I refuse to be a loser.....

Speaking of obsessions...

Here's another pre-Stax Ruby Johnson recording on the D.C. based Nebs label.

Hope ya'll enjoy the tune...it's killer.

A brand new peace of mind.....

Blame my obsession with Lee Rogers on Derek See. He's the one who turned me on to the man. So far, I haven't found a tune I don't love.

The discography I have says this 45 is from 1966, but that's gotta be wrong. Simply can't be true. My nose tells me it's from 1968 at the earliest.

Just to make my point about it all being good, I'm throwing in the flip-side for lagniappe.

Hope ya'll enjoy. Fyi, the beginning of "Togetherness" is slightly odd. The record plays as it's supposed to, that's not a skip.

Togetherness

Sex Appeal

Feel it....

Speaking of hot weather. We're in San Antonio for a few days and it's like a 105 degrees out there, no shit.

I've had this record set to go for some time. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes on the band at the moment, but as I recall these guys were originally out of Arizona and somehow ended up in Colorado. They put out several nice singles and an album, but for my money there's really only one other single worth hunting up, "Biscuits and Buttermilk" on the Mo Soul label [I really really need to find that one].

Anyway....arguably one of the toughest funk tracks ever waxed. Not especially "deep", just hard as a rock.

Hope ya'll enjoy...

Throw that left leg with pride....

"This is a excellent blog and you do a great job posting good music. That's why the stats are up!"

Thanks for making me smile, Rekkid, but unfortunately it's not true. The recent surge in traffic looks to be the product of a Blogger glitch.

On the up-side, it also looks like the low numbers I was getting the week before the surge were incorrect. As of today, traffic seems reassuringly normal. Referrals from Twilightzone! are showing once again. Even thumbnails of my label scans have reappeared on linked sites after having mysteriously disappeared awhile back.

All in all, I'm pleased. I happen to like my normal traffic numbers. Not too big, not too small....just right.

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Is this a pseudonymous Eddie Bo record? Well, Martin Lawrie over at the Soul Generation site says no, that Sonny Jones and Eddie Bo simply sound quite a bit alike. Me? I'm not so sure about that. My ears tell me it's Eddie Bo if for no other reason than the phrasing of the vocals. And to be much more direct about it, I have to say that Sonny Jones sounds very very different. Listen to the records.

Anyway, it's definitely an Eddie Bo produced jam of a high order. One of his best.

Another 45 that plays well in hot weather...

[Oh crap. Dan Phillips posted a marvelous piece on "The Sissy" several hours before I offered up this post. It includes his rip of the same Sonny Jones 45. Ya'll should def check out what Dan has to say, here, 'cause he's totally the man.]

Sissy Walk Part 1.

Sissy Walk Part 2.

Some people...

Something odd is going on.

The month of June was looking to be this blog's worst month, stat-wise, in over nine months. But then, BAM!, literally overnight I'm getting many times my normal amount of traffic for absolutely no reason at all.

Every single day since Wednesday before last, this blog has had far more visitors than my previous best day ever. A couple of days ago, there were 100 page views in one hour. By comparison, I've had plenty of days with 100 page views, but never anything close to that kind of hourly traffic before.

Now comes the really strange part. Twilightzone! has long been a major source of traffic for this blog. Today I check the stats and I've got no referrals from Twilightzone! None. Nada, Zip. This has never ever happened before. In fact, it's an impossibility.

Anyone know what's up?

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I've been meaning to post this one for a long time but never seem to get around to it. Shame on me for contributing to the general neglect shown Bobby Powell. The record itself almost always sells for around five bucks, but truthfully, I don't run into lots of copies. I was rather glad to find the one I have.

Some years ago, a nice comp of Powell's Jewel and Whit sides was released called "My Own Thing". I don't often play it these days as I now own all the 45s included, but it's an excellent collection, if you can find a copy.

A killer slow groove, perfect for a warm evening.....

Hope ya'll enjoy....

You shake shake here, you shake shake there.....

You knew this was coming....didn't you?

This goes out to my beloved Nana [RIP] for letting me scratch up her records from the time I was barely out of diapers. There was copy of the album "Hate To See You Go" in her house that's now in my collection.

To my mind, this is a totally obvious record to play. I figure if you don't already own a collection of Little Walter then there must be something seriously wrong with you. On the other hand, going for the obvious in this context isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, when was the last time you heard a worn out copy of the 45?

The song gives me chills every time I hear it. That's after literally hundreds of plays. Mostly it's the harp solo, truly one of the most amazing few seconds ever recorded.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

I can't go on this way.....

With Jimmie Lee Robinson, the question is: Who didn't he play with? I won't bother going into it 'cause the info is easily found online, but the fact that he can be heard on a number of Little Walter recordings should be quite enough. As far as I'm concerned, that alone makes him a god.

