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By Larry, February 10, 2015 1:02 pm

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.

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By Larry, February 8, 2015 1:16 pm

Mickey Lee Lane

Greetings all.

I thought we’d get the week started with something unusual.

If you are a mod soul fan, you may already be hip to Mickey Lee Lane’s epic 1965 single ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’, covered the following year in the UK by the Action on the flipside of their cover of the Marvelettes ‘I’ll Keep Holding On’. It was via 1980s reissued of the Action that most of us found our way to Mickey Lee Lane in the first place.

That said, maybe ten years ago someone (I wish I could remember who) told me that there had been an instrumental version of ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’ issued in the late 60s, and that it had some level of popularity on the UK soul scene.

I eventually found out that the record in question had been issued as ‘Tracks To Your Mind’ by the ‘Sounds of Lane’ in 1968 on the Cobblestone label.

As you’ll hear whne you pull down the ones and zeros, ‘Tracks To Your Mind’ is not a straight instrumental dub of ‘Hey Sah-Lo-Ney’, but rather is augmented by echoed guitar and tack piano. The effect is vaguely psychedelic, but as the track’s popularity on dance floors will attest, the propulsive kick of the original is intact.

The record’s release history is strange, including two released on Cobblestone, one a double-a-sided promo, then an appearance on the b-side of a pop 45 by a singer named George McCannon (the copy I have), then at least two bootleg pressings from the 1970s (and another in the 00’s).

The 45 can be quite expensive (though if you wait long enough – like I did – you can find yourself a bargain).

Mickey Lee Lane went on to work as a recording engineer, and passed away in 2011.

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

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.

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By Larry, February 5, 2015 12:12 pm

Don Covay

Listen/Download – The Soul Clan – That’s How It Feels

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, so I will remind you once again that the Funky16Corners Radio Show rolls around this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot join me at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 here at the blog.

As promised on Wednesday, today we will be paying further tribute to the mighty Don Covay.

As mentioned earlier, Covay was more influential than he was famous, having written a number of amazing songs, some he recorded first, others he passed on to singers like Aretha Franklin.

Covay’s discography, covering ground from the mid-50s to the early 80s is filled with high quality music.

As I was pulling his 45s out of the crates over the past few days it occurred to me that most people had heard his more heavily covered material (like ‘Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’), but there were a couple of excellent tunes hiding on some of his flipsides.

The first of the two songs I chose to feature, ‘Please Don’t Let Me Know’ appeared in 1964 on the b-side of ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’.

‘Please Don’t Let Me Know’ is one of those songs that came as a surprise when I finaly flipped over the 45 and played it. Though ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’ is cool, it the more you listen to it the more it seems to hew awfully close to the template of ‘Mercy Mercy’. ‘Please Don’t Let Me Know’ is – like ‘Long Tall Shorty’, which Covay wrote for Tommy Tucker – one of those songs that starts deceptively slowly, picking up a significant amount of steam as it progresses. It features a great, pleading vocal by Covay, and some crazy, falsetto backing vocals toward the end.

I really dig the end of the song where Covay switches up the refrain to ‘Don’t let Don know!’.

The second track is the flipside of the 1968, one-off 45 by the Soul Clan. Featuring Covay, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Arthur Conley and Joe Tex, and produced by Covay, the Soul Clan never really took off (for a variety of reasons). That said, their one 45 is outstanding, with the fast-moving dancer ‘Soul Meeting’ (penned by Covay, and a Top 40 R&B hit) on the A-side and the gospel-inflected ‘That’s How It Feels’ on the flip.

Co-written by Covay and Bobby Womack, ‘That’s How It Feels’ is (at least in my opinion) right up there with the finest southern soul ballads of the era. Oddly enough, and I see this as yet another testament to Covay’s talents, the members of the Soul Clan were never in the same studio, with Covay and Womack creating the backing track, and the individual singers adding their parts piecemeal in separate sessions.

