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Its great to see more of you guys coming forward with your own reviews!.......This lady came to my attention once again on the dancefloors of the northern scene back in the day. With only this one album to her credit and a handfull of singles she is another artist to add to the great unknowns list of talent. Sharon (Soul) Seiger-Edmonds is a talented singer and songwriter from Harrisburg, PA who recorded for various record labels to include Coral, Symbol,Wild Duece, and All Platinum Records in New York City during the '60s and early '70s. Sharon had these aliases: Sharon, Sharon Soul, Sharon Seiger, Sharon Roberts, and Sharon Sole (misprint on this album).Sharon and Susan Phillips (One Of Yesterdays Posts) worked together at All Platinum. Sharon Soul, being extremely conscious of the social and political movements throughout the world during the turbulent 60s and early 70s, blended with deep spiritual inspiration, she wrote the lyrics to all the songs on this album with her husband Nate Edmonds at All Platinum Records in 1971. Nate Edmonds produced the album with "Sylvia" Robinson Of (Love Is Strange/Pillow Talk/Sugarhill Gang) Fame. The album was never officially promoted in the United States. Some years later, a war veteran would tell her that they played the album over “radio free Europe”, during the Vietnam War. She was also happy to learn that UK's Northern Soul community enjoyed her singles made during the 60s a fact not revealed to her until the year 2001. Her son Nate Jnr is a member of a well known soul forum here in the UK. Like so many other American women she was a white lady gifted with a superb soulful voice that did not go unnoticed by collectors and dancers alike.Apart from the album all her 45,s & dancers are also included apart from one C&W 45 that has no interest on this blog..and its crap!..Bonus tracks listed under back cover. No CD release for this gem!...many thx to USMan47 for xtra bonus track!
AMM
Review Courtesy Of Pedro
The Tasters!
Bonus Tracks
10.Everybody Gets The Blues Sometime - Symbol 11.Girl Crazy - Goldmine/Soulsupply 12.His Love Is Amazing - Coral 13.How Can I Get To You - Wild Deuce 14.Let Me Get To Know You - Coral 15.Passing Through My Mind - Symbol 16.Don't Say Goodbye Love - Wild Deuce 17.You Found My Weak Spot - Coral 18.Just How Long Can I Go On - Coral
From one Sharon to another powerhouse of a voice with another LP only release who again deserved a lot more from the music business than she odtained. With only two albums under her belt as a solo artist and again a few 45,s she vanished after spending some time with the Honey Cone replacong Sandy Wynns(Edna Wright). not much info out there about her but she goes from singing great uptempo tracks back down to sweet/deep mode,and a little funk also thrown into the mix and that unmistaken Honey Cone vibe..great stuff with those in demand dancers included
At 83, Chicago legend Buddy Guy remains the standard bearer for the
blues, an icon determined to see the art form live on long after he's
gone. Enter guitar phenom Quinn Sullivan, who has been mentored by Guy
since he was a kid. This stirring documentary, amplified by electrifying
musical performances, charts the guidance Guy himself received from the
likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf while observing the
Grammy winner passing his wisdom to the next generation.
This album is a true Holy grail for collectors and lovers of Soul music. A one off by Susan on Sylvia Robinsons All Platinum label. So rare that many collectors doubted if it was ever released as it was pressed in small quantities. Its classic early 70’s New Jersey Soul. Few copies have ever surfaced. For those lucky enough to have the Vinyl those 2 very indemand Northern Soul floaters are included "Answer To My Prayer" & "Please Don't Keep Me Lonely" which has had DJ,s and Collectors alike scrambling to get hold of a copy.Rare as rocking horse poo(excuse the pun).sadly there,s not a lot of info out there on the web about this superb songstress but believe me this album is PURE SOUL DYNAMITE!
This was James seventh studio album and he was still knocking out some soul drenched songs at this stage of his career. When i listen to this legend i regard him as a high priest of soul & gospel in his unique style and delivery of every track.cracking stuff!...not many tasters to choose from which is a shame.but you have them all here to enjoy!
