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July 11, 2010:
MICHAEL JACKSON REVISITED: THE PLEASURES OF THE DANCE FLOOR Almost a year ago to this day, while people were heaping enough praise on him to bury him twenty times over, I wrote a rather downbeat tribute to Michael Jackson essentially blaming him for all of black music's current woes. It was admittedly a little over the top. How can you blame the problems of an entire generation of soul music on a single performer, however influential?
Then a recent event made me rethink my opinion.
What?--you say.
No, it wasn't the new "controversy" video with Sir Charles Jones wearing a Michael Jackson tee-shirt, although that's a good guess.
First, here's what I wrote, the gist of which I still stand behind.
BEGIN ARCHIVES 6-9-09
The late Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) was no great friend of Southern Soul and R&B. Before he was well-known as a solo performer, in the early eighties, I can remember club-dancing to his music without knowing who it was, and I remember wishing the deejay would play something besides this thin-voiced, far-too-disco-ey music.
It wasn't until a couple of gritty, soulful reggae stars did killer covers of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" that I began to appreciate that tune. And when Rick James' "Super Freak" would start up in the club, I was ecstatic that some R&B with "meat on its bones" was booming out of the sound system.
It was amusing to watch the ebb and flow of the two crowds on the dance floor, one (the straight disco crowd) that streamed onto the floor when Jackson came on, and one (the funky crowd) that streamed onto the floor when people like Rick James, Cameo or Dennis Edwards came on.
Of course, "Thriller" and the magnificent "Billy Jean" would convert everybody, including me, into Michael Jackson fans. But then, what happened? Michael turned his back on his heritage, his gender and his Jackson Five roots. "He had become the "most recognized musical star on the planet," the "King of Pop," a position from which he could have carried the non-black audience into the nineties and 21st century as avid rhythm and blues fans.
Instead, a perverse self-loathing caused Michael to self-implode, denying the male hormones that electrified audiences in the video to "Thriller," rejecting the uber-classic soul grooves of "Billy Jean" for a life of pampered, ivory-tower solitude and vanilla, everything-to-everyone pop music.
Imagine how different the musical landscape would be today if Michael had embraced the blues and soul music from which he came and turned on an entire generation of all races who could no longer hear black music on the mainstream radio, as my generation did.
Michael Jackson's passing is sad for many reasons, but none more so than what was lost--the mainstream audience for soul music.
END ARCHIVES 6-9-09
I was reminded of this opinion piece while reading a news item recently stating that Michael's father was suing MJ's doctor. . . Does anyone in his right mind seriously believe that Michael's doctor was prescribing anything that wasn't approved by Michael? Does anyone believe that Michael wasn't making any and all of the decisions (down to the tiniest detail, just like in his music) affecting his "medications"? Why this need to identify a scapegoat?
I'll admit that my own faith in the integrity of Michael's self-awareness and self-possession was challenged by the details surrounding his death, especially the hoary revelation he was injesting drugs intravenously even while sleeping, a practice that must have astounded even the most hardened addicts of the day as the ultimate, can-you-top-this, terminal-city gesture of drug abuse.
But if I had doubts as to whether Michael had it "together," they were totally dispelled by that "event" I mentioned at the beginning.
I finally got to see and "live" another Michael Jackson experience: watching "This Is It," the 2009 film documenting the rehearsals for the aborted "This Is It" tour.
This highly-recommended documentary chronicles all the major songs, plus the elaborate dancing and performance routines Michael created to showcase them, for what would have been his biggest tour ever.
What an eye-opener. No wan, drugged-out Michael here. On the contrary, the film shows Michael at the top of his game. . . shaking the dust off one stand-out hit after another and fine-tuning each and every one with fierce involvement and razor-sharp creativity.
At one point one of the musicians--I believe it's the bassist, isn't it always the bassist?--remarks to the camera, "This is genius stuff going on here."
And he is right. Michael works on song after song from his catalog, expanding each into extravagant dance performances with a cast ruthlessly selected from a hungry, world-wide pool of applicants (also shown).
Michael stops song rehearsals in mid-bar if the slightest discrepancy from his vision arises. There is no pandering. But there is no question who is the boss. Michael knows what he wants and he is out to get it. In short, there is no hint of the vulnerability and fuzzy judgment of the hopelessly-addicted or celebrity-muddled.
The film also stresses the wide-sweeping scope of Michael's oeuvre. This is no one-song, one-album, or even one-decade artist. This is an artist who made great music for a generation, literally almost all of the years of his post-toddler life.
(Which brings up the interesting question: Did Michael ever "toddle"?)
And when, for example, he sings the long, lyrical, falsetto notes of the bridge of "Human Nature," there is no doubt that Michael is performing at a level no other singer of today and few from yesterday can match.
But the one thing that struck your Daddy B. Nice most in "This Is It" was MJ's physical magnetism. In light of his death, his often puerile public outings and his apparent drug-dependency, I had expected Michael to look frail, wan, delicate and vulnerable, a shadow of his younger self. What was my surprise, then, to see him promenading around the rehearsal stage like the graceful athlete and alpha-dog he is!
I've never been one to appreciate the role of back-up dancers in modern hiphop-style concerts and videos. And as much as the "moon walk" mesmerizes me, I'm not particularly drawn to the more mechanical dance routines Michael and other artists like Madonna use to pump up their stage acts.
What fascinates me are the little un-choreographed moves, the free-form body movement of a physically-charismatic person with a God-given sense of rhythm.
The film cuts back and forth between two or three major rehearsals, and in the most enlightening rehearsal Michael is wearing stovepipe-fitting orange pants that look like they're made from a soft, ribbed corduroy. These pants reveal muscular legs. In fact, Michael's effeteness seems to reside north of his belt buckle. He evidently had little desire to work out his upper torso. Below the belt--dancing, walking, running, sliding, turning and twisting--the man, it's clear, is as intact as he was twenty years ago, and what a "thrill" it is to witness.
Watching "This Is It" reminded your Daddy B. Nice of the primacy of dancing--not the choreographed extravaganzas specific to the "This Is It" or any other tour or video but the sheer, hypnotic power of the human body on the dance floor moving to the creative momentum of the music.
Every musician who has ever played onstage knows the ultimate performer is the club-dancer in the semi-darkness. . . of the floor, dancing under the strobes. The hierarchy of the club begins with those unique persons without a trace of self-consciousness who float out onto the floor, with or without a partner, moving to the musicians' beat.
That's who the musicians watch. That's who the club watches. The dancers are the song's ultimate and finest critics. And simply watching Michael Jackson move, that truth reasserts itself. Watching Michael move is like watching one of world's most exotic natural resources.
I've seen ballet, modern dance, opera, Broadway shows, off-Broadway shows and off-off-Broadway shows, and I'll take the unstructured dance floor for sheer fascinating dancing. Remember Rosie Perez dancing by herself during the opening credits to Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing"? That's the purity of a free-style dancer, and it can be seen in almost any town's local jukebox-driven hole-in-the-wall on the right night.
The overwhelming evidence of the This Is It DVD is that the white-faced, marionettish public caricature of Michael Jackson is just a facade--and not of much importance.
Watching Michael dance--and more specifically, watching Michael moving unconsciously in unchoreographed moments--you know you're watching the coolest, hippest guy on the planet.
--Daddy B. Nice
Bargain-Priced Michael Jackson "This Is It" DVD
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E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information, corections or opinions:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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June 26, 2010:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF REDD VELVET The Alabama-based singer Redd Velvet recorded a debut album, "Womanhood 101," recently. Sent to me for review, it's put me in something of a quandary. Frankly, I'm at a loss for words to describe what is missing.
