Drummer ain't had none in a long time....

This goes out to Doug Schulkind at WFMU who for some unknown reason happens to think what I do here, on the blog, is special. I've rarely been so flattered in my life.

While I agree that the dedication is a bit obvious, it's such a good excuse to play the silly thing that I can't resist the temptation.

Actually, while I'm at it, it's been far too long since I thanked everyone who visits, comments, sends emails. Ya'll are such a lovely crew. Thank you. My only regret is that I often don't have time to respond in the manner I'd like. In particular, finding time to answer emails has become a big problem.

Obviously I'm having trouble finding time to post as well. Between taking care of the Monster Child and running a business I'm lucky to get the laundry done much less do something I actually enjoy, alone.

Anyway, I'm still here, plugging along. Hope ya'll stick around too.

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Adolphus Holcomb, aka Little Hooks, and his brother Ray Holcomb [on this record, Ray Nato] worked together for virtually their entire professional lives, starting in the early 50s and lasting into the late 70s. And they recorded quite a few records under various group names along the way.

The odd thing about this record is that the Holcomb brothers were basically through recording by the mid 60's, yet in 1972 they reappeared with this atypical, incredibly charming little record. I have no idea how well it sold, but it must have done something sales-wise because it was picked up for national release on the United Artists label. As far as I know, it was their last 45.

Charming? I'm not sure I've ever said that about a 45 before.....but yeah, it's charming. There's a nice lo-fi homemade quality to it. Less hard funk than a sweet little groover that almost always makes me smile.

Hope it makes ya'll smile too...........

She's the only one for me.....

I often buy cheap beat-up copies of expensive records. And mostly this works out great for me. I'd say 80% of them just need a good cleaning to sound much much better. But that scenario doesn't always play-out as expected, so occasionally I'm stuck with a truly sub-par record. By which I mean one that I'm not happy with at any price.

This is one of those records. The 45 doesn't turn up all that often and when it does, it's pricey. Ya know, I thought I was being smart to buy a cheapie. But I wasn't. Now I just have to find another copy.

Wouldn't be such a big deal except I absolutely love the record. Right?

Awhile back, a friend of mine just about had me convinced that Lonie [also Lonnie] Jones was actually my beloved Diamond Joe recording under a different name. Now, Dan Phillips assures me this isn't true, but ya know, that I would even consider the possibility only goes to show how good the record really is [and how my enthusiasm occasionally gets away from me].

So, for the time being, until I find a better copy, here's the b-side.

Such a lovely thing. One of two records by the artist, one of four on the label. Charles Brimmer deserves major kudos for the production..........

Music from the earth.....

What a drag. Belita Woods is dead.

I met her once several years ago when she and George Clinton were in town doing some recording. A very sweet, very funny lady. Very much full of life.

If you haven't already checked out Derek's post of her three early 45s then you most definitely should. The song, "Grounded" is a particular favorite of mine.

But ya know, as nice as those records are, Ms. Woods will always have a place in my mind as a member of the P-Funk pantheon. She spent something like 14 years working with that most democratic of all Funk Masters.

Over the past ten years, going to see Clinton & Co. has become a kind of personal ritual. And a big part of that ritual has been hearing Ms. Woods lead into "Sentimental Journey"......'cause that's when you know the moment of ritualistic closure is at hand.

On a good night [and there are definitely bad ones] that moment can make ya feel like you've just received holy sacrament at the Church of Funk. As a wise man once said, there ain't NO party like a P-Funk party.

Having seen a couple of clips of the band without Ms. Woods, I can honestly say it isn't the same. But then others have been saying the same thing for years as the old crew died off or moved on. And yet, the latter day incarnation of P-Funk has had meaning to me even as others scoffed. Ya know, I happen to like the older, wiser, possibly even more generous P-Funk.