Japanese keyboard legend Jun Fukamachi,s Long awaited hard-to-get CD "Jun Fukamachi & The New York All Stars
Live"was reissued at last in 2009. At this stage my vinyl was well worn so pleased to see this issued! It was a live recording in Tokyo Japan in
September of 1978 with all star dream band from New York City all americans jazz fusion artists. The sound
of the band is similar to Arista Allstars who recorded "Blue Monreux" album,
but the quality of the performance is much better in this Japanese live
album.The band is a who,s who of jazz Fusion giants..Awesome!
AMM
The Tasters!
Line Up
Keyboards – Jun Fukamachi Alto Saxophone – David Sanborn Bass – Anthony Jackson Drums – Steve Gadd Guitar – Steve Khan Keyboards – Richard Tee Percussion, Vibraphone – Mike Mainieri Tenor Saxophone – Michael Brecker Trumpet – Randy Brecker
At the time, booming Detroit was often referred to as “the Paris of the West,” praised for its picturesque broad river, wide boulevards, Grand Circus Park, and the architectural delights of its buildings, including the Central Train Depot, Masonic Temple, Institute Of Arts, Guardian Building and Fisher Building, with the Fox Theatre being the mecca to worship at its musical alter. Despite its visual attractions, Detroit has always been gritty as well as glamorous. “There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees. And there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living,” said crime novelist Elmore Leonard.As Michigan born Henry Ford grew his automobile dynasty in the early 20th Century, the Paris of the West gradually became Motor City. For decades, Detroit was the assembly line for most of the world’s automobiles. There were hundreds of car factories, including top plants by Ford, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, Chrysler, and General Motors. Oscar winning director Francis Ford Coppola was not only born in Henry Ford Hospital, he received his middle name as a tribute to the carmaker: Coppola’s flautist father, assistant orchestra director for The Ford Sunday Evening Hour radio show, wanted to honor a generous sponsor of classical music. Here we have a fantastic history of the Motor City and the early records that came to prominence via the stubborn digging of UK soul fans who couldnt get enough of that great citys sound. Most have gone down in legendary status as soul club/northern classics. Featured here is my own favourite...The uncrowned Queen Of Detroit Soul Bettye Lavett....This is really a greatest hits of the legendary Lu-Pine label...OH YEA!
Ask most people what Soul music is and the chances are a lot of them will come up with the sound on this CD. Traditional ‘Southern’ Soul. And here we have two Southern Soul songstresses for the price of one. What more could you want?....The contrast between the careers of Sandra Phillips - who’s sung for presidents, been received by the Pope and has appeared in a number of films - and Bette Williams, who disappeared into obscurity almost as soon as her last recording session was over, highlights the ups and downs of the soul music world. But lack of success in this genre rarely means lack of quality. Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams Jr was extraordinarily prolific during the early 70s and his name alone guarantees interest from those in the know about soul. I see his name associated with any form of music and i automatically buy it! Here are twenty one recordings that will have you all a quiver with excitement, whether you want wrist slitting ballads, cheating heartbreak, angry revenge, or a jump round the room. The connections between country music and soul music in both feel and emotional impact are very apparent on this CD, and the similar way life is presented in song. The titles often tell the story alone - If She’s Your Wife (Who Am I) (also recorded by Doris Duke), Please Don’t Send Him Back To Me, Another Man Took My Husband’s Place... you get the picture. The familiar structures of the music evoke memories of other songs, some better known than others and indeed a number of the handful of songs Bette/Betty Williams recorded (and two, included here, were unissued at the time) were recorded by other artists. The CD collects together all Ms Williams known recordings, mostly ballads, but her first release, He Took My Hand from 1970, is an uptempo Northern Soul Classic. The oddly titled (would someone please ask Jerry why?) instrumental flip side of the 45 is also included as a bonus track; also known to the Northern Soul crowd. A Feeling (For Someone Else Has Grown) is funkier in feel. Knowing some of the songs by other artists makes the quality of Bette’s voice even more apparent. They stand up to lasting scrutiny. As for Bette herself...the trail goes cold in 1972. Sandra Phillips’ earlier 60s recordings are Motownesque and so found favour with the Northern Soul crowd, as did a later one for Columbia’s’ Okeh’ label. But as we’re talking Southern not Northern Soul here, we get Sandra’s version of Doris Duke’s To The Other Woman (I’m The Other Woman) and a wonderful take on She Didn’t Know (She Kept On Talking) the song Dee Dee Warwick took to the charts during the summer of 1970. The CD opener The Rescue Song is a bit of a wow. Sandra is having an affair with her best friend’s man, but its not good... sample lyric “He’s asked me to do some things I know he wouldn’t ask his wife” and unless my ears deceive me, it involves his buddy too. Strong stuff for 1970. It would be unfair to pick one of this collection’s two wonderful singers above the other. The songs are all top drawer, the vocals are top drawer and of course the Swamp Dogg productions are impeccable, making it an album to savour, digest and enjoy....THIS IS REAL SOUL!