The album is deserving of respect, but it's so far removed from anything Southern Soul that if I put it on the CD Review page--under a Southern Soul magnifying glass--it would get a "dubious" two-star ranking.
So it has sat on the shelf. The singer is remarkably skilled, and since there are at least two or three songs of note-- Wouldn't You Like To Know, "The Right Number" and "When You're Loving Me"--I have been reluctant to toast it with negative comment.
But the fact remains that it is "off" to the Southern Soul ear, and the reason I've brought these thoughts into "Daddy B. Nice's Corner" is that the music on this CD represents what most people (including the black audience) in this country think is contemporary soul music (if they think of soul music at all).
Hardly anyone outside the Delta understands the truly unique music being made under the name of "Southern Soul" music, and how different (and in my opinion better) it is from the music on Redd Velvet's CD.
It is impossible to describe Southern Soul to people who haven't spent any amount of time listening to local radio stations in the Delta, and by Delta I mean the "greater Delta," about a three-hundred-mile-wide swath of geography between Memphis on the north and Mobile on the south. (Mississippi, eastern Louisiana and Arkansas, western Alabama.)
Notice that this arguably arbitrary region isn't wide enough to take in most of Alabama or any of Georgia, where musical tastes (as measured on the radio) are profoundly different.
And the rest of the country? Fahhhh-ged-da-aboud-dit. Only the rare isolated souls (no pun intended) who crave the rarest of what's happening in music today are aware of Southern Soul.
So what can be said about Redd Velvet? Redd Velvet makes the kind of soul music that the rest of the country would logically consider just that. And once again, the difficulty lies in trying to describe how specifically Redd Velvet's music is different than true Southern Soul.
Redd Velvet--and here is the key fact--could be based in Boston, or in Seattle, or in L.A., or in Denver, and her music would sound no different that it does on this album. The influences are national, not the hermetically-sealed hothouse musical atmosphere specific to the cradle of the blues.
That's not meant as a put-down. Indeed, from a mainstream perspective, and from a commercial perspective, it's the way to go. The music is clean and soulful, but it's actually grounded in pop music and pop mannerisms, much like the work of one of Redd's primary influences, late Aretha. Even when it's blues-based (Redd Velvet's "Lying"), it sounds like smooth jazz, which still dominates black radio.
Redd Velvet, according to her media packet, has opened for Marvin Sease and the Temptations. She grew up in Southern gospel, but at an early age went into stage musicals and studied with opera-trained musicians who encouraged her to pursue classical music.
Redd Velvet was discovered as an R&B singer by Beverly Dangerfield of the Clara Ward Singers. "Haunted by the spirit of soul and blues," Redd says, she decided in favor of the "feeling that only soul and blues can give me." Since then Redd has built up a following in her home state.
--Daddy B. Nice
-- Bargain-Priced Womanhood 101 CD, MP3's
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June 6, 2010: Everything you ever wanted to know about. . .
THE CASTLE IN THE MIST CALLED MALACO
For most of today's Southern Soul and Blues community--that is, to all but a select inner circle of longtime veterans--Malaco Records represents something akin to the fabled castle of Camelot. It's surrounded by a moat and the drawbridge is seldom lowered, keeping out the riffraff seeking admittance, including countless independent artists, barely-domesticated managers, hapless record-label owners, annoying publicists, inquiring deejays and pesky writers.
But due to the vagaries of fate--in particular the untimely deaths of flagship artists Z. Z. Hill, Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis--and the label's reputation for exclusivity, Malaco now finds itself in the unfamiliar role of a bystander in the contemporary Southern Soul music scene, largely irrelevant.
The major players in the Southern Soul and Blues scene in 2010 are Ecko and CDS. Ecko Records is the Memphis-based label founded in the 90's by John Ward, formerly of Malaco, and CDS is the recently-formed, California-based label of Dylann DeAnna, formerly of the website "Blues Critic."
Malaco still owns the state-of-the-art business model, the cream-of-the-crop performers (Marvin Sease, Shirley Brown) and the universally-admired stable of studio producers, musicians and writers.
However, even conservatively speaking, Ecko and CDS are individually producing four times as many Southern Soul CD's as is Malaco, even if one includes the product published by Waldoxy, the spin-off label started by Tommy Couch, Jr.
Malaco can be said to have bigger fish to fry: contemporary Gospel and Christian records, back catalogs from labels such as Muscle Shoals and Savoy, and a surprising number of other lines of music having nothing in common with Southern Soul.
The number of Southern Soul CD's sold in today's piracy-ridden market by Ecko and CDS is paltry by Malaco's standards, which through much of the eighties and nineties was in the 10,000 to 50,000-unit area.
Malaco sold 500,000 copies of Z. Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues" in 1984, a number the best artists of today wouldn't dare to hope for. "Good Love" by Johnnie Taylor, I'm told, sold a million.
But the unexpected deaths of Hill in the mid-80's and JT at the end of the 90's, both in the prime of their recording careers, had to have been a devastating blow to Southern Soul's flagship label. (Also see the first three paragraphs of Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Reggie P.)
Would Malaco and Waldoxy be producing more Southern Soul records in the first decade of the 21st century if those artists were alive? And how much bigger would the genre be today?
Those are questions we may never have answers for. What we can do is answer a few of the most fascinating questions about the history of Southern Soul. Almost all of it reads like the Malaco time line, because if not for Malaco, Southern Soul might never have reappeared
Many (but not all) of the facts below are extracted from The Malaco Story, an "about" page on the Malaco website, which in turn is excerpted from "The Malaco Story" by Rob Bowman, award-winning author of "Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, published by Schirmer Books. The time-line format and greater cultural references are your Daddy B. Nice's.
Early 60's:
College students Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson start The Last Soul Company on a proverbial shoe string, booking bands for fraternity dances at the University of Mississippi. After graduation, Tommy Couch opens shop in Jackson, Mississippi as Malaco Attractions with brother-in-law Mitchell Malouf (Malouf + Couch = Malaco). Wolf Stephenson soon joins them.
1970:
First whiff of success. New Orleans-based producer Wardell Quezergue brings five artists to Jackson in an old school bus for a marathon session that yields two national hits: King Floyd's "Groove Me" and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff." The momentum soon attracts The Pointer Sisters, Rufus Thomas and even Paul Simon to the studio.
1972:
"The Harder They Come" Soundtrack appears. R&B fans begin to leave soul music for the new soulfulness of reggae.
1973:
Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," published by Malaco under extreme financial duress, earns gold records around the world, peaking at #2 R&B and #3 pop in the USA, and #5 in England.
1977:
The "Saturday Night Fever" Soundtrack appears. More soul music fans swell the exodus from traditional and "old school" soul, filling the disco floors and dancing to a more mechanical beat. Ironically, the demise of storied Stax Records in Memphis results in a bounty of talent for Malaco, including Frederick Knight, Eddie Floyd and David Porter.
1979:
The Sugarhill Gang records "Rapper's Delight," starting the modern rap era. What's left of the traditional R&B audience defects to hiphop. Frederick Knight's "Ring My Bell" is recorded by Anita Ward at Malaco's studio in Jackson, Mississippi with Malaco studio musicians, attaining #1 on both the pop and R&B charts.
1980:
Malaco hires Dave Clark, the "dean" of southern R&B promotion men (not to be confused with the TV's American Bandstand host). Clark soon recruits Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle and Latimore to Malaco.
Malaco stops trying to compete with mainstream labels and falls back on "down home black music." A new generation of key songwriters join Malaco, among them Jimmy Lewis, George Jackson, Larry Addison and Richard Cason.
