The Bitter Southerner: Southern Soul Review

[choo-choo-charlie]

Thought I'd share this great post at The Bitter Southerner, which is a terrific site to visit if you haven't already. I love this stuff.

 

http://bittersoutherner.com/rhythm-blues-and-the-southern-dream-of-freedom

[LouieB]

The Candi Staton cut is a hoot. I played that on my show a few months back.  Some of those that claim to be overlooked aren't.

 

If you want to have a discussion on this, there are terrific soul comps that cover some of this territory so you don't have to go out looking for records you will never find for less than a fortune.  The best part of the CD era is that much of this material is anthologized and available to any fan. 

 

LouieB

[choo-choo-charlie]

I've got two Stax compilations and that's it. Can you recommend any?

[LouieB]

Which ones?  The singles series?  I only have the first.   There are four terrific Fame comps and a great two disk (and a 5 disk) Specialty set.  I like the Savoy R&B reissues but those are from an earlier period.  Check out the Numero Group material (discussed here numero-us times before). There are a couple Vee Jay comps that are good too.  In fact every small label has some comp out there as well.

 

LouieB

[PopTodd]

If you're looking for compilations of overlooked Southern Soul, these 2 are both pretty great:

http://www.amazon.com/Birmingham-Sound-Soul-Neal-Hemphill/dp/B001BGJ0L2/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380033632&sr=301-2

http://www.amazon.com/The-Birmingham-Sound-Soul-Hemphill/dp/B000RKKJXG/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380033588&sr=301-1

[LouieB]

If you're looking for compilations of overlooked Southern Soul, these 2 are both pretty great:

http://www.amazon.com/Birmingham-Sound-Soul-Neal-Hemphill/dp/B001BGJ0L2/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380033632&sr=301-2

http://www.amazon.com/The-Birmingham-Sound-Soul-Hemphill/dp/B000RKKJXG/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380033588&sr=301-1

Yes they are. Put out by my buddy John Ciba. 

 

LouieB

[PopTodd]

Yes they are. Put out by my buddy John Ciba. 

 

LouieB

I figured that you were familiar with them. We have have even discussed them before.

Your buddy John did some very fine work there, although a couple of songs didn't survive the digital transfer very well.

[LouieB]

I figured that you were familiar with them. We have have even discussed them before.

Your buddy John did some very fine work there, although a couple of songs didn't survive the digital transfer very well.

I am not sure what the deal is. I think the tapes themselves might have been bad.  I sort of remember asking about that, but honestly I don't remember the answer. 

 

LouieB

[LouieB]

Regarding soul comps, the English have really done up some nice soul comps I just found. They are super cheap and sound great.  They are on One Day Music and feature cuts from early indie labels. The Specialty one is called Rip it Up and I featured it on the R&B flashback show this past Sunday.  But I also found and have not listened to I'm Ready which has material from Modern Records, and Let the Good Times Roll with material from Aladdin Records. I also got the United Story from Delmark recently too.  But I highly recommend the Fame studios comps (also from an English company). There is a three CD of masters, a single comp of Penn/Oldham material, and two volumes of rareities and unreleased material.  Fame is really the sweet spot of southern soul, from Muscle Shoals. 

 

Edit- What the Numero Group has done is nothing sort of amazing and everyone should own a few of those comps.  If you like nice boxed LPs they have those or they have great 2 disk comps too.  Much of the Numero stuff (as I have said many times) is somewhat derivative, sometimes verging on amateur, but often the infectious nature of it overcomes the second rate material and elevates it to something way better.  It appears that Numero has hit the end of this regional soul barrel since they don't release as many of the eccentric soul as they were for awhile, but there is strange and cool gospel and other genre material they continue to put out and now are teaming with Secretly Canadian for greater market saturation.

 

LouieB

[Shug]

Some really cool songs in the "overlooked" group.  I am digging the OV Wright, Spencer Wiggins, and the Ollie and the Nightingales. Thanks for sharing that cool blog, choo choo!