Here's a cut from the album Ms. Woods and Mr. Clinton were working on when I met her. Belita sings on several of the songs including this one. I doubt the folks of The Big Ol' Nasty Getdown will mind me giving you a listen, but it's a relatively new release, thus I'll only leave it up for a few days. You can get the album via either Amazon or iTunes. It's called, The Big Ol' Nasty Getdown Vol. 1., and has some very cool stuff on it.....not the least of which is some tasty guitar work by the late Gary Shider.

Include Me

I had some trouble coming up with a video clip. Ya see, the cleanest available footage comes from a show at Montreux, but that show is far too 'staged' for my taste and the audience seems about half dead. Which is to say that my personal P-Funk experience has been somewhat rougher.....and a good deal more sweaty.

Thus I've chosen these clips. The first was filmed on a TV set, and is a bit 'staged' as well, but the energy level is def set on high. The second looks to have been shot in a club, but even if it wasn't, it still rings truer to the nature of the beast than the Montreux show. You may want to check your sound level before watching it as the the audio is close to being fried [which is why I like it].

Every day would be a holiday.....

Ironing Board Sam [aka, Sam Moore] played at Jazz Fest yesterday. It was his first appearance in a very long time. I read something about it being 41 years since his last. Good for him.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the show. No free passes have come our way this year and we just sent the I.R.S. virtually everything we had in the savings account.

Too bad, as the Jazz Fest line-up is really very good this year. The most interesting I've seen since getting my degree.....and thus finally being able to attend. [As I've pointed out before, the scheduling of the festival conflicts with final exams.]

Anyway, Mr. Moore is now affiliated with the fine folks at the Music Maker Relief Foundation and that association appears to be doing him a boatload of good. Here's a link to his page on the Music Maker site where you can see a few video clips [the vodka ad is a hoot] and also listen to several mp3s ["Life Is Like A See Saw" is particularly nice].

Ya'll should def go see him if he comes to your town. On May 11, he'll be playing in both Durham and Hillsborough North Carolina.

Mostly you get to hear the funky flip-side of this 45, but I'm a fan of this ultra-nice cover of a tune originally recorded by Johnnie Morisette [I think that's right], on which Mr. Moore really gets to show off his vocal chops. Those horns are pretty sweet too.

Hope ya'll enjoy.......

I said what I said 'cause I said what I wanted to say......

Seriously ya'll, this is one of my all time favorite records.

So, were Jessie Hill and Shirley Goodman the most unlikely duo ever waxed? Possibly. To say both were highly eccentric singers is putting it mildly. Who'd have imagined they'd sound so crazy-cool together?

Huey Meaux probably deserves kudos for that flash of brilliance, but honestly, I don't think you need to look farther than the credit given to Hill and Mac Rebennack for the arrangement to know what's really going on in this session. As far as I'm concerned, this is another killer track put together by those two. I only wish there had been many more.

And speaking of 'more', most of what was recorded during these sessions was later released on Meaux's Crazy Cajun label as an Lp titled, "You'll Lose A Good Thing". I don't think it's ever been issued on Cd, but there seem to be plenty of copies of the original album floating around. I suggest you buy it if you see it.

Hope ya'll enjoy...........

Kiss......

I'm having equipment trouble. My amplifier problem [I've fried four since I started the blog] has been solved, but in the mean time [sure enough] my scanner has died.

I should be 100% by Saturday afternoon.

In the meantime, here are a few clips for your enjoyment.

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Consider this post a mash note.

It's no secret [in some circles] that Frankie Vasquez is the shit. One of my present life goals is to either dance with the man for like maybe 15 seconds or alternatively give him a big smooch. Lets hope he doesn't have me arrested should the occasion arise.

Actually, you might consider this a mash-note to virtually the entire discography of older afro-cuban based music.

To say that the musicians in these clips are top-notch is such a major understatement. Most deserve a biographical notation of their own. But ya know, I'd rather just get on with it.

Go Buy Records!!!