1984:
Z. Z. Hill records "Down Home Blues." Here I want to quote Bowman verbatim.
"Since blues supposedly no longer sold, everyone was shocked when Hill's second album, Down Home Blues, sold 500,000 copies. It was the most successful blues album ever, revealing a core audience for quality blues records. It also became an anthem for R&B singers struggling against disco and the emergence of rap."
However, Malaco paid a price. The label never charted on Billboard for the rest of the 80's.
1984: Little Milton joins Malaco and records "The Blues Is Alright." Malaco's reputation as the home of contemporary southern soul and blues is solidified.
1984: Z. Z. Hill abruptly dies. His funeral is attended by a who's who of southern blues culture. Hearing Johnnie Taylor sing at the service, Tommy Couch invites Taylor to become Malaco's new flagship artist. Here I quote from Bowman again.
"In the 1970s, mainstream stars like Denise LaSalle, Latimore, Little Milton and, especially, Johnnie Taylor, sold 500,000+ copies of their hits. Now, they were consigned to the industry margins, selling 100,000 units at best. Soul was reclassified as blues because of an aging demographic. To most radio programmers, older black people listened to the blues. So, when Johnnie Taylor's fans grew older, he was a "blues artist." The music hadn't changed, but the way it was understood, marketed, and consumed had shifted significantly."
1985: Malaco signs Bobby "Blue" Bland. Malaco's Stewart Madison purchases the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, label, and publishing company.
1995 and late 90's:
Malaco signs Chicago R&B great Tyrone Davis. Johnnie Taylor records the Richard Cason song, "Good Love," which hits #1 on Billboard's blues charts and #15 R&B, becoming the biggest record in Malaco's history.
1999:
Johnnie Taylor records the "Gotta Get The Groove Back" album, with Southern Soul hits "Big Head Hundreds," "Soul Heaven" and "Too Close For Comfort."
2000: Johnnie Taylor dies.
2005: Tyrone Davis dies.
And that, in vastly simplified form, is how we as a Southern Soul community got from there--the late sixties, when soul and blues were fixtures of the pop charts--to here, 2010. The long, tortured rebirth of contemporary Southern Soul music owes its present vigor and very existence to the presence of Tommy Couch and Malaco Records.
And yet, to put things in cold perspective--units sold--Southern Soul artists still remain a blip on the national and international music scene, relegated to secondary status even in the R&B and blues markets.
This shouldn't deter anyone who loves the music or is bored with mainstream music. The blues of Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters fared no better before the mainstream discovered them--long after their primes. (See Daddy B. Nice's Home Page for the continuation of that story.)
But it's the big picture. Since the 80's, Malaco has been the big fish in a very small pond of old-school rhythm and blues--no more, no less. The big "catfish" has retired to its deep hole under the shadowy muddy bank, leaving the smaller fish to frolic and compete for bragging rights if not big dollars.
The intriguing question as we go forward will be whether Ecko or CDS or any of the other small indie labels--Wilbe, Milaja, Soul 1st, B&J, Brittany, Ifgam, Deep Rush, Mardi Gras, Latstone--will succeed at capturing the magic-in-a-bottle of the best moments in Malaco's history.
Insiders remain skeptical if not downright pessimistic. The young generation has never made record-buying a habit in the way the baby-boomer generation did, and the "grown folks" demographic Southern Soul targets isn't known for its conspicuous consumption.
Nonetheless, nothing sells--even in hard times--like entertainment. Z. Z. Hill and Johnnie Taylor astonished the radio programmers. Why not again?
The number of creditable performers in the Southern Soul genre, the competitiveness of the scene, and the exponentially-growing concert and touring phenomenon bode well. The elements are all there, ready to combust for some lucky, talent-endowed performer and label.
Meanwhile, Malaco remains on its hill in north Jackson, Mississippi, a living monument to the refusal of the music to die.
--Daddy B. Nice
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E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information, corections or opinions:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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May 16, 2010:
LaMorris Williams Is Southern Soul's New Cross-Over Star I've been talking about LaMorris Williams for two-plus years now, but it's hard for readers to relate when they can't hear a song or a sound sample. And it's hard for people outside of Mississippi to imagine what an impact his music has made on the local Southern Soul scene.
LaMorris is touring Mississippi almost on a nightly basis of late, so hungry is the audience to hear him, and so needful is he of dollars to get his long-anticipated CD, Sexy Soul Songs nationally distributed.
What is all the fuss about?
This is the LaMorris Williams whom Sir Charles Jones told your Daddy B. Nice "reminds me of myself when I was young and coming up."
But don't get the wrong impression. LaMorris Williams arrives without hype. His hype is based on the product--"Ring On Your Finger," "Impala (We Can Do It)"--that has riveted your Daddy B. Nice and LaMorris's legions of new fans. It isn't hype, it's justified praise.
For LaMorris Williams is a true original, the only young hiphop-oriented Southern Soul artist to come close to forging true Southern Soul "rock and roll."
And by rock and roll I don't mean the diluted genre of the last forty years which goes by the name of "rock." I mean the real, multi-racial rock and roll of the fifties and sixties, the music of Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, of Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix, the music that united an entire continent of diverse musical tastes.
Bigg Robb is capable but carries that old-school Zap baggage. Simeo has the technique but brings an urban slickness. Stevie J, another young Mississippean, came closest to a new-school, hiphop-quality, Southern Soul hit with "Because Of Me."
Stevie J.'s "Because Of Me" was daring in its understatedness. It combined the heart of Southern Soul with the up-to-date-ness of hiphop.
"Impala" is daring not only in its understated approach and up-to-date details but in its slowness. It's so slow you have to adust. Then you hear LaMorris's even more daring voice-over (adagio plus chutzpah!) and you know right away you're listening to something utterly original.
"Impala" (which was originally hand-distributed as "We Can Do It") is a metaphor for going to Mississippi. It says, "Slow down, and listen to me." And once you do, pleasure sets in with each unfolding verse and chorus.
The novelty of the voice-over that opens the song ("Me and Big Yayo was riding back from a show I did up in the Delta. We passed a little cafe. It looked like it held about fifty people. It had about a hundred cars outside. So we decided to turn around and go join the fun. . . ") is that it is a young person's voice, not an old lion like, for instance, Latimore.
And if there were any doubt of that, LaMorris openly worries about his "only ride home" if he chooses to stay with the pretty young woman he meets, the lover-to-be who drives an Impala.
LaMorris' voice has a honeyed Southern accent. There's an innocence to it. It's not tainted with the cynicism and aloofness of hiphop and alternative music stars. Imagine a young Andre' Benjamin from Outkast grafted onto a young Sir Charles Jones.
And yet, the arrangement of "Impala" has the dazzling aural environment of the most cutting-edge urban R&B.
Here is how your Daddy B. Nice summed it up in his
The DADDIES: Best Of 2009 Southern Soul Music Awards
Best Debut: LaMorris Williams
"Impala (We Can Do It)"---LaMorris Williams
A Southern Soul legend--the youngest of the gospel-singing Williams family--is born. In 2008 he teased us with "Ring On Your Finger"; in 2009 he wowed us with "Impala." The long-anticipated album will be available soon. These words--
"You can make me holler
In the back of my Impala."
--will become Southern Soul currency for years to come.
Well, the good news is that after long delays, the new album has appeared and is available. Go to:
LaMorris Williams Official Website
LaMorris' pedigree and background belie his age. A child prodigy born into a musical family, he began playing drums professionally with the Williams Brothers (his family's gospel group) at the age of seven and was singing professionally by the age of nine.
