TONI GREEN

  On a beautiful Friday night at the Porretta Soul Festival on July the 19^th in 2013 the lovely Ms. Toni Green hit the stage and kicked off with the funky Baby Love, originally recorded by Mother’s Finest in 1977.  Backed by Paul Brown’s Allstar Band with a tight horn section and background singers, she next delivered the slow and intense Just Ain’t Working Out, followed by a tribute to Aretha Franklin by way of the rolling Soulville.  The tempo came down for the second time for the dramatic I Who Have Nothing, but was geared up again for Lonely Teardrops, which blended into the rousing Shout.  Toni’s thrilling 50-minute set ended with her encore song, the timeless Higher & Higher.  Looking as gorgeous as ever, Porretta’s sweetheart returned still on Sunday night for another round of I (Who Have Nothing) and Lonely Teardrops & Shout. 

THE JONES BOYS

  Toni Green was born in Memphis “the third of September” in 1951 to Bobby Jean and Tommy Lee Green.  “My father was more of a jazz musician, a singer and a trumpeter.  My home was designated as the place, where everybody came to practise – the Bar-Kays, some of the Mad Lads, the Temprees... everybody.”

  Among artists, Toni’s biggest favourite is and has been Aretha Franklin.  “I have a mixture of favourites.  Since I grew to jazz, it’s people like Ella Fitzgerald, Dakota Staton, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington... people who were more inspirational because of my father.  For the men it’s Nat King Cole and David Ruffin for me, and J. Blackfoot, who just passed.”

  Four of Toni’s cousins – Elvritt Hambrick (“Lil June”), Cordell Jones, Walter and Melvin Robinson – had formed a gospel group in the mid-50s called the Jones Boys.  “They were very popular on the radio and all throughout the south.  They would remind you of the Mighty Clouds of Joy.  I was very young then.  I was probably three or four years old.  They lived across the street, so they were practising at my aunt’s house – my grandmother’s sister’s house.  So it was the gospel across the street and over where I was it was rhythm & blues and blues.”

  Elvritt Hambrick, Jr. formed later a 5-piece secular group called the Knights with a couple of his friends (Lockhart, Middleton and guy called Gerald, plus one more).  “That was my cousin’s rhythm & blues group.  They were very popular in Memphis at one time.”

  At the very end of the 50s, Toni became a Teen-Towner for a short while at WDIA, established already in 1947.  “It was a popular radio station in Memphis and the areas of the south, and it’s the oldest black-owned station in the country.  There was a group every Saturday called the Teen Town Singers, and you had to be talented to get on there.  Carla Thomas – that’s how she got her start.  Rufus Thomas, Marvell, Vaneese – all of them were Teen Town Singers at one time or another.  Every time we meet with Carla, she hugs and kisses me and calls me ‘Little Toni Green’.  Later in the 60s I did some travelling and I was in a lot of talent shows.”

IMPORTED MOODS

  Elvritt from the Jones Boys and later the Knights formed another group along with Toni, Pat Love and Leroy Broadnax and named it Imported Moods.  “Carl Smith, who co-wrote Higher & Higher for Jackie Wilson, wrote along with Marshall Jones a song, What Have You Done with My Heart, and took it to Willie Mitchell.  Willie loved it and that was my first single.”

  Released on Hi 2179 in 1970 under the name of Imported Moods, this nice and laid-back mid-tempo song was flipped with I’m a Scorpio.  Toni sings in a surprisingly high register, and the song bears a resemblance to something that Brenda & the Tabulations or even Barbara Acklin could have released those days.  “It didn’t chart nationally, but we did pretty good in the south.  We stayed on the charts in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.”

  In 1972 Toni hooked up with Luther Ingram and Isaac Hayes.  “Luther Ingram at that time was on tour with Isaac Hayes.  Isaac had, of course, Shaft and Luther had If Loving You Is Wrong.  So they paired them up, and I became one of Luther’s background singers.  And when one of Isaac’s girls was out or whatever that’s when I came and filled in for her.  Luther Ingram was very nice and very understanding.  He was a great teacher, an excellent vocalist and very spiritual.” 

