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By Larry, January 5, 2016 12:55 pm

The Mark Lewis Trio

Listen/Download – The Mark Lewis Trio – Funky Street MP3

Greetings all.

Here’s a wild one for you.

As an inveterate digger/collector, with big ears (literally and figuratively) and an insatiable curiosity, I’m always picking up weird stuff in the hope that I might have happened upon hiden treasure.

Unfortunately, most of the time, it’s not treasure, but garbage.

However, once in a blue moon, I turn up something groovy, like today’s selection.

I’ve had this record for so long, that I can’t remember exactly where I picked it up, other than it was out “in the wild” somewhere, and that it was cheap.

Back in the day – moreso in the 60s/70s than now – the hotel lounges of the world were staffed with entertainment, ranging from solo piano/singers (like my Pop, way back when) all the way up to full sized show bands, with horn sections, back up singers and the whole megillah.

The Mark Lewis Trio appear to have fallen somewhere in the middle, with an organ/sax/drums/vocals line up, playing a wide variety of pop/soul material.

As these kinds of records go, the song selection is fairly hip/young, though the delivery is decidedly middle of the road, except – of course – for their version of Arthur Conley’s 1968 ‘Funky Street’.

Now, looking at the picture of the group from the album cover, you’d never expect to hear anything remotely soulful (or even energetic) yet against all odds, the Mark Lewis Trio delivers.

The overall effect is somewhere in the neighborhood of “soulful garage band”, but they hit the tune with gusto, and the sax/organ/drums interplay is pretty tasty.

It’s not the heaviest thing ever, but when you take the look of the group, and the rest of the album, and do the math, it’s a lot cooler than you’d expect.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday.

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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, January 3, 2016 12:57 pm

The reunited Velvet Hammer!

Listen/Download – Velvet Hammer – Happy MP3

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well.

The tune I bring you today is one of those records that I happened upon quite by accident, and fell in love with instantly.

Oddly enough, the song popped up in a medley in a video by the ‘Northern Soul Girl’ Levanna Mclean, in which she dances through the streets of Bristol, UK, first to Pharrell Williams ‘Happy’, and then to another song that I’d never heard before.

I found out in short order that the tune was ‘Happy’ by the group Velvet Hammer.

Recorded in 1977 in Chicago, with the songwriting and production assistance of none other than Andre Williams (this may be the latest thing I’ve ever heard by him) ‘Happy’ is a delirious mixture of a danceable beat (thus it’s popularity with the Northern Soul crowd), sweet soul falsetto soul and a classy arrangement.

What I know about the group I owe to the efforts of the late, sweet soul expert Bob Abrahamian, who traced the group’s roots to the 1960s Chicago group the Admirations, on through their evolution into the Green Berets, the High Society, and then in the mid-70s, into Velvet Hammer.

They recorded an entire LP for the Chicago-based Soozi Records (apparently run by the owners of a chain of barbecue restaurants!), from which ‘Happy’ and its b-side ‘Party Hardy’ were culled.

As I mentioned above, ‘Happy’ has that straight up, four on the floor beat that endears it to the soulies, yet it’s couched in an elegant, restrained arrangement (dig the way the organ and the jazzy guitar play against the strings) that makes it as easy to listen to as to dance.

It tends to be a relatively pricey 45 (especially after it was featured in the video above), but seems to have settled down a little (the promo, like mine, tends to run a little cheaper than the issue on the flowered label).

If you get a chance, take a look at the video of the reunited Velvet Hammer performing the tune live.

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

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.

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By Larry, December 31, 2015 11:06 am

Kool and the Gang

Listen/Download – Kool and the Gang – Jungle Jazz MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is near, and so I will encourage you to partake in the soulful smorgasmord that is the weekly Funky16Corners Radio Show, in which I endeavor to bring you the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. The show drops every week (the first show of every month at SoulGuyRadio.com) and you can subscribe to it as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

We close out the week (and the year, Happy New Year!) with something deeply funky, designed (and guaranteed) to get your ass up out of the chair and onto the dance floor.

I have sung the praises of New Jersey’s own Kool and the Gang a number of times over the years, telling the story of how it was their music, way back in the 5th grade at Milford Brook School that truly introduced me to the funk.

Today’s selection will sound instantly familiar, as it is the 1975 reworking of their 1973 hit ‘Jungle Boogie’, offered here as ‘Jungle Jazz’.

