Listen/Download Lee Calvin – You Got Me

Greetings all

The weekend is almost here, and so is this week’s Funky16Corners Radio Show, which fires up at 9PM each and every Friday on Viva Radio. If you are unable to join me at airtime, you can keep up with the show by subscribing to it as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing an MP3 here at the blog.

A while back I was digging through my crates looking for something groovy to whip on you when I happened on a grip of New Orleans 45s that hadn’t yet been featured at Funky16Corners.

You all know that I’m a huge fan of soul music from the Crescent City, with an extra special place in my heart for the sounds associated with the mighty Allen Toussaint.

My favorites in his oeuvre all hail from the catalog of Sansu records.

Active in its first (and best) incarnation from 1965 to 1968, Sansu released some of the most amazing music ever to come out of the south, let alone New Orleans.

The brainchild of Allen Toussaint, the Sansu label features his production, arrangements and many of his finest songs, brought to life by some of the Big Easy’s finest singers (native and adopted).

Lee Calvin is one of the lesser known artists on the label.

Thanks (once again) to Sir Shambling’s Deep Soul Heaven, I now know that Lee Calvin was one of a couple of stage names used by a singer named Calvin LeBlanc.

LeBlanc, who also performed as a member of a group called the DelRoyals, recorded four 45s for Minit, Sansu and Josie between 1962 and 1969.

The credits on his 45s all seem to suggest that he operated out of New Orleans exclusively.

‘You Got Me’, a Toussaint-penned number is a fast moving number featuring prominent horns, a pulsing bass and some nice ivory-tickling by Toussaint himself.

Calvin had a high tenor voice with a slightly scratchy feel to it that comes through nicely on ‘You Got Me.

I haven’t heard any of his ‘Calvin Lee’ 45s, but I will certainly be on the lookout for them.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.