He has already partaken in enough musical projects to fill a lifetime. Interestingly, the work divides almost equally between gospel (Jackson Southernaires, etc.) and hiphop (David Banner, David Hollister, etc.). He's shared the stage with Bobby Brown and the late Luther Vandross.
LaMorris is currently working on an "Impala" video and a DVD documentary to include Sir Charles Jones, Calvin Richardson and Mr. David.
Mel Waiter's "Hole In The Wall" was a cross-over hit. It defined Southern Soul as a genre and it got the attention of blues-lovers. Ditto--a few years later--for Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It."
LaMorris's "Impala" represents the cutting edge of a new generation of Southern Soul music and a potential cross-over hit that may get the attention--not of blues lovers this time--but the ever-restless young audience that is just "making do" with current hiphop and urban R&B.
--Daddy B. Nice
See Review Of LaMorris Williams' "Sexy Soul Songs" in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
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E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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May 9, 2010: Anthony "Packrat" Thompson's Forgotten Talking Blues Classic, "95 South"
"My Name Is Big Jack Buford, The High Sheriff From Hell. . . " What with tornadoes, oil spills and flooding, it's hard to hold one's head up these days, and just when you thought you'd had enough of bad news, your Daddy B. Nice wants to talk the blues.
Actually, this website has given short shrift to the blues, but that's only because it's been so hard convincing the populace that Southern Soul music is distinct from the blues.
I've always liked blues that "pepped me up," blues you could dance to, blues--for instance--like "It's Bad You Know" by R. L. Burnside, a "Featured Artist" this month. And as I was lying in bed the other night, the chugga-chugga-talking-blues of "It's Bad You Know" reminded me of another, if possible, even greater song that came out around the same time.
The song embraces every "player" stereotype in the book, not to mention every "redneck" stereotype in the book, and it's never been done better.
Here are some of the lyrics, imperfectly rendered. The song begins with a listing of some north Florida towns the singer is driving through. Then the verse segues into:
". . .And I just love that town
They call Jacksonville."
(For anyone who has studied poetry, this talking blues is executed from beginning to end in perfectly-rhyming iambic pentameter.)
"I was southbound, people
In my Fleetwood Brougham.
Thinking about my baby,
Trying to get home.
Yeah. . . I was cruising, man.
All kicked back, doing the gangster lean.
"Well I pulled into the rest stop
To excuse myself.
I see a Smokey on the right
And one on my left.
When I left the john,
I bought an ice cold Sprite,
But when I got back to my car
There wasn't a Smokey in sight.
I thought everything was cool, man."
--Have you ever heard it? Imagine a vocal so deep it seems to be coming out of a well. Imagine a big well-dressed man with the poise of a cat. Imagine a mouth harp wailing away on a seductive hook and a rhythm section ferried along by a stinging guitar.
"Well I didn't think much about it,
So I hit the road.
Put in my Funkadelic tape,
And I begin to roll.
A little Muddy Waters,
Lightnin' Slim, Jimmy Reed,
I set my cruise control
So I wouldn't speed."
And then. . .
"Well, cruising through Daytona,
I crossed the Spruce St. bridge.
The sign said sixty-five
So man that's what I did.
I seen a sign straight up ahead.
Highway 44.
Whoa, a Smokey in my rear.
And one's outside my door.
He said, 'Pull over, boy,'
And cried, 'Well, well.
My name is Big Jack Buford,
The High Sheriff from Hell.'"
I looked long and hard for this record, figuring that like many of the Southern Soul hits (i.e. Ronnie Lovejoy's "Sho' Wasn't Me") it would be out of print, I wouldn't be able to find a copy. Not only that, I'd forgotten the particulars of who exactly had done it and on what album.
The song is by a band named Smokehouse and it's inspired by a creative genius and mouth harpist named Anthony "Packhouse" Thompson. Along with guitarist Robert Thomas, he put out an album called Cadillac In The Swamp that an All Music Guide reviewer called: "a torrid, steaming album, powered by the gutsy, powerful songwriting and singing of harpist Anthony Thompson. Smokehouse reworks the deep, swampy groove of New Orleans and Delta blues, adding the electric energy of Chicago blues."
R. L. Burnside used a New Waver named Tom Rothrock to customize his electrified blues in "It's Bad You Know." Smokehouse does it all themselves, and with perfect, hynotic precision. And yet, so pessimistic was I of finding this album for readers, I let out a yell of delight when I saw that it was still in print and did offer sound samples. However, the "High Sheriff From Hell" was not on the CD.
"Well he got out of his car," the song continues.
"Big stick and long gun.
He had a dog named Hitler,
He'd attack if you run.
He said, 'Out of the car, boy
With your hands in the air.
Spread-eagle, boy,
And you wait right there.'
Well he walked around the front
And he walked to the back
He said, 'How a boy like you
Afford this Cadillac?'
He said, 'Open up this trunk.
I got probable cause.'
I said, 'I ain't done nothin',
I ain't done nothin' at all."
As I relate the lyrics without the benefit of the music, I realize how frighteningly real the redneck vs. black situation on I-95 sounds. But the delivery is so strong and so confident you get the kind of effect that Ronnie Lovejoy coincidentally does in "Sho' Wasn't Me." You get a feeling of triumph on the part of the put-upon player. The song has the momentum of a raging river, and through every distraught word in the lyrics you sense the counter-balancing power and well-being and romance of the road, the euphoria the narrator feels as he's driving down the road in that big Cadillac.
"I had some money,
About eight hundred dollars in the trunk.
He said, "That money is mine, boy.
It's just tough luck.'
The ultimate punch line arrives.
"Well that dog sniffed my money
And he nodded his head."
The High Sheriff from Hell, Jack Buford, relies on the "words of a dog." The High Sheriff turns to the other Smokey.
"'You won't believe what he (Hitler) said.
He said book him.'
I couldn't believe my ears.
'He said book him,
And give him nine long years.'"
There are more great lines but I've already indulged too much. The good news is that, in contrast to so many straight Southern Soul classics lost to the collector, this blues number is still in print.
It's contained on The The Kingsnake Collection: Bag O' Blues, Vol. 2. It's Anthony "Packrat" Thompson's Smokehouse masterpiece, "95 South."
The Kingsnake label collection, which came out in 2000, a couple of years after Smokehouse's "Cadillac In the Swamp" album, also contains early songs by Lou Pride and Roy Roberts, among the few bluesmen I recognized.
And not only is the CD in print; you can even get an MP3 of this song for 99 cents.
It'll make you smile. I guarantee it.
--Daddy B. Nice
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E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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April 25, 2010: Southern Soul Statistics
Southern Soul Fans Are Night Hawks Just as certainly as fans request information with monthly regularity on Mel Waiters' tunes above all others, on Hardway Connection's "Peeping Through The Window" (with its Roy C. sample and its dick-is-too-short reference), on Mystery Lady's "I Hear You Knockin' But You Can't Come In" (most famously done by Queen Isabella), on Sir Charles Jones' "Slow Roll It" (most notably recorded by The Love Doctor), on Jackie Neal's death and on Jeff Floyd's music, so too do Southern Soul fans follow a consistent pattern when they're logging into Daddy B. Nice's website.
The days of the week may vary, but the hours when fans stir to life do not. The statistics show that Southern Soul music lovers--like bats, vampires, club-goers and musicians from time immemorial--throw off their torpor when the sun goes down.
Now whether this is because those fans/readers are working during the day is somewhat open to debate. However, the month-after-month data shows that Southern Soul fans burn the midnight oil into the wee hours at a rate that would be hard to accomplish with a schedule demanding a six or seven a.m. wake-up call.
