Moses Dillard and the Tex Town Display – I’ve Got To Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt)

By , April 16, 2015 11:12 am

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Moses Dillard

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Listen/Download – Moses Dillard and the Tex Town Display – I’ve Got To Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt) Pt1

Listen/Download – Moses Dillard and the Tex Town Display – I’ve Got To Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt) Pt2

 

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here and I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device through the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

As I was digging through the to-be-blogged folder, I decided that the time was finally right to whip today’s selection on you.

I first heard ‘I’ve Got to Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt)’ by Moses Dillard and the Tex Town Display years ago (probably via Soul Strut) was was blown away by its multi-faceted powers.

It took me quite a while to track myself down a copy, and when I did I really dug into it as deeply as possible, but struggled with the idea of posting it here.

So powerful and deep a record is it, that I circled it warily for a long time before deciding to light it up.

Moses Dillard hailing (like Monday’s feature, the Fantastic Johnny C) from Greenville, SC, had a long career, going back to the early 60s, recording under his own name and working extensively as a session guitarist in studios like Muscle Shoals.

He formed the Tex-Town Display in the late 60s (I haven’t been able to nail down the root of the name, but I suspect that it has something to do with the prevalence of the textile industry in South Carolina), with a group that included a young Peabo Bryson.

‘I’ve Got To Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt)’ was released on Curtom in 1970, and was a substantial regional hit.
As you’ll hear when you pull down the ones and zeros, this is a uniquely deep 45.

Dillard manages to combine sweet soul (presaging the sound of the Stylistics ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’ by a few years) with a dark, heavy, almost psychedelic funk that bears the influence of Isaac Hayes‘ epic version of ‘Walk On By’ (released the year before).

The first part of the 45 begins oddly, mid-chord, opening into the heavy, bass/snare drum figure that underlies the verse. There are strings, electric sitar and heavily-vibratoed guitar underneath a pleading vocal.

The lead guitar (Dillard, I assume) is positively sublime. You really need to give it a close listen as it blends vibrato, tremelo bar, and winds in and out of a competing lead from the electric sitar.

Part two of the record restarts the song (though the truncated guitar chord is gone, and the vocals get a later start) with a sparer version of the arrangement.

The more I listen to this 45 the more I’m tempted to compare Dillard and the Tex-Town display to Funkadelic, but the comparison requires some explanation. Both groups seem to be drawing from the same pool of influences (though Dillard leans more toward the sweet side of things) but Dillard seems to have been able to bring a lot more focus to the table. The fusion of soul, funk and psychedelia is delivered with a clarity that was usually absent from Funkadelic.

This is not to suggest that ‘I’ve Got To Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt)’ doesn’t have a freaky side, since I suspect it provided the soundtrack to many a backseat boogie in its time, but rather that the freak factor is a lot sharper here.

That said, I think you’ll find yourself playing this one over and over, not only because you want to understand what’s going on, but because it’s such a great record to listen to.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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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).

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

5 Responses to “Moses Dillard and the Tex Town Display – I’ve Got To Find a Way (To Hide My Hurt)”

  1. Big George says:

    Hey Bro, Just found your site. Pretty cool. I found this single by Moses Dillard back in 1972. It was in one of those 10 45s for a $1 packs at Woolworths. Great song. I saw Moses Dillard’s name show up on a Pop/Gospel album by Reba Rambo around 1980. He was listed as a guitar player. Keep up the good work brother!

  2. Sean says:

    Not trying to be contrary, but on the picture of the actual record it looks like the release date is 1960.

  3. Larry says:

    I think you might be looking at the catalog number, which is actually ‘1950’. Curtom
    Records didn’t come into being until 1968. Here’s a link to a discography:
    https://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/curtom.htm

  4. ingmar66 says:

    Wow! What an incredibly good record! I can dig the early Funkadelic comparison, but this is more earthy, more Isaac H. than George C.

  5. Sean says:

    Thanks for replying and clearing that up for me Larry. I now wonder how many copy writes I’ve gotten wrong. You are wealth of knowledge.

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