While ‘Jungle Boogie’ is itself a hot piece of work, ‘Jungle Jazz’ sounds like Kool et al weren’t satisfied with the overall funk quotient of the OG, so they went back into the lab and Frankensteined that shit right up, with a mess of drums and some very tasty flute.

Sure, you get the gong at the beginning, but when those drums drop in…holy shit. George ‘Funky’ Brown beats that bass drum like it stole his lunch money, and then the various and sundry percussion accents (cowbells, conga, wood blocks etc) come in and all of a sudden you’re out on the floor shaking like a man (or woman) possessed.

That drum opening is a funky-ass miracle, which is why it was sampled so often.*

Despite the fact that what you’re getting here is a reengineered ‘Jungle Boogie’, the band really work hard to add to the cut. The flute, by Dennis Thomas is some next-level, overblowing ish in a Jeremy Steig stylee, and the horn section is really working it out, too.

This is the kind of record that funk nights were designed for, and if you cannot (or will not) dance to it (even in your seat) your shocking lack of soul will be duly noted.

So pull down the ones and zeros, and whip this on some squares.

Have a great weekend, Happy New Year and see you in 2016!

Keep the faith

Larry

* Records sampling – “Jungle Jazz”
2 Live Crew’s “Hangin Out”
3rd Bass’s “Brooklyn-Queens”
Biz Markie’s “I’m the Biz Markie”
Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.’s “Rated R”
Brand Nubian’s “Drop the Bomb”
Gus Gus’s “Believe”
Hi-C’s “Leave My Curl Alone”
Incognito’s “Roots (Back to a Way of Life)”
Jade’s “Don’t Walk Away”
MARRS’s “Pump up the Volume”
Public Enemy’s “Anti-Ni**er Machine”
Stetsasonic’s “So Let the Fun Begin”

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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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, December 29, 2015 10:40 am

Listen/Download – Righteous Brothers Band – Rat Race MP3

Greetings all.

I come to you in the middle of the week with an entry from the ancient tome, ‘The Weird World of Northern Soul’.

Truth be told, ‘Rat Race’ by the Righteous Brothers Band isn’t really weird at all, but it is a small window into the kind of unusual things that made their way into the Northern Soul canon back in the day.

While the Righteous Brothers made some groovy blue-eyed soul, and both side of this particular 45 are cool, ‘Rat Race’ isn’t exactly a textbook example of ‘soul’.

Originally composed by Elmer Bernstein for the 1960 Debbie Reynolds/Tony Curtis film of the same name, ‘Rat Race’ is a pounding instrumental that owes a tip of the hat to tunes like Henry Mancini’s theme from ‘Peter Gunn’.

Recorded in an earlier (slower) version by Sam Butera and the Witnesses, ‘Rat Race’ was redone by the Righteous Brothers Band in 1966 and in the next few years became a favorite of the UK soul scene.

‘Rat Race’ is one of those instrumentals that made its way into the canon by virtue of it’s unrelenting, four on the floor pace and the walls of brass.

Where Butera’s 1960 version is marked by growling, noir jazz saxophone, the Righteous Brothers Band arrangement (by Bill Baker, who arranged most of the RB’s records) has a slicker, uptown feel to it, and the pulsing beat locks into the Northern Soul “feel”.

While it certainly isn’t the weirdest, most incongruous instro to become a NS fave, it does illustrate the bridge between pop (or at least things not “purely” soul) and the Northern scene in that its importance is not in soulful roots, but more that it was really good to dance to.

It was so popular that it was repressed twice in 1970 and 1977 (in Ireland and the UK) as the flipside of ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’.

I dig it a lot, and I hope you do, too.

See you on Friday.

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.

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By Larry, December 27, 2015 11:22 am

King Solomon

Listen/Download – King Solomon with the Lad Teens Band – Louisiana Groove MP3

Listen/Download – King Solomon with the Lad Teens Band – My Dream MP3

Greetings all.

I wouldn’t normally whip something this heavy on you at the beginning of the week (being that most of us need a little bit of lead time to get the gears turning) but I figured if I held onto it any longer I might get burned, so…

I have to shout out to my man Kris Holmes how turned me on to this 45 a while back. It was one of those instances where I was blown away from the first listen, and set out immediately to find my self a copy for my play box.

It took a little while, but I finally landed a nice, clean copy of King Solomon’s ‘Louisiana Groove’, and I pass it on to you today.

Billed as ‘King Solomon with the Lad Teens Band’, ‘Louisiana Groove’ is an explosive slab of soul-on-the-way-to-funk, propelled by a churning, relentless rhythm guitar and a cascading horn line that pushes the tune to another level..

