{"id":6114,"date":"2015-11-29T11:17:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T16:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6114"},"modified":"2015-11-29T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T16:17:59","slug":"skip-easterling-1945-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6114","title":{"rendered":"Skip Easterling 1945 – 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Example\"
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Skip Easterling<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"
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Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling= I’m Your Hoochie Koochie Man MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling – Ooh Poo Pah Do MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling – Too Weak To Break the Chains MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling – I’m Your Man MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Late last week, while I was checking an old e-mail account and found a notification of a comment on the oldest version of the blog.<\/p>\n

The comment itself was semi-cryptic, but when I followed it to the original post I realized that the commenter was telling me that James \u2018Skip\u2019 Easterling<\/strong>, one of the great blue-eyed soul singers out of New Orleans had passed away.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, initial searches turned up a death notice, but no mention in any of the local New Orleans papers (since remedied).<\/p>\n

Easterling, long a favorite of mine had a recording career that lasted from 1961 into the mid 70s, making a string of 45s for New Orleans labels like Ron, Alon and Instant (he also had at least one self-released 45 that I\u2019ve never heard).<\/p>\n

Easterling got his start wavering between R&B and pop sounds, but by the time he went into the studio with Eddie Bo<\/strong> in 1967, he was firmly in the soul camp.<\/p>\n

The record he made with Bo, \u2018Keep the Fire Burning\u2019 b\/w \u2018The Grass Is Greener\u2019 is one of the finest mid-decade 45s to come out of the Crescent City, with a smoking dancer on one side and a heartfelt ballad on the flip.<\/p>\n

Easterling\u2019s sojourn with Bo was brief, and by 1970, he was in the studio with Huey Piano Smith<\/strong>, recording for Instant.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s late-period work for Instant is consistently good, and largely unheralded since so many of the post-3300 (catalog numbers, when Smith was doing most of his work for the label) 45s are very scarce (there are a bunch I’m still looking for).<\/p>\n

Easterling\u2019s first two 45s for Instant are his best, and oddly enough still fairly easy to track down.<\/p>\n

His version of the old Willie Dixon<\/strong> standard \u2018I\u2019m Your Hoochie Koochie Man\u2019 is a wild, smoothly funky reworking of the song that owes a debt to King Floyd\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Groove Me\u2019. The arrangement, with electric piano and tastefully applied horns (and flute!) is a subtle masterpiece.<\/p>\n

The record was a hit in New Orleans and some other southern markets, but was sadly the high water mark of Easterling\u2019s chart success.<\/p>\n

The flip is a very nice version of Jesse Hill\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Ooh Poo Pah Do\u2019, which features a great vocal by Easterling and great playing by the band (listen to the electric piano ooze up through the mix).<\/p>\n

His next 45 is one of those records that is painfully obscure, but ought to be regarded as one of the finest records to come out of New Orleans in the early 70s.<\/p>\n

\u2018To Weak to Break the Chains\u2019 (written by Huey Smith<\/strong>) combines, R&B, soul, funk and even a touch of timely psychedelia (dig that backwards guitar!), all wrapped in a stellar vocal performance by Easterling. The tune has an off-kilter, purely New Orleans rhythm to it, with some remarkable interplay between the drums, horns and rhythm guitar.<\/p>\n

That record\u2019s flipside, \u2018I\u2019m Your Man\u2019 rolls in a slower groove, with some nice flute and vibes accents.<\/p>\n

All told, Easterling laid down 15 (maybe 16) 45s in his career, and like so many great singers in New Orleans never really broke through outside the city limits despite the quality of his catalog.<\/p>\n

He did continue to perform, appearing at at least one of the Ponderosa Stomp shows.<\/p>\n

There was a UK compilation of his recordings that came out in the late 80s on the Charly label, but as far as I can tell, aside from some shady looking comps in iTunes, his work is almost completely out of print.<\/p>\n

So dig these tunes, watch for a tribute on the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> in the new year, and raise a glass to a really groovy singer.<\/p>\n

See you on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skip Easterling Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling= I’m Your Hoochie Koochie Man MP3 Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling – Ooh Poo Pah Do MP3 Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling – Too Weak To Break the Chains MP3 Listen\/Download – Skip Easterling – I’m Your Man MP3 Greetings all. Late last week, while I was checking an old e-mail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37,58,127,11,17,14,40,92,67,12,18],"tags":[163,166,41,173,164],"class_list":["post-6114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-eyed-soul","category-cover-songs","category-eddie-bo","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-new-orleans-funk","category-new-orleans-soul","category-obituary","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-new-orleans","tag-rb","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1AC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6114"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6117,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions\/6117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}