distinctive singing Tonight is a delight.
King of the Queen City/The Story of King Records (ISBN 978-0-252-03468-8; www.press.uillinois.edu; 242 pages + 12
illustrated) is written by Jon Hartley Fox and based on his series of
60-minute documentaries for National Public Radio in the 1980s. King Records
was located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at one point it was the sixth largest
record company in the country. In the preface of the book it reads “King was
the most important record company in the United States in the years between the
years 1945 and 1960; not the most successful or the most famous, necessarily, but
definitely the most influential, innovative, and inspirational.”
It was founded
in 1943 by Syd Nathan, a controversial and complex character but also a
sickly person, who passed away in 1968 at sixty-four... and three years later
King was sold. Syd used to say that he “makes records for the little man”, and
he didn’t tolerate any discrimination at King. He established a few
subsidiaries - such as the short-lived Queen, Federal and DeLuxe - and one big
asset were his long-standing, brilliant sidemen like Henry Glover and Ralph
Bass. Syd himself also took part in construction work while turning an old
chemical plant into the King headquarters and in lack of subcontract services
they also built their own studios in the 40s, their own pressing plant and set
up thirty-three regional branch sale offices.
First King
released country and hillbilly records, but gradually stretched out to blues,
rhythm & blues, rockabilly, rock & roll, gospel, soul... and even as
far as jazz, northern soul, pop and humour. Jon researches systematically each
genre and features dozens of the most significant artists for the company.
James Brown –
who called Syd “Little Caesar” – is naturally rewarded by a chapter of his own,
but also such diverse names as Grandpa Jones, the Delmore Brothers, Bill
Monroe and the Stanley Brothers are presented in the country and
bluegrass sections. Coming back to rhythm & blues, artists like Bull
Moose Jackson, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Tidy Bradshaw, Charles
Brown, Little Esther, Lula Reed and many others are dealt with. Earl
Bostic, Big Jay McNeely and Bill Doggett cut instrumental hits,
whereas such groups as Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Hank Ballard and the
Midnighters and the “5” Royales left their mark on the charts while
at King.
Let me add still
a few names: in gospel the Swan Silverstones and the Spirit of
Memphis, in blues Freddie King, Lonnie Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Albert
King and Little Willie Littlefield and in fledgling soul Little
Willie John, Ike Turner and Joe Tex etc. That list gives some kind
of an idea of the tremendous impact King had on the development of our music. Jon’s
writing is fluent, text is crammed with facts and it proceeds logically, systematically
and mostly chronologically – just the way I like. And the ever-important index
is included. Discographies have been released earlier in other volumes.
MY TOP-20 in 2009 – a good year!
(Full-length, new official releases)
1. The Green Brothers: Soulsville
2. Walter Williams: Exposed
3. J. Blackfoot: Woof Woof Meow
4. Latimore: All About The Rhythm And The Blues
5. Will Downing: Classique
6. Candi Staton: Who’s Hurting Now?
7. G.C. Cameron: Enticed Ecstasy
8. Willie Clayton: Love,
Romance & Respect
9. Roy C: Don’t Let Our Love Die
10. Charlie Jones: Ultimate
11. Lee Fields: My World
12. Chairmen Of The Board: Soul Tapestry
13. O.B. Buchana: It’s My Time
14. Eugene Pitt: Steppin’ Out In Front, I Love Beach Music
15. Vick Allen: Truth Be Told...
16. Shirley Brown: Unleashed
17. The Chicken Slacks: Can You Dig It?
18. L’Stubbs: Here We Are
19. Calvin Richardson: The Soul Of Bobby Womack
20. Chuck Roberson: For Real This Time