There appear to have been (at least) a couple of musicians operating with the ‘King Solomon’ handle during the 60s. The one on this record recorded for a number of labels during the decade, including Checker, Don J, and Cadillac.

The common thread on all of these 45s seems to be a writer/producer named Frank Wedlaw.

King Solomon appears to have been a cat named King Sylvester Lee Melicious Solomon, who got his start in Louisiana, moved to Chicago and ended up out west in LA.

I haven’t been able to nail the date on ‘Louisiana Groove’ but it sounds like 67/68-ish to me.

This Cadillac Records (another instance of multiple labels with the same name) seems to have been a Los Angeles imprint, with its only other release being a 45 by the Lad Teens (no apparent relation to the NY boogaloo group, the Lat-Teens on Cotique).

All of that taken into consideration, ‘Louisiana Groove’ is a uniquely powerful disc, guaranteed to light up the dance floor, and your ears (of course).

I’m also posting the flipside, ‘My Dream’ only because it’s really weird and a severe contrast to ‘Louisiana Groove’.

Tuff City’s Night Train label issued a King Solomon comp back in 2005 (though neither of these songs was included).

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

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.

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By Larry, December 24, 2015 9:50 am

Funky16Corners Christmas Party!
Ike and Tina Turner – Merry Christmas Baby (WB)
Otis Redding – White Christmas (Atco)
Soulful Strings – Jingle Bells (Cadet)
Albert King – Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’ (Stax)
Felice Taylor – It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It’s Spring) (Mustang)
Honey and the Bees – Jing Jing a Ling (Chess)
The Gems – Love For Christmas (Chess)
James Brown – Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto (King)
Charles Brown – Merry Christmas Baby (Jewel)
Count Sidney and the Dukes – Soul Christmas (Goldband)
Donny Hathaway – This Christmas (Atco)
Bobby Holloway – Funky Little Drummer Boy (Smash)
Clarence Carter – Backdoor Santa (Atlantic)
Harvey Averne Band – Let’s Get It Together This Christmas (Fania)
J Hines and the Boys – A Funky X-Mas To You (Nation-Wide)
Freddy King – I Hear Jingle Bells (Federal)
Dee Irwin and Mamie Galore – All I Want For Christmas Is Your Love (Imperial)
Johnny and Jon – Christmas in Viet Nam (Jewel)
John Lee Hooker – Blues For Christmas (Elmor)
George Conedy – El Nino Del Tambor (Kent Gospel)
Soulful Strings (feat Dorothy Ashby) – Merry Christmas Baby (Cadet)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners Christmas Party 124MB MP3

Greetings all.

It is the end of the week, and so I will remind you to grab this week’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show. This year, instead of a Christmas-themed show, you get the third and final part of the

History of Allen Toussaint. You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile devicevia the TuneIn app, or grab yourself an MP3 at the blog.

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Since this week’s Friday post falls on Christmas Day, I thought I’d gather together a selection of favorites from Christmases past, and whip together a Funky16Corners holiday mix.

These should all be familiar, and there are a couple tunes that show up twice (vocal and instrumental), but they should provide a festive accompaniment  to the burning of the Yule log.

I hope you dig it, and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, that you have a fantastic day!

See you 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.

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By Larry, December 22, 2015 11:55 am

Rotary Connection

Listen/Download – Rotary Connection – Sidewalk Santa MP3

Listen/Download – Rotary Connection – Silent Night Medley MP3

Greetings all.

Today, I offer you two tracks from of one the groovier holiday albums ever made on the soulful side of things.

Rotary Connection are mostly remembered today as the first place much of the world heard the voice of the mighty Minnie Riperton.

The group was of course, much more than that. Guided in the studio by the genius Charles Stepney, Rotary Connection created a unique mixture of soul and rock, crafting some of the most interesting albums of the day.

It helped that they had in their ranks, both Riperton and Sidney Barnes, the latter having made his mark as a singer and songwriter alongside no less a light than George Clinton.

Their Christmas LP ‘Peace’, released in 1968 is – unlike many holiday albums that only mash together a wad of familiar songs – a worthwhile listen all the way through.

The tracks that I bring you today illustrate both the group’s fine originals, as well as their mastery of interpreting classic material.

The first track, ‘Sidewalk Santa’, written and sung by Barnes is somewhat dark soundscape, featuring a heavy – yet tasteful – arrangement by Stepney.

