Listen/Download Artie Christopher – Stoned Soul

Greetings all

The week is coming to its conclusion (logical, or not) and that means that it’s Funky16Corners Radio Show time again. This and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, I bring you the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. If you can’t fall by at airtime, you can always keep up at your leisure by subscribing to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or by grabbing yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a little bit of Memphis funk.

I can’t tell you much about Artie Christopher, aside from the fact that he seems to have laid down a pair of 45s for the Atlantic label in 1968 (at least one of them originally released on the 5-High imprint).

He was one of many similarly inclined soulful Caucasians operating in the south at around the same time (see South, Joe and White, Tony Joe for starters), and was the brother of guitarist/songwriter Johnnie Christopher, who co-wrote Elvis Presley’s smash ‘Always On My Mind’ (covered by many, many others).

That’s pretty much where the obtainable facts run out.

The tune you see before you today, the instrumental ‘Stoned Soul’ was released in 1968 as the flipside of Christopher’s version of ‘Hello LA, Bye Bye Birmingham’, the song that led me to seek out this 45 in the first place.

Interestingly enough, it’s ‘Stoned Soul’ for which most folks grab this disc, it having been included on Rhino’s ‘What It Is’ boxed set.

A funky, guitar and organ led instro, the tune features a great (Philly sounding) horn line, wild effects laden guitar (or keyboard, I’m not sure, but was eventually sampled by Method Man) and a very nice bass breakdown as well.

The groovy thing is, both of Christopher’s Atlantic 45s are relatively easy to find, and fairly inexpensive as well.

Unfortunately, according to Sir Shambling’s site, Christopher passed away some time ago.

I hope you dig the sounds, and 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.

2 Responses to “Artie Christopher – Stoned Soul”

1. Brandon says:

   August 9, 2014 at 9:49 am

   I dig the sounds. Is it fair to guess you have a pretty sizable vinyl collection?

2. Larry says:

   August 9, 2014 at 10:38 am

   It would, indeed!