  “I came from Imported Moods singing mostly lead, and then I jumped to background with Luther Ingram and Isaac Hayes, and I wasn’t too comfortable with that.  It probably was a year and a half that I did tour with them, and then I branched off to do my own thing.”

  Toni also got acquainted with the infamous Johnny Baylor.  “During that time he was the manager for Isaac Hayes and Luther Ingram.  I thought he was very charismatic, very inspirational, and for some reason we got along pretty well.  I think I was as tough as he was.  And he did love the women, but I think Isaac loved them a little bit more than he did (laughing).  Back at that time music was difficult to get played on the radio.  Mostly it was payola, and if you were black it was really hard to get your stations to accept your music – even if they were black.  So there was a lot of influence going on that Johnny and his entourage people did.”

BOWLEGS

  After her stint with Luther and Isaac, Toni returned to singing lead and this time it was with Gene “Bowlegs” Miller (1933-87).  “Gene was a producer and a big band leader, so they hired me to do their lead singing.  It was like a big band with the horn section, all the instruments, the whole works.  They liked my voice, and I was very young and didn’t know too much about it, but they pulled me in to teach me.  Marvell Thomas, Rufus’ son, and Andrew Love of the Memphis Horns – all of them were together, and that’s why I learned to do what I do now.”

  “I was with them for a very long time.  It just went on and on and on... whatever, it’s another gig that gets you money (laughing).  It was in the 70s and partly into the 80s, and we still did a few gigs just before Gene passed.”

  Besides single releases in his own right as a trumpeter and vocalist on such labels as Goldwax and Hi, Gene produced, arranged, played and directed music for numerous other artists, too, including Otis Redding, Spencer Wiggins, Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Denise LaSalle, Ollie Nightingale, Ann Peebles and Peabo Bryson. 

  Gene also cut a single on Toni called Hey Aretha / Our Day will come on the Bowgat label in the early 70s.  “It really got released, but I can’t recall any kind of big airplay.  Hey Aretha was a pretty fun song.  Bowgat was a label started by Gene Bowlegs Miller and Steve Gatling from the Memphis Sound studio, located here in Memphis, Tennessee.”

  Alongside working with Bowlegs, Toni kept herself busy also in other walks of life for the rest of the 70s and early 80s.  “I started going to school in Memphis.  I went to college, got married and had a daughter.  She’s really into communication.  She’s in television work.  She can sing, but she doesn’t want to.  She has a beautiful voice.  As a matter of fact, she looks just like Alicia Keys.  They look like twins.  I have a son now, and he sings, but he doesn’t want to pursue it.  He was born in 1987.  He’s going to school to be a paediatrician.  I have two girls, one son and 3 grandsons.”

IF I COULD BUILD MY WHOLE WORLD AROUND YOU

  Gene Miller produced Lanier & Co’s self-titled album on Larc Records (8012) in 1983, and invited Toni to share vocals with Farris Lanier Jr. on If I Could Build My Whole World Around You, which on this album is based more on a Caribbean beat than Marvin’s and Tammi’s original cooing on Tamla in 1967.

  However, just prior to the release of the Lanier & Co record the newly-wed Toni had moved with her husband to Louisville, Kentucky, a little over 500 km northeast of Memphis, Tennessee.  “I just moved there for not too long.  I didn’t know everybody, but I built up a career by singing in the clubs.  I was always invited to perform, be a headliner or be in a play... or whatever it was.”

  “I did jingles, when I lived in Louisville.  I was fortunate enough to do some of the jingles to Chevron, McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  That was part of my money-maker.  You have to do what you have to do to learn as much as you can learn.  Doing those things really could take me to where I am now, because it helped me to develop myself – how to write songs, how to even be on stage just in case the band may break a guitar string or something... I know how to improvise.”

