Kent 302 - Judy Clay * Veda Brown - The Stax Solo Recordings (2008) + Booklet - Rare Soul (FLAC 541MB)

REPOST/UPGRADE from the old blog...Dug this out today with 2 great singers from the stax label, judy better known than veda but essential listening nevertheless, it deserves a re-run. Judy’s duet of ‘Private Number’ with William Bell might have overshadowed the rest of her Stax output in terms of hitmaking and world-wide recognition but you would have to have cloth ears  or a blinkered attitude not to recognise the quality soul worth of the rest of her Stax (solo) output featured here, not least the pounding ‘Your Love Is Good Enough’, issued here for the first time. Judy’s gospel upbringing is overwhelmingly evident on ‘Remove These Clouds’, a marvellous horn supported ballad penned by Bettye Crutcher and Allen Jones, while the deep ‘It’s Me’ is another triumph, both for Judy as a performer and Kent as an issuer, it only having previously appeared on a somewhat obscure sampler album in 1968......Veda Brown’s first two recordings at Stax were to become monsters for Luther Ingram, ‘(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right’ and ‘I’ll Be Your Shelter (In Time Of Storm)’. The bad news is that Veda’s versions never progressed beyond the demo stage, the good news is that they made their debut here on this CD baCK IN 2008, and the same goes for ‘Help me Make It Through The Night’ and ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’, together with a very sprightly ‘True Love Don’t Grow On Trees’ and an excellent take on Bobby Bland’s hit, ‘That’s The Way Love Is’. As far as her released product is concerned, surprisingly the infectious, funky ‘Take It Off Her (And Put It On Me)’ failed to chart but, thanks once again to Tony Rounce’s liners in the booklet, we’re advised the reason might have been due to the fact that the powers-that-be decided to flip the release in favour of the beat-ballad ‘Living A Life Without Love’, a song Veda disliked lyrically.  She didn’t like her answer to Ingram, ‘I Know It’s Not Right (To Be In Love With A Married Man)’ either. Fortunately, she did like ‘Short Stopping’, very much in the bag of Jean Knight’s ‘Mr Big Stuff’, third time lucky chartwise and now something of a Stax classic. Just one release later, ‘Don’t Start Loving Me (If You’re Gonna Stop)’ and Veda was off the label, an early victim of the problems that would lead to the company’s demise which we all know about. Veda never recorded an album only less than a dozen 45,s for Stax/Raken/RAV labels. Judy on the other hand only did one album with Billy Vera and 38 45,s she passed in 2001, but two great voices live on via this great CD.

AMM

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