That said, it’s a powerful record, and ought to be better known.

The cool thing is, if you aren’t a vinyl hound, you can get Don Covay’s Atlantic, Mercury and Philadelphia International albums in iTunes (hell, you can even get the Soul Clan album!*), so there’s no excuse not to dig in.

I hope you dig the tunes, and keep your ears peeled for a Don Covay tribute on an upcoming episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Note – ‘Soul Meeting” and ‘That’s How It Feels’ are the only “true” Soul Clan tracks on the album, with the balance of the tracks made up by individual recordings by the separate members.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

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By Larry, February 3, 2015 11:29 am

Don Covay

Greetings all.

It was this past weekend that word started to trickle out that the mighty Don Covay had passed away at the age of 76.

Covay was one of those giants of the soul world who was probably better known to collectors and hardcore soulies than he was to the public in general.

Though he had a handful of R&B hits under his own name between 1964 and 1980, he made his biggest (and earliest) mark as a songwriter.

His earliest successes came writing for other performers, like Chubby Checker, Tommy Tucker, Solomon Burke and Gladys Knight.

He first hit the R&B Top 40 in 1964 with ‘Mercy Mercy’, a song (featuring guitar by none other than Jimi Hendrix) which was covered the following year by the Rolling Stones.

His next hit was the song that led me to Covay (albeit in a roundabout way), via the cover by the Small Faces.

As has been recounted here before, I found my way to a lot of soul music via the beat/mod sounds of the British Invasion.

Though I knew other Don Covay songs first (especially the Steppenwolf cover of ‘Sookie Sookie’, or Aretha’s version of ‘Chain of Fools’) I had no idea they were his.

The Small Faces version of ‘Take This Hurt Off Me’ sent me out in search of the original 45, and from there it was off to the races.

A few years later, I finally put my hands on Covay’s 1966 recording of ‘Sookie Sookie’, and things were forever changed.

‘Sookie Sookie’ is one of those 45s that taps into something elemental, stirring the listener, transforming him/her into a dancer.

I first wrote about the record ten years ago:

“Opening with unadorned tambourine slaps, the starkness is soon washed away by a blaring horn section, funky guitar, organ and a set of drums with a bass kick heavier than Solomon Burke and Billy Stewart teaming up in a chicken-fight.

Don falls by, asking his peeps to “Let it hang out baby!” then dropping a succession of suggested dance steps for the crowd. When they get to the ‘Sookie Sookie’s’ in the chorus, it’s like someone dropping a sledge hammer, with one of the Goodtimer’s leaning over Don’s shoulder and screaming “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!!!”.

Second verse, close to the first, drums mighty hard, horns on point and then the screamer returns with something that sounds like either “ROCK ME!” or “DROP ME!”, but it doesn’t really matter since the screams are there for punctuation, like ending a sentence with a punch in the nose.

After that the fumes in the studio apparently got stronger because Don starts rapping about banana peels and turpentine, and you can almost see the band in their sequined matador jackets, conked hair and pointy boots, rocking back and forth, jammed too close together on a tight little stage dripping their sweat on the audience and making the ice cubes in everyone’s drinks spill on the floor.

I can just see some poor slob, on his way home from the late shift stopping in for a rock and rye, pulling open the barroom door and getting his wig blown off by the mixture of heat, soul and cigarette smoke. It’s that heavy.”

Having had the privilege of spinning the 45 (and several other versions of the song*) through several loud PA systems over the years, and recalling the shock up and down my spine every time I did, I stand by every hyperbolic word of that description.

Recorded in Memphis (and co-written with Steve Cropper), ‘Sookie Sookie’ packs a double-heavy drum sound (just listen to those rolls!), greasy guitar, organ and some of the most judiciously applied horn fanfares ever laid down on McLemore Avenue.