"West Side Soul" is the debut studio album by Chicago blues musician Magic
Sam. Released by Delmark Records in 1967, it is often cited as one of
the key modern electric blues albums. The album includes a re-recording
of Magic Sam's first Cobra Records single, "All Your Love" (1957), and an updated "Sweet Home Chicago", which became a popular blues anthem......Samuel Gene Maghett was born 1937 & passed 1969.. He was born in Grenada County, Mississippi, and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter. After moving to Chicago at the age of 19, he was signed by Cobra Records and became well known as a bluesman after the release of his first record, "All Your Love", in 1957. He was known for his distinctive tremolo guitar playing that many have tried to imitate and few succeeded. The stage name Magic Sam was devised by Sam's bass player and childhood friend Mack Thompson at Sam's first recording session for Cobra, as an approximation of "Maghett Sam". The name Sam was using at the time, Good Rocking Sam, was already being used by another artist.Sam moved to Chicago in 1956, where his guitar playing earned him bookings at blues clubs on the West Side. He recorded singles for Cobra Records from 1957 to 1959, including "All Your Love" and "Easy Baby". They did not reach the record charts but had a profound influence, far beyond Chicago's guitarists and singers. Together with recordings by Otis Rush and Buddy Guy (also Cobra artists), the Westside Sound was a manifesto for a new kind of blues. Around this time Magic Sam worked briefly with Homesick James Williamson. Magic Sam gained a following before being drafted into the U.S. Army. He served six months in prison for desertion and received a dishonorable discharge. In 1963, his single "Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)" gained national attention. He successfully toured the U.S., Britain and Germany. He was signed to Delmark Records in 1967, for which he recorded West Side Soul and Black Magic. He continued performing live and toured with a band that included blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite, future Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen bassist "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow and drummer Sam Lay. Magic Sam's breakthrough performance was at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, which won him many bookings in the U.S. and Europe. He sometimes performed with his uncle, Shakey Jake Harris. His career was cut short when he suddenly died of a heart attack in December 1969 He was 32 years old. Now regarded as a blues innovator and Legend this album highlights how ahaed of his time he was....Superb Stuff, i love this guy!! Even appealed to the Soul fraternity...I did post a Live album on the old blog so shout up if you want that.