I like to think every day is Record Store Day around here, but of course tomorrow there are a bunch of special events going on around the country. So, ya'll be good boys and girls and go support your local independent vinyl [and Cd] merchants. Right?

Here's several unrelated clips celebrating a few of the shops I patronize in New Orleans and Austin [some more than others, but I've def bought records in all].

Fyi, the fourth clip would only load if I included it as part of a play list, so you may need to manually stop the player unless you want to watch the rest of the clips.

It's not that great of clip but I wanted to be sure and include something on Breakaway Records, a great shop that only opened a few months before I moved back home. Fans of the now-defunct blog, Second Line Social, may remember Gabe the owner. Even though I don't get to the shop very often [like twice since I moved], I still end up with a fair bit of Breakaway's stock through trades with a friend.

When are you comin' home....

As I've mentioned before, the classic line-up of Cookie and The Cupcakes involved two lead singers, Cookie Thierry and Shelton Dunaway.....and generally speaking, when Dunaway did the vocals the records were credited to Shelton Dunaway and the Cupcakes.

Thus, this is actually a "Cookie and the Cupcakes" record.

The song has nothing to do with the largely New Orleans based Popeye dance craze of the early sixties. Ya see, 'Popeye music' is markedly down-tempo and this tune is of course 'up-beat'.

"Cindy Lou", another song recorded several years earlier by the Cupcakes under the name 'Boogie Ramblers', is very similar and of course makes no mention of the Popeye. In short, any references to the Popeye were included purely for the sake of making regional sales.

That's gotta be the great Katie Webster on piano. Totally besides the point, but ya know, if there was ever a woman who grew more beautiful as she aged, it was Katie. Girl def had the life-force in her. I saw her play when I was about 15 and won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Hope ya'll enjoy...........

You'd be so nice to come home to......

Many of the old original press maroon Peacocks are tough to find. That's why I own a cheap copy with a badly off center label and some of the more outrageous vinyl blisters I've ever seen in any pressing.

Oh, and it's definitely been underwater as well.....and then had water dripping on it for some time afterwards. I can tell because the label partially dissolved into 'runs' which then dried in the grooves. In my experience, a very very difficult condition to clean.

So yeah, this 45 has seen some serious scrubbing, and now sounds about a thousand times better than when I bought it. But it's not perfect. The crackles you hear are left-over paper and ink in the grooves. There are no scratches in the vinyl.

Not to be flip, but if you don't know who James Wayne, aka James Waynes, aka Wee Willie Wayne, is, then you def need to use your google. I'm far too tired to lay it all out atm.

"Scott", listed as co-writer of the tune is very probably Joseph Scott, who more than anyone else is responsible for the 'sound' of Peacock/Duke recordings.

Hope ya'll enjoy...........

Lest we overlook the obvious.....

Cosimo Matassa is 86 years old today. Tomorrow night he'll be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

About frigging time.

I'm pleased that RRHF voters finally got their collective head out. It's a very nice, well deserved, honor. The man is a living legend. I wouldn't be at all surprised if 50% of everything I've posted on this blog was either engineered, mastered, pressed, or distributed by Mr. Matassa. Often enough, all of the above.

I pulled out a nice sized stack of "classic" records before deciding to go with this one. It was a tough choice. So many famous recordings were cut at one or the other of Matassa's studios that I could easily have chosen amongst 50 others.

Ultimately, what gets me about this particular 45 is not that it's just a great two-sider......more like, it's impossibly good. A vinyl jewel. Everything about it conspires to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Silly thing's probably only worth a couple of bucks but I keep it in a nice plastic sleeve just like I do my rarer 45s.

Btw, Smiley Lewis was not a pianist. I've run into several peeps under that impression. In fact, one of the reasons why some of Lewis' recordings are occasionally reminiscent of Fats Domino's is that they used the same piano player [a small joke]. Fats, of course, covered "I Hear You Knocking" as well.

Anyway, that's either James Booker or Huey Smith at the keyboard. Dave Bartholomew [who recently won a Grammy Trustee award] would have been running the session.