‘Sookie Sookie’ (and you have to get the OG 1966 version) is a 45 that every soul DJ should pack in their box. You can dig up all the rarities you want, tossing them out to the trainspotters in the crowd, but if you want the dance floor to shake and the ceiling to sweat, it is your sworn duty to slip this 45 under the needle.

Covay wrote and recorded a grip of amazing records, and I’ll be back later in the week with some of them (and I promise that I’ll be putting together a full tribute for the Funky16Corners Radio Show).

Until then, let it hang out baby, and raise a glass to the memory of Don Covay.

Keep the faith

Larry

 *Tina Britt, Roy Thompson, Grant Green, Steppenwolf

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, February 1, 2015 12:00 pm

Mr A. DeWalt Mixon Esq.

Greetings all.

I come before you today to attest personally to the value of big (literal and figurative) ears.

The wife and I were early adaptors in the satellite radio thing, and though we have decreased that tech footprint over the years, we still rock the Sirius/XM in the main family car. As a result, it is through that portal that we do much of our listening on long car trips (usually driver’s choice).

It was on such a lengthy journey while attempting to keep myself from drifting off the New York Thruway, I pointed the dial at Soultown, and encountered (for the very first time) the tasty little disc you see before you today.

Like most folks for whom soul music is more than a passing fancy, I have often taken the Motown giants for granted(usually unfairly) due to their omnipresence on oldies radio when I was a kid, and the limited scope thereof, i.e. there’e nothing like hearing the same 25 Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations etc songs over and over again until your eyes and ears glaze over and you’re tempted to move on to something more exciting.

As has been recounted here in the past, I eventually managed to force myself through that swamp and discovered how much greatness was really out there.

Junior Walker and the All Stars were definitely part of that pantheon, racking up dozens of hits between 1965 and 1979, some of which are as shit hot today as the day they rolled off the presses in Detroit 50 years ago.

I have a bunch of the essential Junior 45s in my crates, and I grab the LPs whenever I find them, but as I found out, there were still some cool things I hadn’t yet heard.

When ‘Gimme That Beat Pt1’ came on the radio my ears perked right up, and since the satellite has a display, I didn’t have to wait but a second or two to find out that what I was digging was a new (to me) Junior Walker and the All Stars track.

‘Gimme That Beat’ is one of those records that still carries with it the heat of ‘classic’ funk, yet is also starting to reveal some of the fancier, streamlined options of the newer models, with just the faintest suggestion of the gathering heat of the disco dance floor.

You get some very groovy bass, nice vocals and sax by Junior and percolating guitar that attests to the fact James Brown’s juggernaut was still kicking up dust in the zeitgeist.

This was one of Junior’s last hits (Top 50, 1973) but demonstrated that he could still work it out.

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

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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 29, 2015 11:16 am

Rosey Grier

Greetings all.

The end of the week is here, and that means that the Funky16Corners Radio Show once again takes to the airwaves of the interwebs, this (and every) Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t bet there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

I am always game for a new version of a favorite song, and especially son when I find one by a singer that I really dig.

Thus was the case when I found today’s 45 by the mighty Rosey Grier.

Grier, who first gained fame as a pro football star, then as a TV and movie actor also had a sideline (successful artistically, if not financially) as a soul singer.

He recorded a string of 45s (and an LP or two) for labels like Liberty, RIC, D-Town, MGM, Amy, AGP, ABC and A&M between 1960 and the mid-70s.

During that time, he made some excellent (if largely unsung) records, some of which are sweated heavily by the Northern Soul collectors.

I’m partial to his late 60s Memphis-based recordings like ‘Slow Drag’ and ‘People Make the World’ when he was working with the likes of Tommy Cogbill, Chips Moman, and Dan Penn.

Today’s selection comes from a few years later (1970) yet still has a Memphis connection.

As I mentioned earlier, I love finding new versions of a favorite song, which in this was was the Masqueraders ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On’. The group had gotten their start in Texas, relocated to Detroit, but my the mid-60s were recording in Memphis, TN, working with many of the same people as Grier.