The band was created by Raeford Gerald and only recorded this one studio album. They changed their name to Special Delivery adding Terry Huff as lead singer. Some of the guys came out of Detriot but producer/writer Rafael Gerald, already renowned for producing and writing much of Millie Jackson‘s first three albums,and his abundance of work on the Sring label. He hoped to strike gold again when he launched Act One in 1972 in Los Angeles. The group also included Reginald Ross, George Barker, and Roger Terry. Gerald had worked with these guys in the past and knew what they could do. The album was a flop but is now in demand with soul lovers. some tracks were minor hits around the states. On the bad side "Tom The Peeper" was a world wide smash in the disco,s...A record i loath but some liked it as it sold in droves back in the day. They disbanded shortly after with Raeford moving onto other projects. Apart from that "peeper" track it is a very good polished album now sought after by collectors. Raeford recorded under the name of Ray Godfrey ,no stranger to the northern scene with a few singles on Spring( co-singing with the Determinations) & Event. Lots of great dancers included with the bonus tracks. Again a shame they didnt do more albums.Bonus tracks listed under back cover.
AMM
The Tasters!
Bonus Tracks
01 Ray Godfrey - (Ooh Baby) I Want To Be Your Only Love - Mercury 02 Act 1 - I Never Had A Love Like Yours - Spring 03 Act 1 - A Whole Lot Of Love Makin' - Spring 04 Act 1 - It Takes Both Of Us - Spring 05 Ray Godfrey - I Gotta Get Away from My Own Self - Spring 06 Ray Godfrey & The Determinations - Come and Get These Memories - Spring 07 Ray Godfrey - I'm the Other Half of You - Spring 08 Ray Godfrey - Sherry Washington - Spring 09 Ray Godfrey - I Love You More Than Anything 10 Ray Godfrey - Hold On
To my shame this is the first posting of a James Carr album on the blog. That,s because there is so much great material and artists in abundance, arnt we the lucky ones!..problem is there isnt enough time for me in a day to do what i really want. Today ive been painting out a bedroom so i didnt think i would have time to do a posting. This sixth kent album rounds up all the remaining studio
masters of James, those still in existence, at least in a package
that upholds its title in every way. Kent take delight in the fact that, with this
release, at least one version of every traceable James Carr studio
recording is now available on an Ace or Kent. CD. When i get time (lol) i will post up the other 5 albums."My Soul Is Satisfied" covers virtually
the entire span of James Carr's recording career, from 1967 to 2000, in a
manner that befits the revered status of late great soulman. It
features unissued and hard-to-find material from every stage of his
career, including some of the best recordings you may have yet to hear.
It's taken over a year to check and double check all the original
Goldwax tapes in kents vaults, and to organise the licensing-in of the
repertoire James cut for Atlantic, River City and SoulTrax. The end
result was more than worth the time it took to pull it all together. ...In
the course of an hour and a bit we hear James at his mid-60s 'original
Goldwax' peak, with stunning alternate recordings, takes and mixes of
some of his classic Goldwax 45s and album cuts. We hear him duetting
with criminally under recorded Goldwax thrush Barbara Perry and having a
successful bash at interpreting Bacharach & David and
Holland-Dozier-Holland. As we move through the CD we take in both sides
of James' sole Atlantic 45 and all three of his mid 70s recordings for
River City (only two of which were originally issued) the sum total of
James' issued output between 1971 and 1991, in fact. The remainder of
the CD consists primarily of recordings that James cut with his mentor
and original producer Quinton Claunch as the 20th century drew to a
close and that were mostly originally issued on a SoulTrax CD that mixed
them with previously issued SoulTrax sides. Recorded with a real
Memphis rhythm section and featuring James in superb voice, these are as
much a treat for the ears as are the selections from a quarter of a
century earlier.Also included is what seems to
be the last recording James ever made, his demo of "A Woman's Got The
Power". Quinton Claunch told Kent that James wasn't feeling too well on the
day of the session, but that he agreed to lay a guide vocal of the
basic rhythm track with a view to going back and putting down a better
one when his voice was in better shape. Sadly that never happened, but
as you'll hear, there's nothing wrong with the basic, one take, job he
did here.One or two of the sources are sadly not of the
standard that Kent would routinely entertain on an Ace or Kent CD, but they
figured that James' fans would rather endure a bit of lo-fi here and
there than to be deprived of a precious unissued performance. Thus the
guys in Sound Mastering dept who made everything sound as good
as you'll ever hear it, anyway - were asked to relax their super-high
audio standards, where necessary, in the name of satisfying the James
completists (aren't we all that?). Most of the tracks sound colossally
brilliant, of course - and would probably have done so if James had
recorded them from inside a cardboard box. Fittingly the CD
concludes with the only three recordings of James Carr, gospel singer.