  Toni also did Midnight Ramble – live musical performances at midnight - at Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts for three consecutive years. “It’s one of those things you don’t get a chance to do unless you’re an established artist.”

MIXED EMOTIONS

  After about twelve years in Louisville, Toni moved back to Memphis in the mid-90s.  She hooked up with Quinton Claunch, who is best known for first playing guitar in early Sun sessions, then being a co-founder of both Hi and Goldwax Records and being an excellent Memphis producer and southern soul songwriter.

  Quinton produced Toni’s first-ever album, Mixed Emotions (Soultrax, SLT-1007), and co-wrote six out of the eleven songs on display.  It was released in June 1998.  Quinton’s Soultrax label had been in existence since 1994 and soul music fans cherish also such releases as James Carr’s Soul Survivor and 24 Karat Soul and Jerry L’s Last Word in Lonesome on that label.  Altogether they released ten CDs in eight years.  Actually Soultrax carried on, where the revived Goldwax left off in 1993; or as Ruby Andrews put it nicely in my interview with her in 1998: “Goldwax folded.  The president of the company went crazy, and the investors pulled out.”

  Toni: “I love Quinton to death, but we didn’t get along (laughing).  He was very strange.  He’d say about me ‘Toni’s one of the most talented people in the world, but she’s very smart.  She can sing, but she’s not going to let you run over’.”

  Recorded and mixed at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studio, Lester Snell on Hammond B-3 and Thomas Bingham on guitar and Jim Spake on sax are listed among the players.  Some is programmed, but the strong horn section is real.  There are a couple of familiar tunes, such as the bluesy Keeping up with the Joneses (earlier by Ollie Nightingale), You’ve Got the Papers I’ve Got the Man (Ann Peebles) and How Do You Want Your Thrill (Lee Shot Williams), but most of them are new ones.

  Toni wrote with the late Quinn Golden two songs, a mid-tempo beater titled Don’t Do Me (If You Can’t Do Me Right) and a fine soul ballad called Stop Playing Me Close.  “Actually I was the writer, lyrically and melodically.  Quinn Golden was a co-producer, because he was instrumentally equipped and - because I wanted to be fair - I shared the rights with him; lyrics only.  But he wanted to sell off the publishing rights, and I had to recover my rights.”

  The highlight on the CD, however, was A White Dress, a Blue Lady, a beautiful country-soul ballad about a deserted bride.  “That was written by Quinton’s son, Steve Claunch.”  Actually the recording of the song coincided with Toni’s own divorce process.  “Yes, thank God (laughing).  I remarried after that, but now I’m free again.”

  Besides Dress... and How Do You Want Your Thrill, the third single off the album was a quick-tempo, big-voiced story-telling song named Bear with Me Children (I’m Trying to Get Your Daddy Back), but none of those singles charted.  “We didn’t have great promotion on them, it’s just a loss.  Actually when I recorded that particular CD, I had walking pneumonia, so I could sing but I couldn’t talk.”

HOW CAN I SING THIS SONG

 In 1999 Toni visited on J. Blackfoot’s album, Having an Affair (Basix Music 9335), and sang a duet with him on the title tune, which is a cheating ballad written by Rich Cason, and she co-sang also on the cover of the Soul Children’s 1969 hit, I’ll Understand. (The Soul Children & J. Blackfoot story is online at http://www.soulexpress.net/soulchildren.htm).

  Toni: “It was J’s idea.  For me it was such a blessing, because I never thought he’d think I was worthy to do it, but he said ‘there’s nobody else I want to do this with but Toni Green’, because he thought that we had those strong voices that we could really get out there and do what we do.”

  Next year Toni appeared on a compilation CD entitled Beauty & the Beast (Avanti-1022).  Johnny Vincent’s Avanti out of Pearl, Mississippi, had distributed already the Mixed Emotions CD, so Johnny was well aware of Toni and her talent.  On this compilation there were tracks from Johnny’s other artists as well, such as Willie Clayton, Rue Davis, Reggie P., Ronnie Lovejoy, Tina Diamond, J.T. Watkins and Pat Brown.  Toni’s three contributions – Sweet Thang, You’re so Precious and How Can I Sing This Song – are the three concluding tracks on the CD, and especially the last gem, written by Toni and Rue Davis, leaves a lasting impression.

