Bob Theile, Steve Allen and Oliver Nelson

Listen/Download Steve Allen/Oliver Nelson – Son of Preacher Man

Greetings all

The end of the week is coming up fast, which means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show is too. You can tune in this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, or subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 at the blog.

Now,I hope that those of you old enough to remember who Steve Allen was are still here. Any familiarity with the late funnyman might have been enough to scare you away, but I assure that once you pull down the ones and zeros, you’ll be happy you stayed.

Steve Allen was a funny dude, in many ways the precursor to guys like David Letterman.

He was also an accomplished songwriter and musician.

Along with arranger Oliver Nelson (who can probably be credited with any musical power herein), Allen recorded three volumes of ‘Soulful Brass’ LPs for Bob Theile’s Flying Dutchman label, with the initial volume being the first LP released by the label.

I sought out ‘Soulful Brass Volume 2’ because I’d heard that it contained a groovy version of ‘California Soul’ (which it did) but was also very pleased to see that it also included covers of ‘Soulful Strut’ and today’s selection, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’.

Allen’s main contribution to the efforts here seem to be a combination of (mostly) name recognition and the occasional electric piano solo.

‘Son of a Preacher Man’ is an excellent, funky, brass-driven take on the Dusty Springfield hit, with hard-hitting drums by Jim Gordon, funky bass by Max Bennett and guitar by David Cohen.

The brass arrangements by Nelson are – of course – top notch.

The combined results make this the only Steve Allen record you ever need to buy.

I hope you dig it, and that you have a great weekend.

I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.