The second cut is actually three of the album’s tracks mixed together (by me…). The group works their way through three versions of ‘Silent Night’, the first an almost jazz rendition of the traditional song, the second moving in a more rock interpretation, with fuzz guitar and Riperton’s wordless vocals, and the third, ‘Silent Night Chant’ letting its freak flag fly with the full rock treatment (the whole mix coming in at almost 15 minutes, more than half of the album).

It serves as both a great holiday sound, but also a doorway into the sounds of the Rotary Connection.

I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll be back on Friday with a mix of soulful holiday faves.

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 20, 2015 2:44 pm

Listen/Download – Shurfine Singers – Silent Night & the 11 O’Clock News MP3

Greetings all.

I have some groovy Christmas stuff for you this year – including a mix of favorites, dropping on Friday.
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One of this year’s offerings is particularly intriguing because it is a “cover” of sorts.

If the medley of ‘Silent Night’ and a recording of a TV news broadcast sounds familiar (and it should) it’s because Simon & Garfunkel did it in 1966 as ‘Silent Night/7 O’Clock News’ on their LP ‘Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme’.

The juxtaposition of a revered/traditional Christmas song, and a news broadcast marred by reports of war was a stark (if somewhat heavy handed) reminder of what was at stake in the middle of the 1960s.

The following year, Atlanta-based producer Wendell Parker, who had worked with Eddie Billups, Grover Mitchell and the Mighty Hannibal (among others) assembled a gospel group called the Shurfine Singers (Parker had done a lot of work with the Atlanta-based Shurfine label) and released his own version of the medley, in a gospel style, (barely) re-titled ‘Silent Night & the 11 O’Clock News’.

No doubt an attempt to offer up the same message to a black audience, it is refreshing (and also somewhat jarring) to hear the familiar medley redone.

As far as I can tell this version didn’t chart anywhere, nor was it released locally on Shurfine (though Parker had placed a number of his productions with Josie).

The flipside is a version of the spiritual ‘Go Tell It On the Mountain’.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something festive.

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 17, 2015 11:23 am

Willie Tee

Listen/Download – Willie Tee – Walking Up a One Way Street MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, so I will ask you once again to grab yourself a weekly dose of soul in the form of the Funky16 Corners Radio Show podcast. We come to you every week (and once a month at SoulGuyRadio.com) with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove all on original vinyl. You can subscribe to the show in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app or grab a download here in the archive.

This week is Part 2 of the History of Allen Toussaint, with a focus this week on the sounds of the Sansu label. Listen in, and if you didn’t catch Part 1, hit the archive and grab that one, too.

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Today’s selection is an all-time New Orleans soul classic, laid down by one of that city’s greatest singers, Wilson Turbinton, better-known far and wide as Willie Tee.

Tee got his start recording for AFO in 1962, and spent the 60s working as a solo artist, and with his brothers in one of the great NOLA funk bands, the Gaturs.

‘Walking Up a One Way Street’ from 1965 is one of those records in the mid-tempo sweet spot that is popular with both the Northern Soul crowd in the UK as well as the Beach Music folks in the USA (I have it somewhere on an old Atlantic Records comp aimed at the Beach crowd).

‘Walking Up a One Way Street’ is like a New Orleans all-star session, having been written by Earl King, produced and arranged by Wardell Quezerque and performed by Willie Tee himself.

The song bounces along on top of a jaunty horn section (I dig in the verse where the trumpets drop out and the saxes carry the load), with a wonderful vocal performance by Tee.

There’s a reason this 45 is sweated by many and hard to find, but I’m here to tell you I waited and found my copy on the cheap side, so keep your eyes peeled and your wallet close by and you’ll eventually score one, too.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Monday with some new stuff for Christmas!

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.

Comments (0)

By Larry, December 15, 2015 1:34 pm

Billy Harner

Listen/Download – Billy Harner – Sally Sayin’ Somethin’ MP3

Greetings all.

The song I bring you today is a long-time fave from one of the truly great blue-eyed soul singers of the classic era, Billy Harner.

New Jersey born and bred, Harner recorded a string of killer 45s for a variety of Philly-based and national labels between 1964 and the mid-70s, as well as an excellent (and very rare LP).

Oddly enough, it wasn’t either of Harner’s big Northern Soul faves (today’s selection and ‘What About the Music’) that started me hunting for his records, but rather his 1967 45 ‘Homicide Dresser’ which I grabbed almost 20 years ago because it looked interesting. Now I have at least a dozen of his 45s (including an autographed disc which holds a place of honor in my crates).