These were originally released on a now-deleted Jubilee Hummingbirds CD
back in the early 1990s, and it's a fair bet that a lot of James' fans
will not even be aware that they exist. Prior to becoming the great
southern soul stylist that he unquestionably was, the young James (and
his early Goldwax label mate O V Wright) had been a member of the
Hummingbirds in the early 1960s, so these three sensational sides were
something of a homecoming for him. I'm certain you'll agree that,
collectively, they provide a wholly appropriate way to close this very
special CD. And if all this good stuff wasn't already enough, theres a a cover shot of James,
taken in Memphis by Tav Falco in the second half of the 1970s, that has
never been published before in the booklet. Kent/Ace are always getting asked if there
is any more James Carr material in the can. Sadly, after this release,
the answer seems to be a firm 'no. This CD really does close the door on James Carr's
studio recordings, then it closes it in the most soul satisfying way
possible. As we all know the man is a LEGEND!
Celebrating female singers such as Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, and Whitney Houston who forever changed the face of popular music. Heather Small, Kym Mazelle, Leee John, and Jazzie B are among the guests who discuss how the artists influenced their own careers and how they broke down some very different barriers in very different eras.
The Story Of Janice ( the group) is the story of many mid 1970s soul acts, who passed through the genre with no tangible commercial success but who left behind a small and important legacy to remind the world of how different things might have been, if they’d just caught a break. Janice, led by Reggie Saddler and fronted by his beautiful wife, had great repertoire and, in Janice herself, a torridly impassioned singer who had it in her to become the next Gladys Knight. Their lone 1975 album sold only modestly on its initial release, but is now regarded as a prime example of mid 1970s soul at its most potent. The story of Janice (the group and album) began in the late 1960s, when guitarist/vocalist Reggie Saddler met Janice Barnett, a former beauty queen with a great voice and aspirations towards a professional singing career. The two fell in love, and Janice became the featured singer with Saddler’s six-piece band. The group was often called on to back visiting singers, or to be the opening act for touring bands. After performing as support for Ike & Tina Turner, Janice was asked by Tina to become an Ikette. She turned that offer down in favour of furthering Reggie’s and her own aspirations. At this time the group was based on the east coast, mostly working in and around New York and Philadelphia, but in 1974 they set up base in California. After their move they came to the attention of William Guest, one of Gladys Knight’s Pips, who was also a good friend of Detroit,s Harvey Fuqua. By the time of Guest’s introduction to writer-producer Fuqua, the Saddlers and their colleagues had already been together for almost five years. They had tried to get their recording career off the ground with singles for hole-in-the-wall imprints such as Aquarius and Panther, which led to their contract and masters being picked up by the New York based De Lite label. They released five singles on De Lite in a little less than four years, under a variety of names that included Janice and the Jammers, Reggie and the Jammers and the Reggie Saddler Revue. All their singles were good and all are nowadays collectable but they didn’t sell well at the time. Their lack of success might be attributed to the confusing array of group names that adorned the De Lite labels. Sometime in late 1974 Reggie, Janice and the guys auditioned for Harvey Fuqua. Fuqua had recently called time on a production deal with RCA, and had set up something similar with Berkeley’s Fantasy Records that would eventually lead to the formation of his own Honey label, within the Fantasy family. He had written and produced tracks for Gladys Knight and the Pips while at Motown and, like William Guest, he could not fail to notice how much Janice sounded like Gladys. Neither was he immune to her physical beauty and suggested that the group took her first name as its name and made her the focal point. Janice, the group, became the first signing under Fuqua’s production deal. They started work on their one and only album for Fantasy, in early 1975. Back then it was customary for most full service groups to perform only the vocals on their records, with session musicians being employed to provide instrumentation, but the full group line up of the Saddlers, bassist Freddie Morrison, keyboard player William Acosta and drummer Norman Fearrington were