  “I love Johnny Vincent.  One of the greatest inspirations that I’ve had in my life was Johnny, because when a person believes in you it makes a difference.  And I believe that he really believed in me and gave me an opportunity.”  Unfortunately Beauty & the Beast got lost, because Johnny passed in early 2000.  “He was planning to make a CD with me.”

STRONG ENOUGH

  Mike Haralambos was in the 60s a member of a Liverpool, U.K., band called the Almost Blues.  In 1985 he published a book entitled Soul Music (the Birth of a Sound in Black America) and in 1994 Right On: from Blues to Soul in Black America.  After that he concentrated on writing and publishing books on sociology, psychology and critical thinking.  He also ran a company called Good Time Records, and Toni had two releases on that imprint.  Besides Toni, in the 2000s Mike put out CDs also by such southern soul singers as Ronnie Lovejoy, O.B. Bryant, Luther Lackey and Kenne’ Wayne.

  Toni’s first CD on Good Time (7602), Strong enough, was released in 2002.  “I truly like that.”  Vick Allen is the main producer, arranger and also one of the players, and – delightfully - the CD features only real musicians.  Ronnie Lovejoy is the associate producer and the writer of as many as five songs out of nine on display. 

  Ronnie’s own Good Time CD, Still Wasn’t Me (GOT 7600), had been released over a year earlier, and prior to that in the 90s he had had two CDs on Johnny Vincent’s Ace and two on Avanti Records.  You can read my very first interview with Ronnie at http://www.soulexpress.net/ronnielovejoy.htm, conducted right after the release of his Evejim CD, Suddenly, in 1993.  Sadly, Ronnie passed in October 2001.  “Ronnie was one of the best.  He was really the one that took me to Johnny Vincent and from Johnny to Mike Haralambos.”

  Ronnie wrote for Toni the first taster on the CD, a southern urban “hip-hop” beater named G-String and a Toothbrush, and the contemporary soul feel is retained also on two good Mary J. Blige songs that Mike suggested - the mid-tempo, loping Round and Round and the pleading slowie, The Love I Never Had. 

  The two most memorable songs from Ronnie on this CD are a catchy mid-tempo, laid-back swayer called Strong Enough to See You Go and the downtempo and poignant Still in Love.  Another soulful ballad, No Romance, No Finance was composed by Homer Banks and Lester Snell, and Toni’s and Quinn Golden’s Stop Playing Me Close appeared already on the preceding Mixed Emotions CD.

SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC

  In September 2003 Good Time Records released Toni’s follow-up CD, Southern Soul Music (7605), but this time Lawrence Harper was the producer and Thomas Bingham, besides arranging, plays also guitar and keyboards.  Tommy Lee Williams and Jerry Lee Smith are on saxophone.  “Lawrence came through Mike.  I’d never met him before.  He told Mike that he could be a producer.  I didn’t agree, but it happened” (laughing).  Today Lawrence resides in the greater Memphis area and owns Muthalandproductions and Reprah Music.  He worked as a songwriter for Willie Mitchell and Bar-Kays in the 80s.

  Lawrence wrote the title tune, a nice mid-tempo ditty, which became the first radio single off the CD.  A bluesy slow song called Just Ain’t Working Out (by Toni and John Cummings) was the second radio single.  Actually in late 2006 Toni re-released the song, flipped with We Can Work it out, a powerful and impassioned soul ballad and a duet with Stacie Merino.

  Lawrence penned also I Want It, a ballad with a heavy beat and a duet with Floyd Taylor.  Other noteworthy slow songs on the album are the lilting Wish I Could Be There, the poignant Driftin’ Away (by Joyce Cobb), the big-voiced Drive Thru Love Affair and the soulful Single Mothers (co-written by Morris Williams).  Cheat Receipt, Walkie Talkie Man, Ohh Boy, Sugar Daddy and No Rang, No Thang all make your toes tap.