And Cos Matassa was there, as he was during so many sessions, making sure it was all captured on tape.

Both sides were cut at the old J&M Studio at Rampart and Dumaine in a room about the same size as one I'm now sitting in. I seem to recall that Cos charged $15 an hour for studio time......which included his services as well.

As you may know, Cos hasn't been doing so well over the past year. Here's hoping that the award does him some good.

Happy Birthday Mr. Matassa....and Congratulations!!!

I Hear You Knocking

Bumpity Bump

Treasure....

Many thanks to Marc, who in the comments of the last post pointed out the existence of rare footage of Hop Wilson and Lee Semien in this film [at 6:11]. But that's not all, 'cause ya see "On The Road Again" is stuffed with outrageously good one-of-a-kind performances from beginning to end, some of which I'm sure you've seen as lower quality clips on youtube.

Anyway, I personally had never seen the movie in it's entirety, and if you haven't either, then you owe it to yourself to take a look.

OTRA from J. Sprig on Vimeo.

You better speak once and think twice....

Poppy/Poppa Hop is Hop Wilson, the steel guitar player. Here's a discography which just so happens to include one for the Ivory label as well.

Ivory was owned by Lee Semien, aka, King Ivory. It's been my experience that any recording he was involved with is worth checking out. But good luck finding those Ivory 45s......

For those not interested in hunting down the vinyl, there are several comps associated with these two men. "I Met A Strange Woman"is included on the super nice "Hop Wilson & His Buddies", and on "Steel Guitar Flash" as well.

King Ivory is well represented by both "Beating The Odds" and "The Bitch Done Quit Me".

Hope ya'll enjoy.............

A charge to keep [in mind]....

The original version of this song was recorded by the Georgia based Echoes of Zion in either 1949 or '50. Given that the Echoes were known for re-working much older songs, it's possible the tune dates from a good deal farther back. Anyone know for sure?

Actually, it doesn't matter if the song was old or new because the style of singing is what's important. Although somewhat gussied-up [the Echoes were pros after all], this is an example of a moaning-hymn. Or maybe I should say its done in the style of an old pre-Gospel moaning hymn.....which was never meant for 'groups'. It's purely a 'congregational' style.

Anyway, this is one of the few recordings of this type by a Gospel group that I've heard [not that I've heard everything]. What's interesting is that this later version sounds quite a bit like the original, perhaps even better, depending on your taste.

Relatively cheap, nice, copies of this record can also be found on the Nashboro label. Original label releases tend to go for more, which is why I own a beater.

Prepare to be awed.........

Hold it....

There were only about 20 releases on Rocky Robin's, Monroe La. based, N-Joy label. Many of those releases are a little bit too 'teen-pop' for my taste, but there's def some good stuff in the catalog [specifically John Fred's version of "Boogie Children"].

The a-side of this record fits the teen-pop mold well enough that it was apparently a big hit with the kids on American Bandstand when first introduced. Too bad Dick Clark didn't decide to flip the record over. Now that really would've been something.

Basically, it's impossible to write about Duane Yates without mentioning the Boogie Kings, the band with which he became lead singer after recording two 45s with the Capris. They were a very popular band in Southern Louisiana. Yates, along with G.G. Shin and Clint West, form the 'holy trinity' of Boogie Kings vocalists.

Unfortunately, Yates died in 2009.....that's after spending most of his life writing, recording, and playing music. Truly an epitaph worthy of envy.

Hope ya'll enjoy, it's from 1965......

Give me boss action.....

An atypical cut for a group more commonly known for sweet ballads of the sort beloved by the lowrider crowd. While these guys obviously knew how to funk it up, I've never heard anything else they recorded that even comes close to this monster jam.

Yeah you rite, the funkateers love it.....thus the 45 rarely goes for cheap.