So if they are working a day job, the majority of Southern Soul fans are enjoying "bankers' hours." Here is an analysis of the times when readers logged into SouthernSoulRnB during the last (and typical) full month--March 2010.
The readership is at its lowest point at 8 am in the morning. During the six to ten a.m. time period, the number of pages accessed by readers average around 500 per hour, with around 3,000 hits per hour.
"Hits" monitor the "clicks" that readers apply while on a single page, sampling music or other website pages through offsite-links and the like.
Bandwidth during these morning hours averages in the low sixties MB (the amount of server space being taken up by readers).
The morning sees a steady rise in readership, which continues to expand at a rapid rate each hour through the afternoon and early evening.
After a slight mid-afternoon spike in readership around 3 pm, readership continues its upward climb through the dinner and after-dinner hours, when three or four times the number of users are enjoying the site than in the morning.
Thus, in the early afternoon, the website averages twice the number of pages (800 to 1200 pages) than in the morning, with 12-14,000 hits (clicks). Bandwidth also doubles.
Then, from about three in the afternoon to ten or eleven at night, the website readership surges yet again, to an astounding high in the upper 200's in bandwidth, with up to 2000 pages and 18,000 clicks per hour.
Finally, at midnight and thereafter, the "freaks come out" in numbers that would make you think the website was offering a banquet table of complimentary all-you-can-eat ribs and deep-fried shrimp.
The peak hour is midnight, when an incredible 2,216 pages, 20,815 hits, and a 323.59 MB bandwidth occur, closely followed by the one o'clock a.m. hour, when 2,033 pages are accessed, 19,596 links are clicked, and a day-topping bandwidth of 339.49 MB is achieved.
The most incorrigible nighthawks keep reading until two or three am., with numbers only slightly lower than midnight and one a.m. Only then, as the night inexorably rolls into the early a.m., gone-but-not-forgotten DJ Uncle Bobo's time slot (3-6 am), do the numbers begin to drop until seven or eight am, when Southern Soul is once again at low tide.
Where do you place yourself? Are you one of the majority nighthawks, or do you defy the trend? Doesn't really matter. Southern Soul music sounds good at any hour of the day, as guys like WMPR's DJ Outlaw (who plays Southern Soul from 5 am to 8 am) and your Daddy B. Nice, who rolls out of the sack to listen to him at 6 am daily, can attest.
--Daddy B. Nice
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daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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April 1, 2010
"I'm Into Something": Cicero Blake's Overlooked Masterpiece One of the great accomplishments of contemporary Southern Soul music is that it has inspired a new generation of young people to record traditional verse-and-chorus soul music.
One of the biggest downfalls of Southern Soul is that even while interest in the genre has grown, the greatest and most inspired songs--the songs that capture the essence of the music--have in many cases gone out of print.
For example, the other day I recommended Ronnie Lovejoy's "Sho' Wasn't Me" to a person who expressed interest in hearing Southern Soul. When I saw him a few days later, I asked him about it. He didn't seem enthused. He said he'd looked up the tune on I-Tunes, but it was under another title.
What had happened was that he had found "Still Wasn't Me," the mediocre follow-up (done a few years later) to "Sho' Wasn't Me." He couldn't find "Sho' Wasn't Me" because it's no longer available.
Lee Fields' "(I'll Put My) Life On The Line" is another out-of-print classic. Glenn Jones, whom most people know as a "smooth" or "urban" R&B singer, recorded one of the most indelible classics of Southern Soul--a tune called "Baby Come Home." It's been out of print for many years.
Even many of the seminal songs by what might now be called the "middle generation" of Southern Soul stars--artists such as David Brinston and O. B. Buchana--are out of print. I'm thinking of "Kick It" (Brinston) and "Let's Get Drunk" (Buchana), recorded at the small but influential Suzie Q label. Every time a small label goes out of business, the classic music recorded on that label disappears.
Now we can add yet another mainline Southern Soul classic to this unfortunate list: Cicero Blake's "I'm Into Something." Hard though it may be to believe, this song deserves to be in the select company of Lovejoy's "Sho' Wasn't Me."
Your Daddy B. Nice never heard this song in the nineties, when Cicero recorded it for Valley Vue Records on the Just One Of Those Things album.
Thanks to the deejays at WMPR (Jackson, Mississippi), however, I heard it a few times over the last years, and commenced a search for its origins that has finally come to fruition.
The lyrics to the song, written by Bob Jones, go like this:
"I got caught up in a trap
That I'm not too proud of.
You see, my part-time play-thing
Become my full-time love.
She greets me with a smile,
Says good-bye with a kiss.
Her love set my soul on fire.
I can't go on like this.
I'm in love.
It just won't leave my mind.
I got a part-time woman
And I love her all the time.
Yes, love her all the time."
If you have never heard this song, you will have a hard time finding a way to hear it, outside of requesting it from longstanding deejays such as Ragman, Outlaw and Handyman at WMPR.
How I wish I could corral the many young musicians who mistakenly call themselves "southern soul musicians"--sit them down and play them Cicero Blake's "I'm Into Something" over and over again until they begin to understand what Southern Soul is really all about.
All of the elements that make Southern Soul the finest elucidation of soul music in this era are present: unerring authenticity, killer rhythm section, take-no-prisoners, guitar-driven hook, smoky and atmospheric keyboard, heavenly banks of horns on every chorus, and making all that seem incidental, the incomparable vocal of Cicero Blake.
There was a time when All Music Guide--to which the album links above transport the reader who wants to sample tracks--contained a feature that linked out-of-print albums to used-record sites such as Amazon.com. It might say something like 2 albums available from $17.99 to 79.99. And often the fact that the albums were available on the used-and-rare record market enabled All Music Guide to offer samples.
Sadly, that feature has been removed. If it were still extant, Blake's album from the nineties would probably be fetching a hundred dollars or more on the rare records market.
There is some cause for optimism, however. Yesterday your Daddy B. Nice spoke with Cicero Blake, who--now in his mid-seventies--lives in an apartment in a retirement community in Chicago. He recently re-recorded the song with Carl Marshall in Houston for an upcoming album (no title as yet) for CDS Records.
Neither Cicero Blake nor your Daddy B. Nice believes this remake will approach the power and intensity of the original, but it's an effort for which Dylann DeAnna and Carl Marshall of CDS should be commended.
This will be a full Cicero Blake album, tentatively scheduled for a May release, and it will contain a new version of another signature song Blake first recorded in the sixties: "Here Comes The Heartache."
--Daddy B. Nice
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E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information, corections or opinions: daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
JULY 2010
1. "I Lived it All"----Carl Marshall
What a rhythm section. Every time I hear this drum, bass and rhythm guitar I'm torn between kneeling and genuflecting, dancing, or following in a long line of wild critters drawn by the flute of the Pied Piper.
Fans who weren't around when "I Lived It All" was first recorded may remember the more recent Patrick Harris songs "Right On Time" and "I Fooled You This Time," which borrowed some of their inspirational flavor and their distinctive, high-pitched synthesizer fills from Carl Marshall's classic.
"I Lived It All" is not only a reminder that grief and adversity are still the ultimate attention-getters but proof that the human character conquers and triumphs by living "to tell it."
Bargain-Priced Love Who You Wanna Love CD
2. "I'm Throwing In The Towel" ------------Earl Gaines
In tempo and mood this majestic ballad recalls Donnie Ray's "If I Could Do It All Over." Earl Gaines sings real, down-to-earth, blue-collar Southern Soul as few ever have. His recent passing isn't even hinted at in the easy-going, full-chested power with which he delivers the song's rueful message.
Move over and make room in your pew in Southern Soul Heaven, Ray Charles.