  “I didn’t really care for anything on that album but those that I wrote (laughing).  Lawrence wouldn’t allow me to breathe to be me.  If you can’t be yourself, it’s not going to work.”  Although the two Good Time albums and especially Strong enough were convincing and soulful enough and vocally, of course, impeccable, they were not very strong sellers and didn’t pave the way for further releases.  “We had a bad promoter.  Mike was really doing everything he could to make it work.  But him being over there (in the U.K.) and people he trusted over here, it just wasn’t working.”

MORE LOVE

  Toni’s next CD in the summer of 2005, More Love, was initially her own project but it was released on Phoenix Entertainment/Pegasus (1004).  “Phoenix Entertainment asked me, if they could publish it, and publishing rights went from there to Malaco Records, which was a complete confusion.  It was not only the publishing but the distribution that alarmed me.  I was ecstatic that my contract ended with Phoenix Entertainment, who were in bed with Malaco, which relieved me of all obligations.  Malaco Records is a phenomenal company, had I signed with them, but I found out only later about Malaco.” 

  “I’ve done my research on many reputable companies and I can reassure you that the great artists that have come out their studios were a lot of times unfairly treated.  I truly want to be treated fairly.  That’s why I’ve been in this business so long.  I believe that it can be done.  I’m not like a lot of artists, but then again I am.  We all want to be successful and appreciated for the hard work we put in.  My heart goes out for the older artists, who have died without seeing their fruits or even the ones, who are still alive, and the young artists have no clue about their legacy... or history.”

  “The reason I wrote More Love is because my gigs stopped.  There were no more contract deals, and I had to do something to keep my life and my career going, and in order to do that I had to step into something that wasn’t right.  I recorded it in Mississippi with Morris Williams.  It was a demo to me, because I didn’t know what the heck I was doing.  I just wanted to do something to keep my name out there.  I was delving into things that I didn’t know much about, but I wanted to get me out there the only way I knew that my money would take me to.  I just had to do something.”

  Produced by Morris together with Toni and with Thomas Bingham on guitar, More Love features ten songs (Free is in two parts), most of which were written or co-written by Toni.  The songs and Toni’s vocalizing are the best elements on the CD.  You can enjoy beautiful melodies and intense delivery on such ballads as the emotive Angel, the floating More Love, the melodic Best Woman, the soulful Mr. Wonderful, the hypnotic Hot and the powerful Free.  I Am Ready and Bop are the catchiest toe-tappers.

  “In 2005 I got sick with pneumonia.  In November I was told I would never sing again, but in December the same year I performed in Italy.  Whenever I break down and cry on stage, it’s because I’m still so grateful.  Many times I’m also overwhelmed by people’s love.”

  In 2007 Toni visited on the Soul Children’s outstanding CD, Still Standing, and, among other things, did a duet with J. Blackfoot on a deep ballad called Long Ride Home. 

HOLD ON

  In 2009 Toni released a stunning CD-single, Hold On / Every Man Ain’t a Bad Man.  Both songs were written by Toni with Jesse Dotson, and released on Toni’s CharCole Productions.  Hold On is a great and a bit bluesy soul ballad and with her intense and powerful delivery Toni in fact takes us to church.  The downtempo B-side is almost equally thrilling.  It has jazzy elements to it, and musically it’s something that Aretha could have sung in her heyday in the late 60s.

  “You have to keep trying, and I’m still out there – no promoters, no help, no money, but I’m still trying to do all I can do.  It’s really hard trying to survive... and trusting people, because, for example, earlier Mike Haralambos had given money to the promoters months before, and they took the money and ran.”

