Come Back Strong - Hotlanta Soul 4 - Various Artists

SOUTHERN AWARENESS

  My next “Deep” column is due to be published with a delay – probably only in November – so as an exception I decided to review this one new compilation separately and almost right after its release.

  Come Back Strong · Hotlanta Soul 4 (CDKEND 454, www.acerecords.com; 23 tracks, 76 min.) features southern soul music from Michael Thevis’ group of labels out of Atlanta, Georgia.  Eleven tracks on this CD were not released at the time of recording, in the early 70s, and those that saw the light of the day came out mainly on Aware, GRC and Act One Productions labels.  Besides Atlanta, Birmingham, Alabama, is another source and in some cases there were Detroit connections, too.  Ady Croasdell tells it all in his detailed notes.

  One noteworthy feature here is the amount of strong lady singers, many of them having passed the gospel exam.  Dorothy Norwood’s Big Boat Ride is a spirited dancer, whereas Judy Green’s I Still Love you so is a powerful deep soul ballad.  With a few other big-voiced ladies here, there’s one more interesting connection – Sam Dees - who wrote or co-wrote songs for them.  Jean Battle’s When a Woman Loves a Man and Lorraine Johnson’s The Best of My Years are both impressive soul ballads, not to mention Rozetta Johnson’s I’ve come too far with you (to turn Back now).  Add to that still Loleatta Holloway’s So Can I.

  John Edwards excels on Sam’s mid-tempo We Always Come Back Strong, while Bill Brandon gets into the funky Johnnie Taylor groove on his cover of Claim Jumpin’.  Sam himself stirs up fervour on his demo of What Good Is a Love, and Phase Four’s take on It Takes More Than a Moment is a big production, poppy mover – a very good one, though.

  Besides some Funk Brothers as musicians, Deke Richards as a writer and Paul Riser as an arranger on the above Dorothy Norwood track (Big Boat Ride), other Detroit connections can be found on a funky scorcher titled Come and Get It by The Steppers (out of Detroit) and on a quick-tempo pop track - á la 5^th Dimension - called Go Away (Get out of My Life) by Carl James & Jackie Irvin, produced by Detroit’s Johnny Powers.

  Other familiar artists on this set are Joe Hinton on a Jerry Butler type of a mid-tempo swayer named Up Is Down, Dee Ervin on the dramatic A Hundred Years from Today (somehow Zager & Evans’ In the Year 2525 came to my mind), Jimmy Lewis on his down-tempo I Can’t Leave You Alone, King Hannibal on the slowed-down version of Johnnie Taylor’s gem, The Party Life, and Floyd Smith out of Chicago, who talks his way through almost till end of I Want ‘Cha to Let Me Come Home.  After all I’ve written above, I think it’s quite obvious that I strongly recommend this CD to all real southern soul music fans.

© Heikki Suosalo