Bargain-Priced Good To Me CD
3. "Same Soap" ---------------Omar Cunningham
Omar Cunningham is slowly becoming the headliner of Southern Soul's shining 2nd generation of stars, including Sir Charles, T.K. and O.B. As a vocalist he's the equal of any of them, and his compositional skills set him apart.
"Same Soap" isn't his best to date, but it's something of a thematic departure from Omar's typical nice-guy image. As the "cheater" he has to use the "same soap" he lathers with at home. Come to think of it, "Beauty Shop" (another "cleansing" song) was at bottom about a cheater.
From the upcoming album Worth The Wait.
4. "Time" (The MP3 Remix)--------------Frank Mendenhall
This souped-up version of the signature song by one of Southern Soul's most beloved passed stars
continues the "retro" feel of this month's Top Ten singles. For Mendenhall fans it's a rare opportunity to hear a "fresh" tune posthumously.
Your Daddy B. Nice has no available links to any CD or EP (and no hard-copy "best-of album" exists). However, Jerry "Boogie" Mason, who played the track on Jackson's WMPR the other day, informs me you can find the "Time" remix as "an alternate take taken from the itunes download of the best of frank mendenhall."
5. "I Don't Mind Being There For My Man" -------------------Special
I just heard this song for the first time, five years after it was published, and this despite being peppered with e-mails about Special (I always thought it was the same writer) for at least two of the five. A Bigg Robb-produced act, Special did the "Girlfriend To Girlfriend" cover of Shirley Brown's classic that had heads wagging a few years ago.
What will turn your head about "Being There For My Man" is that it sounds like Syleena Johnson singing "Guess What," only better. In fact, I thought it was Syleena finally striking gold in a Southern Soul way for the first time since her early hit.
Special robs "Guess What" blind, but since Syleena hasn't pursued Southern Soul anyway, that's a good thing.
From the same CD as "Girlfriend To Girlfriend."
Bargain-Priced Tired Of Being Quiet CD, MP3's
6. "You Deserve Better"------------100% Cotton
After years of sending your Daddy B. Nice a steady stream of execrable, morbid, one-dimensional, one chord MP3's, Terry (100%) Cotton finally wises up and gets some first-class help: a fine lead male singer and a fine female back-up singer.
Making a record the Bigg Robb way, with an entourage of talent worthy of Cotton's great expectations, pays off in an amazing vintage-sounding soul extravaganza. Congratulations to the young artist for perseverence.
This is the kind of soul song perfect for driving in a light evening rain with the windshield wipers swishing and romance at the end of the journey. Think Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness." The female-sung stanza is so Southern Soul-ful it'll give you goose bumps.
What are the odds of there being two 100% Cottons? Good, evidently, in this Internet age. Not to be confused with "Tony" (100%) Cotton, another young artist with a much slicker, lighter sound.
Bargain-Priced Keepin' Southern Soul Alive CD, MP3's
7. "Don't Blame It On Me" ------------The Winstons
Want a hit? Get yourself a solid bass line. Kick out a melody. Keep it simple. Don't be afraid to be "pop." That's the formula this likeable beach-music ensemble from D.C. has utilized for years. "Don't Blame It On Me" also boasts a wild and funny cameo by a bitchy mate in no mood to raise a child alone.
Don't Blame It On Me EP, MP3's
8. "One Woman"------------Certified Slim
Another solid and soulful ballad from the "Birthday Suit" man. (See DBN's #2 Single, May 2010.)
9. "Family Reunion"------------Bigg Robb w/ Shirley Murdock
This is a daring record for Bigg Robb, eschewing almost all the old by now familiar tricks in favor of a new, stripped-down, relatively-modest sound. The simplicity puts the emphasis on the execution and Murdock and company do not disappoint. Each listening sears the groove a little deeper into the ears' pleasure zone.
And to think your Daddy B. Nice just missed his own family reunion for the third year in a row. Not good. Sorry, Robb.
Bargain-Priced Jerri Curl Music CD, MP3's
10. "Tired"--------------Kelly Price
Whew! I'm tired by the time she's done with this Wagnerian rant. Rant doesn't even begin to describe the tsunami-like power of both the vocal and the arrangement. It's like being sucked out a hull-breached airplane at ten thousand feet above the earth.
I'm also touched that Kelly is using "Boogie" to promote her music, which means she's at least aware of the attention we've given her in the Southern Soul community.
Brand new--not on an album yet. But you might want to check out:
20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection CD: Kelly Price
STILL CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF. . . . . .
"The Man In The Drawer"---------Andre' Lee
"Reach Out"------------Stan Mosley & Friends
"Mistreated"----------Margo Thunder
"You're The Kind Of Woman"---------Columbus Toy
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
JUNE 2010
1. "I'm Going Solo"-------Narvel
No one beats the bushes for that country talent like your Daddy B. Nice. DJ Mighty Burner, who hosts an early-Saturday-morning show at Jackson's WMPR, caught my ear with this raw, energetic cut by a young performer out of Greenville, Mississippi, where muddy water runs out of the taps and (say the natives) makes everyone live longer.
"I'm going solo,
For the meanwhile.
I'm going soooo-loooooo
For the meanwhile."
Narvel, who sings the socks off of this song--who sings it like he really means it--has a 3-song CD which came out last winter--no distribution yet. A previous 2-song set is available at CD Baby, where you'll discover Narvel's last name is Echols!
2. "I'm The Man For The Job"-------------Lee Shot Williams
You either love or hate that stinging rhythm guitar lick. Once you "like" it, it's all over. The vocal is one of Shot's best and wildest, and the female chorus is funny and deliciously salacious. I still don't know what half of it's about (other than sex), and I don't care. I just love the Lee "Shot" sound: both the nostalgic but caustic vocals and the bizarre but apt arrangements.
Bargain-Priced I'm The Man For The Job CD
3. "That Girl Belongs To Me"---------------------Willie Clayton & Charles Wilson
This notable collaboration provokes many thoughts. One is. . . Willie Clayton singing background? How can you lose? Another revelation is how much Charles Wilson's vocal tone, which on "lightish" tunes can be cloying, is enhanced by the bubbling-brook-of-soul stylings of Clayton. Both stars shine, and this song is undoubtedly headed for the top of the charts.
4. "Baby Daddy"----------------Bobbye "Doll" Johnson
Wonderful, mid-tempo ballad in the best tradition of Gladys Knight, Dianna Ross & The Supremes and Carole King. Bobbye's previous album, Rocking This Boat, is highly recommended, and it's good to see Bobbye coming into her own.
5. "What Do The Lonely Do When The Lights Go Out"------------Joy
Joy finally breaks through with a song that, while not the equal of her one-of-a-kind "Cuttin' Up Sideways," is at least in the same ballpark.
6. "(At Midnight I Get Lonely) I Gotta Get Next To You"-----------Ric E. Bluez
"I know that voice," I thought when I heard this tune out of the blue, but it wasn't somebody famous. My guess it's by an artist whose debut, Sexy Soul (2007), was very good. His name is Ric E. Bluez.
7. "All About You"--------B. B. Queen
Cabaret music meets Southern Soul. A simple lead guitar intro leads into B. B. Queen's heartfelt vocal, whereupon an even more intense guitar solo closes it out. B. B. Queen should have a business card made up: Diva: Have Guitar, Will Travel.
Bargain-Priced I Can Play Da Blues CD, MP3's
8. "Mister Can I Shine Your Shoes" ---------Luther Lackey
Another accomplished ballad from the The Preacher's Wife album--Luther's third top-ten single from the disc in as many months.