augmented only by some of Los Angeles’ stellar horn men including Ernie Watts, George Bohanon, Oscar Brashear who were specially imported into Fantasy’s studios, and Fuqua’s own occasional acoustic piano. You might expect that a seasoned songsmith like Fuqua would have had more input to the writing of the repertoire but five of the nine cuts were composed by Janice and Reggie alone whle they also had their names on two of the four Fuqua co-writes. Their own songs offer some of the album’s best moments and it was no surprise when the proto disco of ‘I Told You So’ was chosen as the single to trail the album. What was a surprise was that the single failed to make any impression on either the R&B or Pop charts, although disco play was substantial. It was a shame that the album entered the market without the benefit of a hit to push sales. Sadly, the album was bought and loved by nowhere near enough people to bring it any real success even after Fantasy culled an edit of the wonderful sweet soul ballad ‘Goody Two Shoes’ for its second single; it also flopped. The commercial failure of the “Janice” album was disappointing for all parties concerned. Shortly after it slipped into the deletion racks in late 1976, Fuqua signed a flamboyant 29 year-old San Franciscan, Sylvester James, who was already several years into a singing career that had brought him little other than a cult following. Under Fuqua’s supervision he would soon become internationally renowned as a superstar of disco. Janice, and Fuqua’s earlier signings quietly slipped through the exit door. Most people at the label were too busy shipping pallet loads of ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’ to notice. The septet does not appear to have recorded again as a group following the relatively muted response to “Janice”. However they kept their career alive until relatively late in the 1970s, opening for headline bands in concert and working a regular gig at the original Disneyland in Anaheim, Los Angeles for a lengthy period of time. But gradually the personal relationship of the Saddlers began to disintegrate and the group unravelled in the wake of their separation and divorce.Reggie kept a modified version of the Revue on the road until the late 1970s, when he became a born again Christian. Since 1979 he has continued to sing and preach as the leader of The Reggie Saddler Family, a gospel act that lives up to its name by comprising Reggie, his second wife Bridgette and their daughter Ingra. The Family tours the world and maintains an active schedule at all times, as a quick perusal of their website will confirm. Janice subsequently focused her attentions on acting on stage and TV, her role as Rosa Parks in Selma, the stage play about the life of Dr Martin Luther King, winning her many critical plaudits as well as working behind the scenes as a TV producer’s assistant. Eventually she also returned to singing for God, although unlike many born again performers Janice did not try to airbrush her secular career out of existence. In 1993 she formed N-Flight Records, with her former career boosters Harvey Fuqua and William Guest, cousin of Gladys Knight and former Pip, to record and release gospel music but the enduring appreciation of the original “Janice” album’s up-tempo numbers on the Carolina Beach Music scene led to her subsequently cutting some sides for Marion Carter’s Ripete label. For Ripete, her successful duet with Maurice Williams on ‘It Ain’t No Way’ led to the release of a second secular album, confusingly also called “Janice”, some 20 years after. According to her own website and from her base in North Carolina, Janice Barnett-Adams continues to lead a full and active life in the service of the Lord and has now added the role of televangelist to an already busy CV that, to quote from her online biography, also includes “preacher, teacher, motivational speaker, life coach, producer, singer, songwriter, actress, humanitarian, philanthropist, (television) personality, wife & mother”. She seems to be extremely proud of her earlier career achievements, as does Reggie and, as you will hear from the 45 minutes of music on this album, they both have very good reason to be. However you like your 70s soul, there’s plenty here to appeal to all tastes not forgetting the all-time floor filler that unites collectors and dancers from Manchester to Myrtle Beach, ‘I Told You So’. Although its fame has been limited to soul collectors for much of its life and, primarily, to those who love Northern Soul and Carolina Beach Music the “Janice” album should really have brought the five-piece group to worldwide attention 36 years ago. This album yielded 3 tracks that went huge on the Northern scene.A wonderful across the board soul gem!