Written by group members Harold Thomas and Lee Jones, and recorded by the Masqueraders for Wand in 1967, ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Lead Me On’ was covered a number of times, by the Exotics in the UK, the Gentlemen Four, and even Paul Revere and the Raiders on their 1968 ‘Goin’ To Memphis’ LP (again, working with Chips Moman).

Grier covered the song in 1970 on his sole ABC 45, which appears to be an LA-based session.

Rosey’s version of the song features a strong arrangement, with female backing vocals, and a nice horn section, with an excellent lead vocal.

A career retrospective of Rosey Grier’s best work as a singer is long overdue.

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

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 27, 2015 1:32 pm

The Loading Zone

Greetings all.

What better way to slide through the middle of the week than with some of that funky, head-nodding goodness?

I have made mention of the Loading Zone previously, in relation to the singing of its one-time vocalist Linda Tillery, aka Sweet Linda Divine.

The group formed in the mid-60s, then recruited Tillery, recording an album for RCA before the singer left to go solo.

The Loading Zone’s sound, if they can truly be said to have had one, was an odd mixture of soul, jazz and rock, which doesn’t sound all that complicated, but instead of blending the three strains into a single admixture, they kind of rode it like a sliding scale, moving from one sound to another.

That they did this in 1960s San Francisco (or just in the 60s) explains how they got signed to a major label.

Everybody was experimenting with stylistic blends, and where a band these days might be accused of aimlessness, in the earliest days of progressive (in the truest sense of the word) rock, this was the mark of versatility.

I’m of the school that leans toward the latter characterization, and sees it as a net positive. You have to remember that in 1967, rock was barely a decade old, yet in incubators like San Francisco, Los Angeles and London, (ostensibly) rock musicians were dipping into all kinds of sounds and redefining what that style meant.

There’s hardly a better example of this than the closing track from the Loading Zone LP, ‘Can I Dedicate’.

Sounding at times like Horace Silver and the Holding Company, ‘Can I Dedicate’ (later sampled by the Souls of Mischief for ‘Live and Let Live’) is a nine-plus minute exercise in jazzy, stoned funk. Listening to it today it sounds like something stitched together using soul jazz samples and looped drums, waiting for someone to drop a verse or two on top of it.

There are traces of hard bop, woven around a hypnotic, rolling bass line, tight drums, and the out of the blue, a Fillmore West-style guitar solo (followed, naturally, by a jazz trombone solo…).

It is heavy, wonderful stuff, and one of those tracks I find myself going back to a digging all the time.

I hope you dig it too, 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.

Comments (5)

By Larry, January 25, 2015 11:41 am

Gloria Jones

Greetings all.

We are in the grips of the winter’s cold, so I thought I’d whip out some nice, warm soul balladry for you.

Gloria Jones is – of course – well known to soulies as the singer that made ‘Tainted Love’ a classic, but she has a deep discography.

I grab her 45s whenever I find them, and today’s selection was a very nice surprise indeed.

As soon as I dropped the needle on ‘When He Touches Me’ I knew it sounded familiar, and about halfway into the song I realized that I already knew the song via a version by the great Rodge Martin.

As it turns out, the song – written by Carolyn Varga – was recorded a number of times by several great singers, including Percy Sledge, Jackie Edwards, Lulu, Mighty Sam and Peaches and Herb.

I haven’t been able to track down any info on Varga (aside from a few, more obscure songs) but I think it’s likely the original recording was by Percy Sledge (though Martin’s version came out the same year).

The Gloria Jones version of ‘When He Touches Me’ is a revelation.

Recorded in 1968, produced by Dallas Smith and arranged by Artie Butler, ‘When He Touches Me’ has a Southern soul feel, and an epic vocal performance by Jones. She really stretches out, moving from soft, sultry depth into stratospheric soul shouting, backed by some very nice guitar and backing vocals (the Blossoms??).