Bargain-Priced The Preacher's Wife CD
9, "I Won't Be Back"--------------Ms. Jody
Ms. Jody meets Dionne Warwick. Interesting and catchy. And also her third top-ten showing in as many months.
Ms. Jody's In The Streets Again CD, MP3's
10. "Southern Soul Lover"---------Black Zack
It ain't "Sho' Wasn't Me," (Black Zack's recent cover of the Ronnie Lovejoy classic) but it's so enthusiastic it's infectious.
STILL CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF:
"I'm Stuck On Stupid"----------Chandra Calloway
"I'm With You Baby"----------Nellie "Tiger" Travis
"Get Out"--------------Pat Cooley
AND. . .
"I Had A Dream"-----------Charles Blakely
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
MAY 2010
1. "If She's Cheating On Me, I Don't Wanna Know"-------------Luther Lackey
The lullaby-like melody and the gospel-drenched choruses have the familiar feel of a childhood nursery rhyme. The brilliant lyrics end with:
"If she's with Marvin Sease,
He's a candy-licker.
If she's with Theodis,
He's standing up in it.
But I'm in trouble
If she's with my brother.
If she's with O. B.
He ain't playin' with it."
Bargain-Priced The Preacher's Wife CD, MP3's
2. "Birthday Suit"--------------Certified Slim
An emotionally-true, mid-tempo outing in the classic understated mold of William Bell. The carnal lyrics--
"I'd like to see you
In your birthday suit.
Nothing else but
Your high-heeled shoes."
--are delivered with a lover's reverence.
3. "Everybody Knows (It's A Small Town)"---------------------Tre' Williams & The Revelations
As much as I liked it, I'll admit I suspected Tre' Williams' soulful breakthrough "I Don't Wanna Know" would be a fluke by a northern band. Not only are the Revelations touring the chitlin' circuit and giving its audiences love, the band more than proves its Southern Soul mettle with this awesome follow-up reminiscent of Gene Pitney's "A Town Without Pity."
4. "P's & Q's"----------------Reggie P. and Sir Charles Jones
Once you adjust--that is--once you're comfortable with the snippet of a melody, the in-your-face rhythm track and the wash-of-strings mix--you can sit back and listen to two of the most exciting vocalists in Southern Soul trading stanzas like the greats of old.
5. "Reality Slowly Walks Us Down" -------------LGB
One of those special debuts that makes you wonder, "Why wasn't this niche ever filled before?" LGB is a huskier-voiced Barbara Lewis sound-alike. The odd title masks an incredible song done in the Lewis style that must be heard to be believed. At times LGB outdoes her influence.
Bargain-Priced Reality Slowly Walks Us Down CD, MP3's
6. "Outside Man" ---------------John Cummings
This song. I presume, is by old friend and venerable Southern Soul songwriter John Cummings, and it's good for the same reasons as the songs of songwriter-slash-performer George Jackson or the Floyd Hamberlin (Will T.) version of "Mississippi Boy"--it's raw, direct and vulnerable.
Bargain-Priced Good To The Last Drop CD, MP3's
7. "Got A Good Woman" ------------Lee "Shot" Williams
Leeeshaaaaaad ventures into B. B. King territory and triumphs with an authentic delivery. He sounds like he's singing through a broken bottle in a dark and twisted, sticky-countered, butts-on-the-floor dive.
Bargain-Priced I'm The Man For The Job CD, MP3's
8. "Don't Give Up On Our Love"---------Latimore
The romantic and dreamy atmosphere reminds me of Clarence Carter's poignant "What Was I Supposed To Do?"
Bargain-Priced All About The Rhythm & The Blues CD
9, "Sorry, I Didn't Know It Was Your Momma" -----------Lenny Williams
It's not "Can't Nobody Do Me Like You," but it's hooky. And it'll have to do until Lenny breaks out the next big one.
Bargain-Priced Unfinished Business CD
10. "You Won't Miss Your Water"-----------Falisa JaNaye'
An impressive debut from a singer whose diminutive frame launches a big punch.
Bargain-Priced Sweet Love CD, MP3's
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
APRIL 2010
1. "Everybody Makes Mistakes" ------------ Bigg Robb
From Bigg Robb's upcoming album, Grown Folks Gospel: Songs Of Encouragement, "Everybody Makes Mistakes" is the big man's greatest song since his cover of "Good Lovin' Will Make You Cry," and as with that tune, Robb's synthesizer-enhanced vocal on the memorable chorus makes you forget you ever cared about the human voice.
2. "If They Can Beat Me Rockin'" --------------Vick Allen
When I heard this on the radio, I was blown away by the surprising hootenanny style. "Beat Me Rockin'" sounds like it was written by label-mate Omar Cunningham with a Vick Allen-style bridge. Yet another hit from last year's Truth Be Told album. Great rhythm section.
Bargain-Priced Truth Be Told CD, MP3's
3. "No Ordinary Pussycat" by Ms. Jody w/ J. Blackfoot
It's just the kind of Top 40-style song I wish Ms. Jody had put on her Ms. Jody's Back In The Streets Again album. "No Ordinary Pussycat" is actually an under-played version of the "Meow" song from J. Blackfoot's Woof Woof Meow CD in which Ms. Jody contributes 95% of the vocal.
4. "The Preacher's Wife"---------------Luther Lackey.
The brash, musically-sophisticated title cut from what might be the first great Southern Soul CD of 2010: The Preacher's Wife. Luther's back, baby.
5. "Be A Man"---------------------Pat Cooley
Really love the acoustic, Latin-flavored sound of this record, anchored of course by the authentic Southern Soul singing of Pat Cooley, without which it would fall apart. It's a new and viable direction for Southern Soul, and it reminds me of the affecting version of "Ain't No Sunshine" by Sir Charles Jones on his most recent album. Both songs showcase the strength of Southern Soul--its singers--against minimal backgrounds with stunning results.
Bargain-Priced Cougar CD, MP3's
6. "All Of You, All Of Me"-------------Floyd Taylor
What can you say about Floyd? He's as consistently dependable as the old masters like Willie Clayton and Marvin Sease and Mel Waiters. On this classic slow jam he curls his voice around the lyrics with typically sensitive care. The background chorus is to die for.
Bargain-Priced All Of Me CD
Comparison-Priced All Of Me CD
7. "Mississippi Girl"------------Wendell B.
One of the new cuts from Wendell B.'s still hard to get pair of new LP's.
8. "The Bop"-------------Ms. Jody.
This one IS from Ms. Jody's Back In The Streets Again. "The Bop" is a throwback--almost like a line dance from the late fifties or early sixties. And if you like your great soul divas negotiating dance tunes (as I do) it'll quickly grow on you.
9. "My Old Man & Mrs. Jones"-----------------Pat Brown
The new and long-anticipated album by Pat Brown is due soon.
10. "Cheating On The Back Street"----------Adrena
Adrena has all the tools--and a better-than-average song on which to showcase them.
Cheating On The Back Street MP3
Still Can't Get Enough Of. . .
"Love Is The Reason" ------------Sonia Moree
Sonia Moree sounds raw, like a blues-belter or a gospel singer doing a Southern Soul song, and in a rare reversal of what usually happens, it comes out sounding like Southern Soul. Its a fascinaing combination and an interesting record.
Bargain Priced A Thrill Still CD, MP3's
"Mind Your Business" --------------Heart 2 Heart Band
A new act with an obviously-seasoned lead singer. Southern Soul all the way, although you don't often hear "live" saxaphone solos. Good for them.
Bargain Priced Mind Your Business CD, MP3's
"Sho' Wasn't Me"--------------Black Zack
One more time for the rap-over-Ronnie Lovejoy cover. It may have been a "perfect storm" of creative collaboration, the likes of which we'll never see again: Black Zack, Bruce Billups, and the late Fred Bolton.