  “It was wonderful to record Hold On, because of Willie Mitchell.  I’m the last artist that he recorded.  Solomon Burke was before me.  Solomon had already recorded and taken the material to New York to have it printed.  Willie kept on with me before he passed ‘Toni, come on and get to do the rest of it (album), and I just didn’t have the funds.  So Willie was my first producer and I’m the last artist he recorded, before he passed.”

  Actually those two songs – Hold On and Every Man – were supposed to be a part of a self-financed EP called Undeniable, but presumably the other two songs were released only at a later date.  Both Undeniable, and Just Call Me represent a sort of nasty soul sound, which means that they’re both loud and almost aggressive mid-pacers by a very determined singer. 

  Two years later Archie Love recorded her daughter, Duchess, together with Toni on a big-voiced beat-ballad called Cry No More.  Duchess‘ mini-CD, Writings on the Wall, was released on Archie’s Loveland label.

  Next in 2012 on OTM Music Group Toni released another CD-single, a fast machine-driven dancer named Body Search.  Written by Henderson Thigpen, Kevin Haywood and Toni, the quick-tempo Body Search sounds more like updated 70s Labelle disco than, say, house & techno music.  “That was fun.  Henderson and I were goofing off.” 

  The same year the very same team created another single, which in style was a far cry from Body Search.  All Over Me is a smooth and sensual ballad, during which it becomes almost impossible to resist the call of the siren.

REBIRTH

  Since 2010 Toni has been promoting her 2-disc CharCole compilation entitled Rebirth/Toni Green’s Greatest Hits, and it really is a comprehensive cross-section of Toni’s work during the last fifteen years on Soultrax, Good Time, Phoenix/Pegasus and CharCole.  They have even lifted from a single Toni’s first-ever recording in 1970 as a member of Imported Moods, the sweet What Have You Done With My Heart.

  Toni has recorded for this set a cover of the Emotions’ 1969 hit, So I Can Love You, in a style not far removed from the original recording with high-pitched singing and everything, and this revived mid-tempo bouncer comes off delightfully fresh.  “I chose the Emotions song, because it has always been one of my favourite songs.  One night this particular song came on the radio and something spiritual came over me, and I knew that I wanted to redo So I Can Love You.”

  My copy of Toni’s double-CD has 34 songs and the total running time is close to two hours and forty minutes, so that if anything is your money’s worth.  Toni has also included on the set two of his duets, one with J. Blackfoot and the Soul Children on Long Ride Home, and the other one with Stacie Merino on We Can Work it out.  I highly recommend Rebirth, because – alongside some uptempo material - it offers a lot of impressive slow and intense soul singing from an artist, who is one of the most credible ambassadors of traditional soul music today.

  There’s also a DVD entitled Toni Green & The CIV Soul Band 2012, which was shot in June 2012 at Jazzbonne Festival in France.  During her one-hour set Toni was backed by a 5-piece rhythm section, four horn players and three background female vocalists.  Toni’s talent and stage charisma are well conveyed on the DVD, and my only complaint is that Toni doesn’t do any of her own material.  Probably the organizer requested tried and tested old songs, which create a wave of nostalgia in the audience.

  Toni goes through many familiar soul hits.  In the funk category and among the movers there are You Got the Love (Chaka Khan), Say a Little Prayer (Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin) and Tell Mama (Etta James).  Toni brings the tempo down for slow and impassioned – at times even jazzy - deliveries of It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (James Brown), At Last (Etta), Doctor Feelgood (Aretha) and Breaking up Somebody’s Home (Ann Peebles).  Even the more pop-slanted numbers like Simply the Best (Tina Turner) and Bad Girls (Donna Summer) are entertaining and fun to watch.

  Toni has always been a prolific songwriter, and she’s not about to cut it down in the future, either.  “I think I’m getting better” (laughing).  She also used to own a radio station (KDLJ).  “I don’t own it anymore.  It’s basically going to be on the internet.  It was really, really hard to even get the things put together, because everybody was vying with each other.  Bigger companies were coming to take over other companies, and they didn’t want this, didn’t want that... just a mess!  It wasn’t worth it.”