The end result is one of the finest female soul vocals I’ve ever heard, from a singer who should have had the opportunity to record more than she did.

Great stuff.

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

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.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 22, 2015 1:17 pm

NOTE: As a result of my hospital stay and lots of lost blogging time, I’m going to dip back into the archives for some groovy things to hold you over until I get back.

Also, don’t forget to tune in to an all new episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio.

So dig it, and Keep the Faith
Larry

Listen/Download Cal’s Tricks – Who’s Gonna Take the Weight

Greetings all

The track I bring you today is something I picked up whilst grazing at the last Allentown All 45 show.

It’s hard not to be overwhelmed in a room packed to the gills with 45s, but since a lot of the dealers (and the kind of stock they bring with them) have become familiar to me over the years, I try to maintain a s small amount of focus.

These days my “want list” (as it is) isn’t very long.

There are a couple of very crucial things that I’m always on the lookout for, but outside of those, I tend to cast a pretty wide net. The old frame of reference is sharp enough that I come away with more gold that gravel, and the record you see before you today is evidence thereof.

I’d never heard of Cal’s Tricks, or the Secant label, but as soon as I noted the presence of a groovy Kool and the Gang cover, I placed the disc on the keeper pile and kept digging.

Once I got the record home I was very happy with my selection, and moved on to digging for information.

There’s not a lot out there, but what I have found is interesting.

It would seem that the Secant label was active in the Washington, DC/Maryland area during the 70s, releasing a wide variety of styles.

The DC Soul Recordings site noting that only three of their releases seemed to fall into the realm of soul and funk, two of them being records by Cal’s Tricks.

‘Who’s Gonna Take the Weight’ – taken here at a slightly faster, dare I say discofied, tempo than the OG – was the second 45 by Cal’s Tricks, released in 1976.

The band’s name seems to be a variation of the name of producer Caltrick Simone.

I don’t think this track or any of Cal’s Tricks tunes have been comped.

I hope you dig the track, 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.

Comments (2)

By Larry, January 21, 2015 11:09 am

NOTE: As a result of my hospital stay and lots of lost blogging time, I’m going to dip back into the archives for some groovy things to hold you over until I get back up to full speed.

This blue-eyed Southern soul burner became an instant favorite of mine when I first heard it.

So dig it, and Keep the Faith
Larry

Listen/Download The Chitlins – Sugar Woman

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another groovy week.

The track I bring you today is both a fairly recent discovery for me and a major fave.

It is also something of a mystery.

A few months back I was perusing a new (to me) record site on the intertubes, and a glimpse of the Pala records label caught my eye.

One half of the York-Pala construct, it was run by two cats named Charlie Greene and Brian Stone. These operators are best known as music managers who came to prominence in mid-60s LA working with acts like Sonny and Cher, the Buffalo Springfield, the Poor and a cat you may have heard of named Dr John.

I had always seen the York/Pala credit on many records, but it was only in the last few years that I actually found a record on either label.

I have two 45s by The Poor (LA-based folk rock) but the Chitlins ‘Sugar Woman’ was the first Pala disc I’d ever encountered.

The label appears to have been very short-lived, with only one other release (by Larry Marks).

The Chitlins appear to have gotten their start – and spent much of their existence – as a white show band called the Soul Brothers, in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The first time I heard ‘Sugar Woman’, what grabbed me was the New Orleans guitar (sounds like George Davis to me).

As it turns out the band did in fact record their sole 45 in New Orleans for Stanley Chaisson’s Chase Records imprint.

I have not been able to confirm whether or not there was actually a Chitlins 45 released on Chase, or if it was a production deal that was licensed to Pala.

My suspicion – without any hard evidence, mind you – is that Green and Stone happened upon the Chitlins via one of the many New Orleans connections in their orbit. Harold Battiste was Sonny and Cher’s musical director, and both Mac ‘Dr John’ Rebennack and Alvin Robinson were both working on the West Coast during this period.