Following on from John,s post yesterday comes this superb kent album.What was thought to be all the Aware material he cut was surprisingly incorrect. Thanks to the diggers at Ace/Kent they found enough material for a second album. These were cut after john returned from his intial year long stint with the Spinners, filling in while Phillipe Wynne was ill. Not surprisingly there are a couple of Spinners sounding songs as you would guess,something had to rub off with time spent with the band. His other album and last one recorded on Cotillion will be posted next week.Most of these tracks were previously unreleased and what a class act he is !!! Southern soul at its finest offering also with a few compositions by Sam Dees and Phillip Mitchell included.
These are R&B sounds that are still burning up dance floors across the UK,s Northern Rooms and Europe. In America too these kinds of sounds are becoming more and more popular with specialist nights springing up all over place which is good to see in this age of mainly Dire music ?...25 remastered selections present some of the biggest names in R&B including Ruth Brown, Little Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett plus many of the most hopelessly obscure. What they all have in common is the ability to make you shake your hips and stomp your feet to a beat ( or in my case shuffle around in a chair) that in many instances was getting us all prepared for the eventual arrival of what we still call soul music in the mid-sixties.Some great obscures killers in this little lot!
One of THE great voices in soul music,the unheralded John Edwards.This was his debut album of which he only recorded 2 solo efforts in the studio. He would go onto become the lead singer of the Spinners in later years, singing on some of their last big hits. This features John singing in a deep Southern Soul style going back to his roots. Once an extremely popular regional attraction, John moved from the chitin circuit to the big time when he joined the Spinners. Born in St. Louis, he began singing in men’s clubs while stationed in Germany during his Army days. When he was discharged, Edwards came to Columbus, GA. He appeared once with Wilson Pickett and then did several dates in Chicago, where he met Curtis Mayfield in 1968. Mayfield got Edwards a session at Weis Records and Jo Armstead produced “If I Don’t Lose My Head” in 1969. Armstead produced other singles for Weis and Twin Stacks before Edwards moved to Bell in 1972. Floyd Smith co-wrote and produced “The Look on Your Face,” after which Edwards moved again to Aware and in 1973. Smith produced his this LP. “Messing up a Good Thing” generated some attention. But it was “Careful Man” in 1974 that got Edwards his first and only hit as a single act. When Aware folded, Edwards did a few dates with The Spinners in 1973, but continued his solo career with Cotillion. His 1976 LP Life Love and Living contained some excellent deep soul tunes,that will be posted up soon, particularly “Baby, Hold on to Me,” but didn’t get much attention sales wise. Edwards joined The Spinners full time in 1977 and remained with them singing “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl” and “Cupid/I’ve Loved You for a Long Time” these were the biggest Spinners hits featuring Edwards to date. Sadly John suffered a stroke. He is recovering well and G.C. Cameron is standing in for him in the current Detroit Spinners line-up. This is top notch soul!
Back in the 1970,s there were a few acetates floating about the Northern Scene of this group. Even though i searched high and low i couldnt get my greedy hands on one. So i was delighted when those lovely guys at numero released a collection of their material in Vinyl initially then CD. In the USA AM radio listeners were hooked from the
first strains of Barbara Mason’s syrupy, 1965 Top 5 hit “Yes, I’m
Ready,” AM listeners of 1965 were hooked. The male back up singers,
including a young Kenny Gamble, ask Mason a simple question: “Are You
Ready?” The eighteen-year-old Mason drew her inspiration from that one
line when penning the song in the bedroom of her parents’ Philadelphia
home. Accounts differ on where she heard the query first, but just two
hours south on Interstate 95, a Baltimore group cut a record that
initiated the conversation. “Are You Ready,” asked the Chapells?