  During her career Toni has flexibly moved from one genre to another - from rhythm & blues, soul and jazz to blues – although these days she doesn’t care for southern soul too much anymore.  “It doesn’t give me anything to hold on to.  It doesn’t fit.  It’s like putting a round peg in a square hold.  You can’t do it.  I think I’m leaning more on jazz and r&b.  I love gospel, of course, and I’m a fan of country.  I love country.  In Memphis we have to get back to the course of who we are.  I pray I’ll be part of that before everybody dies off, because we’re all getting older.  We’re setting precedents for something, and I hope that the younger artists will see that.  We’re all established who we are in our own different sound.”

  “My future plan is to open a school.  I’ve been fortunate enough to teach some classes here.  There were four young Italian guys, who asked ‘Toni, can you help us.  We have this, but we need this...’  It stayed in my heart for a long time.  That was in 2009.  I started thinking, can I build a school in the United States and bring from here to America some young artists, who really need that help and guidance.  So I’ve recently looked into that, and we’re going to see what happens.  That’s very close to my heart.  Music is always first.  If I can’t sing, I’m going to teach it.”

  “I am also now working with a group from France called Malted Milk on their CD, with their original songs and a few of my songs on it.  I’ll be also doing a festival tour that starts in 2014-15, and I’m releasing my new CD in the late spring 2014.”

ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY

MIXED EMOTIONS (Soul Trax, SLT-1007) 1998

Don’t Do Me (If You Can’t Do Me Right) / Don’t Let The Morning Catch You / Bare With Me Children (I’m Trying To Get Your Daddy Back) / It’s Another Woman (Or The Boys Are Funny) / Tired Of Being Good / A White Dress, A Blue Lady / Keeping Up With The Joneses / Stop Playing Me Close / My Man Is Putting Me On Hold / You’ve Got The Papers (I’ve Got The Man) / How Do You Want Your Thrill

STRONG ENOUGH (Good Time 7602) 2002

G-String And A Toothbrush (radio mix) / Strong Enough To See You Go / No Romance, No Finance / Good Lovin‘ Daddy / Stop Playing Me Close / Round And Round / Still In Love / Dangerous / The Love I Never Had / G-String And A Toothbrush (club mix)

SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC (Good Time 7605) 2003

Southern Soul Music / Wish I Could Be There / I Want It (& Floyd Taylor) / Driftin’ Away / Cheat Receipt / Just Ain’t Working Out / Walkie Talkie Man / Drive Thru Love Affair / Single Mothers / Ooh Boy / Sugar Daddy / No Rang, No Thang

MORE LOVE (Phoenix Entertainment/Pegasus 1004) 2005

I Am Ready / Angel / More Love / Best Woman / Hot / Free / Bou Yow / Mr. Wonderful / Nothing From Nothing / Bop / Free, pt.2

REBIRTH / TONI GREEN’S GREATEST HITS (CharCole Prod.) 2010

All Over Me / Southern Soul Music / Body Search / Just Ain’t Workin’ Out / I’m Ready / Angel / Free / More Love / Best Woman / Single Mothers / Undeniable / Free (Part II) / Boy What Have U Done / Walkie Talkie Man / Hold On / Just Call Me / Cheat Receipt //

So I Can Love You / Don’t Do Me / Don’t Let The Morning Catch You / Strong Enough / Stop Playing / Still In Love / Love I Never Had / Bare With Me Children / Tired Of Being Good / Keeping Up With The Jones / How Do U Want Your Thrill / You’ve Got The Papers / G String / No Romance / White Dress, Blue Lady / Long Ride Home (& J. Blackfoot) / We Can Work It Out (& Stacie Merino)

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The main interview was conducted on July 20 in 2013 in Porretta Terme.

Acknowledgements to Toni Green, Graziano Uliani/Porretta Soul Festival, Juhani Laikkoja, David Cole/ITB and Anders Lillsunde/Jefferson. 

© Heikki Suosalo