Today’s selection, ‘Sally Sayin’ Somethin’ was a big local hit in Philadelphia (as well as charting in New York and New Orleans) in 1967.

Opening with a throbbing bass, doubled by piano, Harner and a chorus of female backing vocalists come in and the tune build up into one of the great choruses.

The big selling point of the record (aside from the pop hooks, attributed pseudonymously to ‘Sunshine/Poltergeist’ ?!?) is Harner’s vocal, which is flexible enough to move between a smooth tenor and a soulful growl. He really is a seriously underrated singer, and his records are all worth picking up.

I hope you dig the tune (and dig a little deeper into Billy Harner).

See you all on Friday.

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.

Comments (3)

By Larry, December 13, 2015 11:41 am

The Webs

Listen/Download – The Webs – This Thing Called Love MP3

Listen/Download – The Webs – Tomorrow MP3

Greetings all.

I thought we’d start the week with a very solid two-sider by one of the more interesting soul groups of the 60s.

I don’t know much about the Webs (sometimes billed as Willie Cooper and the Webs), but you can piece together some of the puzzle by following their discography.

The group recorded for a number of labels between 1964 and 1968, getting their start in Texas (I’ve seem reports that they were from Galveston) and waxing their first 45 for the San Antonio-based Dynamic label.

They eventually moved on to Whiz and Atlantic, before hooking up with Bob Bateman and Lou Courtney, who would work with the group for a couple of 45s on the short-lived Popside imprint, as well as on Verve.

Today’s selections appeared on the group’s first Popside 45, from 1967.

‘This Thing Called Love’, co-written by Willie Cooper is a hard-edged, organ-driven number with a wailing lead vocal and a great horn section.

The flip-side ‘Tomorrow’, co-written by Bateman, sounds like it was born and raised inside the head of Curtis Mayfield. The lead and backing vocals, and the polished, uptown arrangement sound like they were lifted off of an Impressions or Major Lance session. The group’s harmonies are spot-on and the tempo is relaxed, yet still punchy enough for the dance floor.

Both sides are co-produced by Bateman and Courtney.

The group’s second Popside 45 ‘Give In’ b/w ‘It’s So Hard to Break a Habit’ is a much more expensive/in-demand Northern side (which I’m still looking for).

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

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.

Comments (3)

By Larry, December 10, 2015 11:57 am

Milt Matthews

Listen/Download – Milt Matthews Inc – It Ain’t Your Fault MP3

Listen/Download – Milt Matthews Inc – Little Green Apples MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is nigh, and so then in this week’s episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show podcast. We come to you every week here at Funky16Corners.com and once a month at SoulGuyRadio.com with the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl.

I have a very special episode for you this week (and for the next two weeks as well) first of a three-part look at the History of Allen Toussaint, covering everything from his earliest solo recordings, through the early days on New Orleans R&B, the Sansu years and on into the funky sounds of the late 60s and early 70s. All told it comes to over four hours of the finest sounds that Allen Toussaint was associated with as artist, composer, producer and/or arranger. I think you’ll dig it!

You can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 right here in the archive.

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The tunes I bring you today are a couple of my favorite songs from an overall excellent album by Milt Matthews Inc.

Milt Matthews was born in North Carolina, but relocated to Washington, DC in the mid-60s, where he worked as a session guitarist and songwriter.

His 1970 debut LP – from which this tune hails – is an outstanding example of the intersection of soul, folk and funk, which was bubbling up into the zeitgeist at the time.

Matthews spends the album working out all manner of mellow grooves, sounding like a soulful singer-songwriter in the Bill Withers/Lou Bond tradition, but with a solid, funky underpinning.

‘It Ain’t Your Fault’ is one of the more upbeat tunes on the album, mixing jazzy lead guitar with organ and nice, solid rhythm section locked into the groove.

Matthews talent as a vocalist is well-displayed in his version of the O.C. Smith ‘Little Green Apples’. Here we have a song that I thought I never needed to hear again, yet Matthews takes it and really digs in, playing with the tempo and delivering an epic reading of the song that clocks in at over eight minutes. It’s rare to hear someone get their hands on a ‘standard’ and really do something interesting and new with it, and Matthews really makes the song his own.

If you dig these tracks, try and get your hands on a copy of the album, which is excellent from start to finish.

Oddly enough, Matthews second LP ‘For the People’ moves in a more psych-rock direction and is sought out by collectors of the genre.

Matthews went on to later record disco and gospel.

I hope you dig the tunes, 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.