And with the Lovejoy original out of print, I find the Fred Bolton sections of this song to be the closest thing to the Lovejoy soul that exists, including Tyrone Davis and all the others.
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P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
MARCH 2010
1. "I Ain't Gone Do It"------------Mel Waiters
Everyone's been holding their breath, waiting for Mel's next big thing. Exhale. It's a beaut', with an Omar Cunningham-like background singer (maybe Omar himself), a foxy beat and even a dash of rock guitar.
2. "I'm In Love With A Woman Other Woman Talk About"----------Captain Jack Watson
Carl Marshall serves up this feast of a ballad showcasing an artist--Captain Jack Watson--who has perfect Southern Soul pitch and perfect Southern Soul tone.
3. "Come On Let's Dance"-------------Donnie Ray
This uptempo tune sounds simultaneously like a slow jam. Its romanticism is so full-fledged and unapologetic it takes you back to another, more innocent, era.
4. "Am I Mr. Right"----------------William Bell
No telling how good this new one from William Bell is. The groove is so patented-prime Bell that it may very well become as big as William's recent "New Lease On Life." Love those disco effects, too. Bell's soulfulness insures they work.
5. "Can I Get To Know You Girl"------------ Bigg Robb
This mellow tune--the best hip-hop-produced Southern Soul you're going to hear anywhere--has just enough punch to make it interesting.
6. "Get Out"--------------Pat Cooley
One of Pat's best. The song rocks. Pat Cooley just keeps coming at us, with one single after another.
7. "I Ain't Your Lady"-----------B. B. Queen
Her work may sound a trifle thin on first listening, but there's undeniable substance to B. B. Queen, in the way there was a substance to Jackie Neal's early efforts.
8. "Guitar Cry With Me"-----------Unckle Eddie
Unckle Eddie shifts from humor to current events with this interesting cut.
9. "Alvaretta's Night Out"--------------Robert Banks
Another fine song, this one uptempo, from the guy who sounds a bit like a Tex-Mex Robert Cray.
10. "Shake Rattle & Roll"------------Willie B.
Nice to hear from Willie B., who once held down a spot on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 Southern Soul for "Larry Licker." This one isn't earth-moving, but he's still got that sweet, Larry-Lickin' voice.
Still Can't Get Enough Of. . .
"I Want To Come Back"-----------Walt Love
Walt Love once made something of a name as a Clarence Carter sound-a-like. He's moved on.
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
FEBRUARY 2010
1. "Knock My Boots"------------Larry Milton
After all the year-end hoopla of awards and listening to last year's records over and over again, I was craving something original, a fresh sound to usher in the new year. This is it. Based on the "Slow Roll It" melody, and taken to new heights by a much-deserving artist best-known for the song "Back In Love Again."
2. "Slow Roll It" (The Remix)-------------The Love Doctor
In retrospect, the Love Doctor's career was like a brilliant comet streaking across the night-time sky. Even if it was restricted to the two masterpieces "Slow Roll It" and "Lies," the Love Doctor's contribution to contemporary Southern Soul would remain unassailable.
Speaking of "Slow Roll It," The Doctor of Love is coming to the soul of Southern Soul--Jackson, Mississippi--this month, and after all the sloppy remakes under bogus titles, this straight-ahead, sans-Sir Charles version of the classic sounds real good, real good.
3. "Chance Of A Lifetime (I'm Not Afraid)"--------------------Katrina Jefferson
And if you can get down to Mississippi, you'll be able to see the remarkable new artist Katrina Jefferson appearing at area venues. With "Holding On"--last months' #2, scroll down--and this new ballad, she's proving herself a more formidable talent than a bevy of the most hyped new divas.
4. "Be Careful What You Wish For" --------------------Robert Banks
Given the recent surge in popularity of Texas-based Southern Soul, the more than capable Robert Banks (who sounds almost as good as Dobie Gray singing "Drift Away") made a smart move in reissuing this excellent CD title cut originally published in 2004.
Bargain-Priced Be Careful What You Wish For CD, MP3's
5. "I'm Going Back To My Momma's House"-----------------Lee Roy
More sweet stuff from the young Texan whose new album--"Should Have Called"--is reviewed this month in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews. This song is a laid-back but jazzy outing with a sophisticated, about-the-town verve. Risky stuff for a first-time artist trying to prove his metier in Southern Soul, but Lee Roy's confident enough to pull it off.
6. "You Make Me Want To Pop A Pill"--------------Ghetto Cowboy
Bigg Robb is so intimidating. Like few others in the business (Carl Marshall, Sir Charles Jones), he takes over any song he's associated with. He's the one that lends this great new dance song its turbo-charged rhythmic focus, but he's also the one who ruins it with that oh-so-familiar trademark funk chorus. The meat of the song is in the verses, which are a dancer's delight. Best vocal I've ever heard from Ghetto Cowboy.
7. "Sugar Daddy Man"-----------------Jody Sticker
Yet another moody, slow-motion piece of Southern Soul electronica from the Mr. Booty Do Right album. If you're hyped-up, you might want to take a dose of your favorite medication first. Acquiescence will quickly follow.
Bargain-Priced Mr. Booty Do Right CD, MP3's
8. "Before A Judge" ---------------------Archie Love
This song is performed with the full emotional and orchestral gusto of classic groups like the Temptations and Miracles.
Bargain-Priced Love Chronicles CD, MP3's
9. "Ain't Going Your Way"---------------B. B. Queen
If Erykah Badu steered her career back in a "(You Can Call) Tyrone"-like Southern Soul sound, she'd sound very much like this Kattman-produced, Las Vegas-based singer.
10. "Same Thang"---------------------Unexpected
This take-off on the middlin' Sir Charles Jones tune is as rough, fuzzy and gnarly as the original was slick, and yet it has an underlying charm and durability.
Still can't get enough of. . .
"In The Mood"-------------------Greg P. Jones
"Let Me Whip This Thing"------------------Joe B.
"How Sweet Is Your Candy" ---------------Terry Wright
How Sweet Is Your Candy CD, MP3's
"I'm Unleveled" ----------------Donnie Ray
Bargain-Priced It's BYOB CD, MMP3's
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SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. .
JANUARY 2010
1. "I'm Into Something"--------Cicero Blake
2. "Holding On"----------------------Katrina Jefferson
3. "Harry Hippie" ----------------------Calvin Richardson
Bargain-Priced Facts Of Life: The Soul Of Bobby Womack CD
4. "Saving My Love"------------------Bobbye Johnson
Bargain-Priced Rocking This Boat CD, MP3's
5. "Daddy Sweet Back"----------------------James Smith
6. "Make Your Body Roll"--------------------LaMorris Williams
7. "Do What He Didn't Do"---------------------Nellie "Tiger" Travis
Bargain-Priced I'm In Love With A Man I Can't Stand CD, MP3's
8. "Throw That Thang"--------------------Steve Perry
9. "You Bring Out The Freak In Me"--------------Valerie McKnight
10. "Shake What You Got----------------Sorrento Ussery
Still can't get enough of. . .
"Lady My Whole World Is You"-----------------Sir Charles Jones
Bargain-Priced Tribute To The Legends CD, MP3's
"The Old Man's Song"-----------------Theodis Ealey
"Don't Make Me A Story Teller"---------------------J. Blackfoot
Bargain-Priced Woof Woof Meow CD, MP3'S
"Jimmy" -----------------------The Real Brown Sugar
Bargain-Priced Why Did You Walk On My Love? EP, MP3's
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Send mp3's to:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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