The Enchanting Enchanters originated in East Chicago, Indiana and recorded this 45 for the owners of the Steeltown label [who first recorded the Jackson 5] in Gary, Indiana. BenMoKeith is a mashup of their names: Ben Brown, Maurice Rogers, and Gordon Keith. I may be wrong, but I believe the label is a 'one-off'.

Hope ya'll enjoy........

GO2 and gibberish....

There are folks who find this record totally mystifying. And understandably so. On most levels, the lyrics make absolutely no sense at all.

But ya see, it's a 'Christian' record [whatever that means], and a damned catchy one at that. In fact, it's a bit of an ear-worm. That's why it gets plays, right?

Now, I can't say I'm privy to any special knowledge, but I do know that the title, "G O 2 And The Rest Of It", is a coded, 'Christian', way of saying 'go to hell'......which presumably helps clear up some of the mystery.....but still, there's that mandolin which after repeated plays continues to confound......

In short, this is comes from out in left field.

Myra Cormier is currently the choir director of a very large, well-known, evangelical church in Houston, Texas.

Consider yourself lucky if this tune doesn't stick in your head for at least a week.........

Things are better....

I should've posted this along with the previous record. It's the instrumental version of "Things Could Be Better".......but not simply the backing track used on the vocal version. Sounds to me like a slightly faster take and there's some very fine horn work not included on the other record.

Actually, "Things Are Better" is a monster in it's own right.

Just to be clear, this is a reissue of the 45. I believe it was offered as part of a limited edition box set [by Rhino?]. It's the copy I usually play because it sounds gorgeous and my original is like one step away from the trash can.

Clean original copies of this record are very scarce on the ground and thus usually go for more than I can justify spending. From what I can tell, even these re-issues don't turn up all that often.

Btw, I must apologize for the 'snow' in some of my recent scans. I don't know what it is, but believe me, it's not dust. Could it be that my six year old $99 printer is finally reaching the end of its usefulness?

Hope ya'll enjoy the tune.......

Always try to pull me down.....

As I mentioned when I posted the flip-side of this record, this is "one of the truly great examples of quasi-suicidal soul".

Yep, that about says it all.

Hope ya'll enjoy.......

With all of my heart....I'm not ashamed

Marguerite Wright, aka Margo White, made a scarce few records but damn they're nice.

Actually, I forget the exact count. One with Cookie & The Cupcakes on Khoury [?]......a couple more for Floyd Solieau's Jin label....a couple with Bill Parker for Goldband.....and two [or is it three?] for Huey Meaux owned labels.

After that, nothing, not a peep. She could well have died in 1970 for all anyone knows.

While I wouldn't say her version of Bobby Bland's "I'm Not Ashamed" is exactly 'revered' in Southern Louisiana.....it still comes awful close. Last time I was up by St. Landry Parish I heard a local band cover the tune and I guarantee you they'd never heard of Bobby Bland.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of both sides of the 45. In fact, I initially meant to feature "With All Of My Heart" all by itself.....but then, I don't know that you'd get a true feeling for how good this 45 is without including "I'm Not Ashamed".

In my part of the world this is a $5 record, but ya know, I'd never give up this copy. It would simply leave too big of hole in my collection if I did.

So, big news huh?, local girl loves perennially popular local record. Hope ya'll do too.

I'm Not Ashamed

With All Of My Heart

If you really want to know.....

As you can see from the label scan, a previous owner of this 45 saw fit to mark this cut as 'bad'. And ya know, maybe the song itself isn't the greatest....might even have shown itself as weak pop in the hands of someone else....but Lord-Have-Mercy, once Armstrong tears into it, he never lets up. The result is positively shocking.

Sir Shambling's got the scoop on Jimmy Armstrong, here, along with several other cuts, including the 'good' side of this record [it's superb].

Anyway, take my advice, don't be put off by the beginning. Hold on and I swear you'll see what I mean by the time the side is over. Highly recommended to those who enjoy 'screamers'.

Hope ya'll enjoy......