The group formed in 1964 when vocalists Ronald Hammond and Joe Wade got
together with guitarist Charles Addison and began scratching out songs
in East Baltimore. A record deal with the hyper local Double Check
imprint resulted in a 45 of “No Friends At All” b/w the titular “Are You
Ready” in early 1965. Mason’s answer song hit Philly airwaves in May of
that year and never looked back. “It hit Charles hard,” said his
brother Lindsey Addison. “Knocked the wind right out of him.” The group
fractured under the disappointment shortly after. A Chesapeake
Bay winter blew by before Charles Addison and Ronald Hammond reconvened
the Chapells. They deputized former El Domingos singer Lester “Chick”
Harris to lead the new group, and Harris in turn recruited a handful of
teenage girls from the neighborhood to update the Chapells’ doo wop
sound. In addition to Evelyn Robinson, Elaine Jenkins, and
fourteen-year-old soprano Alice Wilhoit, Harris put together a steady
backing band for the group that included Charles’s brother Lindsey on
drums and their first cousin Vaudry Thompson on bass. They spun their
tires in the local talent show circuit for three years before a chance
encounter on a flight from Friendship International to Atlanta Municipal
produced an opportunity to re-enter a recording studio for the first
time in half a decade. R.B. Patterson was in the midst of
running a profitable livery service in the Bedford Stuyvesant
neighborhood of Brooklyn when he got the idea to turn the garage space
into an after hours venue. “He spread sawdust on the floor to soak up
the oil,” recalled Lindsey Addison. With their shoes still tracking
sawdust, the Chapells were brought into a make shift studio on the 8th
floor of an office building in Midtown. “Searchin’,” “I Moan For You,”
“You’re Acting Kinda Strange,” and “Help Me Somebody” were cut in a
single day, and the group returned to Baltimore the next day. Patterson
added strings to “You’re Acting Kinda Strange,” a vibraphone to “Help Me
Somebody,” and his name to the credits on both songs and issued them on
Bedford Records in the spring of 1969. Aside from a few spins
on Baltimore’s WWIN, the record timed out quickly. Infighting over being
ripped off by Patterson divided the group over the following year and
they disbanded permanently in 1971. A set of lo fi demos tracked on
portable reel-to-reel in Elaine Jenkins’ basement captured the Chapells
evolving from vocal group to self-contained band, but were put in a
drawer until plans for this reissue developed 45 years later. The
Chapells asked the world “Are you ready?” more than 50 years ago. This
album finally answers that question. Some nice dancers not all in tasters, remembering the northern scene took them to their hearts as they always did with the unknown underdog!
Here,s their other compilation of nearly all their Arctic 45,s + 5 unreleased tracks. These girls never failed to deliver the goods. Although Honey & the Bees were more then competent as
vocalists, the material and arrangements amount to some pretty decent
Philadelphia soul from a time when the genre was starting to revolve
around the Gambell/Huff/Bell sound, with Baker/Haris/Young & Eli in attendance..Fab Philly Soul!
A supremely talented singer, guitarist, songwriter and actor, Josh White was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and passed 1969 in New York. He was a staunch civil rights activist, at a time when it was both unfashionable and dangerous, but after he was denounced as a communist by the McCarthyites, at the peak of his popularity, he was unable to work in the U.S. for more than a decade. He subsequently became one of the first Blues musicians to reside in Europe, basing himself variously in London (where he even had his own BBC radio show), Paris and Stockholm, as the work took him. These two albums, 'The Josh White Stories Volumes 1 and 2', were recorded in New York for ABC Records, in 1956-57, during his 'lost decade'. They were aimed at the burgeoning Blues Boom market in The States, and would ultimately serve to introduce him to a new, younger, hipper college undergraduate audience. Neither of these LPs has previously ever appeared on CD, which makes this compilation a mandatory purchase for Josh White and general Blues fans, alike.with 48 studio albums and 100 odd 45,s to his credit the man is up there with the blues greats!