That said, ‘Sugar Woman’ is a positively scorching bit of garagey soul with fantastic lyrics like

Let her know she’s a real Jim Dandy, feed her candy!

And

Let her know she’s a ring-dang-doo sir, don’t lose her!

The guitar, bass and drums are in a deep, deep groove, and the horns and backing vocalists are spot on.

I don’t know who the lead vocalist is but he’s killing it!

Via some cross-referencing (and following a few hunches) I’m led to believe that the band included guys named Chris Miller, Sam Roe, Pete Killingsworth, Sonny Tanner, having had some crossover with a group called the New Grooves.

As I mentioned earlier, I hear the distinct guitar stylings of George Davis, but the entire record has such a New Orleans feel to it, I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that this was the Soul Brothers/Chitlins singer fronting an entire studio full of NOLA pros.

In another interesting twist, the song is credited to country songwriter/producer Billy Sherrill, but I can’t find any instance of anyone else having recorded the tune.

The flip side, ‘The Next Time You See Me’ is an upbeat, bluesy shuffle.

“Sugar Woman’ was a local Top 40 hit in New Orleans in the Spring of 1967.

It is a truly remarkable tune, and one that I wish I’d had in my crates a long time ago.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, 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.

Comments (1)

By Larry, January 19, 2015 1:22 pm

Martin Luther King

Listen/Download Chris Kenner – Memories of a King (Let Freedom Ring) Pt1

NOTE: After having this record for decades, it was only last year that I remembered to dig it out and post it to commemorate MLK Day (which I do again today).
Dig the tune, read up on your read ups and carry his message forward in your hearts every day.
Keep the Faith
Larry

Greetings all

This is an extra special, unscheduled, surprise post, tied in with my chronic inability to be prepared for any special occasion on the calendar.

To be sure, this situation has improved over the years, as I’ve built up a massive store of music, pictures and information that make these things easier.

Unfortunately, my mind is – to borrow a phrase from the autobiography of the great Dave Van Ronk – like the attic of the Smithsonian, and sometimes no matter how special something is, it gets filed, misplaced or forgotten.

I mention this because I finally remembered – at the last possible minute, naturally – to dig out and digimatize the record you see before you today.

Back in 1968, not long after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Chris Kenner, his hitmaking days long behind him, wrote and waxed a tribute to the great civil rights leader.

Entitled ‘Memories of a King (Let Freedom Ring) Pts 1&2’, it is a departure for Kenner, best known for penning and recording some of the greatest R&B to come out of New Orleans in the 1960s, as well as laying down some of the most obviously inebriated records I’ve ever heard.

That said, ‘Memories of King’ is an earnest and heartfelt, and at times the tiniest bit funky, tribute to Dr. King.

While it’s nothing earth shattering, it is a little known/heard 45, and was the second to last 45 Kenner recorded before he was sent to jail later that year. It was the beginning of a downhill slide that ended in his premature death in 1976.

Give it a listen, and remember the work and life of the mighty Dr. King.

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, January 18, 2015 1:49 pm

Funky16Corners @ Spindletop – Early Set 1/10/11

Playlist

Listen/Download 80MB/256kb Mixed MP3

NOTE: Since my unexpected hospital captivity continues unabated, I thought I’d dip into the archives to hold you all until I could get myself back to the Funky16Corners Blogcasting Nerve Center and Record Vault.

So dig this mellow mix from 2011 and I’ll be back as soon as I can.

Keep the Faith

Larry

Greetings all.

The mix I bring you today is yet another live set from the archives, recorded at Botanica in NYC back in 2011.

This one was an early set, where I was allowed to indulge my taste for some low-to-mid-tempo soul jazz and moody soul instrumentals.

This is another late night groover, so pull down the ones and zeros and let it fly while you’re in a mellow mood.

I’ll be back on Friday with something new.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

OAlso, 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.