Cash McCall

 

Greetings all.

I hope the middle of the week finds you well.

One of the most important aspects of record research, or at least in assembling enough information to connect the musical dots (as it were) – is reading the label.

This certainly sounds like obvious advice, but there’s reading, and then there’s READING (confused yet??).

What I’m trying to say is that a cursory glance at most 45 labels will give up obvious clues, i.e. label name/logo, address, artist etc, all important. That said, sometimes you have to drill down another level or two, and if you really want to understand a scene, you need to familiarize yourself with the songwriters, producers, arrangers and even publishers, under both their given names, and any pseudonyms they might use, the last item being especially important in the often shambolic world of 60s R&B, soul and funk.

These were not only the days of shady label owners glomming onto artists publishing, but also performers working in and out of contract, doing their best to make as much money as possible, sometimes moonlighting where they ought not, assigning copyright to names other than their own (see Allen Toussaint aka Naomi Neville) or maybe tossing a little something something to a radio cat to get their record on the air.

Having been collecting Chicago soul for many years, I started to see certain names repeated on 45s by various artists on all kinds of labels. Two of the names I saw a lot, were those of Milton Bland (aka Monk Higgins) and today’s artist, Maurice Dollison (aka Cash McCall).

Those names (together, apart, real and/or alias) appear on countless Chitown 45s as writers, producers, arrangers and performers.

Maurice Dollison emigrated to Chicago from Missouri and spent some time playing alongside Otis Clay.

Today’s selection, ‘Earth Worm Pt1’ was his debut 45 (recorded under his real name) in 1963, co-written with none other than Monk Higgins.

‘Earth Worm Pt1&2’ is a gritty, mid-tempo slice of Chicago dance party R&B, with some nice guitar bubbling underneath (and soloing as as well), and cool percussion. It’s not hard to imagine a gym full of kids getting down to a number like this.

Dollison/McCall went on to record a string of soul 45s through the 60s, eventually moving almost entirely into a blues sound.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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.

One Response to “Maurice Dollison and the Turnkeys – The Earth Worm Pts 1&2”

1. Jeff says:

   March 12, 2015 at 9:50 pm

   Secret Stash Records out of Minneapolis is re-releasing a ton of stuff off the One-Derful labels. The M-Pac label is next up, due out March 31.