Bandera, along with sister labels Laredo and Jericho Road, were run by Violet Musyznski and her son out of their house in Chicago. Ace has issued a couple of associated comps. I believe they're called something like "Bandera: Blues and Gospel" and "Bandera: Rockabilly and Country". I haven't heard either but assume they're worth hunting up. Certainly I like everything I've heard on vinyl.

Mainly known for his guitar playing, it's Robinson's voice that gets me on this one. The song is "All My Life".

Haunting.....

You got me rockin' and reelin'....

Another of Eddie Bo's less often played tunes. Great song, with some absolutely killer guitar work [probably supplied by Edgar Blanchard] and a beautiful sax solo [by Red Tyler ?].

I forget exactly, but I think it's from 1957.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

You'll never get a ring in my nose...

I don't do memorials anymore. As the subheading on the blog says: our mother kills us, our father eats us, we are not in our casket, we are not in the cemetery.

Just in case the quote's not entirely obvious, I meant it as a metaphor for the situation of many lesser known artists. In short, the offended "bones" continue to sing even after death [literal and figurative]...don't they?

Anyway, this tune goes out to Benny Spellman. By all accounts, a good man.

[That's Mr. Spellman doing his well-known basso-profondo bit on this cut]

Respect is due....

Once I had somebody...

If Joe Tex had only been given the chance to record one song, I would hope it was this one. Genuinely one of those tunes that's almost too good to be true.

Tonight, in this house, it hits like an unexpected thunderclap before a dangerous storm. Heavy rain starting to fall right as it ends.

Hope ya'll enjoy...

Dancing little fool....

Careful, this one is dangerous. [Arguably one of the ten most ferocious funk jams never recorded by James Brown]

Hope ya'll enjoy....

You don't need no ticket....

It's been a good long while since I offered up any Stacy Lane. I have no solid info on the man, but everything points to him being a Memphis based artist.

Hard to say if this record is scarcer than his "African Twist/I'm Out To Win You Over", but for my part I could've picked up five copies of that 45 while hunting up a single copy of this one.

Nice slow groove, a crawling piano line....and a truly whacked out guitar solo that gets my attention every time. Suits me so well I'm tempted to use it as the theme song for a radio show I've been offered. Only problem is the mention of "soulsville" in the lyrics.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

I guess I'll live all by myself...

Gas Head [or Gashead] was the pseudonym used by Bobby Boseman on his first two singles for the Houston based Paradise label. Sir Shambling has more info, here, along with several other great Boseman sides you can listen to.

While I agree with Shambling that this 45 represents a lesser effort by a truly great deep soul singer, I still think it's got a couple of very cool tunes on it. In fact, if Boseman had only ever made recordings of this caliber he'd still have my attention.

Yep, the b-side's good too. But something's wrong here. Either I misunderstand the Boseman discography on the Shambling site, or a mistake's been made in the list, or I own a record that's not supposed to exist. The b-side of my copy is "Slow Down Young Lovers", which if I understand correctly, was supposedly never released until it showed up on the P-Vine collection of the same name.

Anyway, I'm confused. My copy sure looks like a regular release, but then again, maybe it's a bootleg?

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Rock me....

Another one from the amazing, Johnny Love and The Amethyst Garnets.

In this chapter of our story, the band discovers the built-in beatbox settings on 10 year old Gary Love's Hammond Fun-Machine. Eureka!

The results really are impressive given the band's limitations. I totally made-up the part about 10 year old Gary Love. Ya see, my newest theory is that two thirds of the Amethyst Garnets were children.

DIY gospel based soul at it's most amateurish. But don't let that description put you off. The cut's all the more beautiful for lack of polish.

A genuine amethyst-garnet [???] in the rough.

Hope ya'll enjoy...

I don't need your money...

As luck would have it, a friend scored this 45 on Ebay last week only to be offered another slightly nicer copy three days later. I've been far too busy to think about records lately, but when I got a text saying, "Zilla Mayes for $xx?", I was all over it.

Not cheap, but given how badly I've coveted this 45, it was a steal.

I posted the flip-side last December as part of my "records that drive me crazy" post. This side is just as good, although not quite as obscure. You may well have heard it before even if you've never heard of Zilla Mayes.

Ya see, this tune's been mistakenly included on at least two separate Betty Harris comps. Harris did indeed record a song with the same title [the worst in her entire discography], but it sounds nothing like this.

Which is a shame. Zilla Mayes didn't record all that much. This is the only 45 she made with Allen Toussaint. It may very well be the last recording she ever made. She deserves better than to have her effort buried even deeper in obscurity because of a stupid error.

Mayes was a pioneering female DJ in Atlanta. Besides this 45, I've only ever seen an album of what you might call "standards" and a couple of 78's.

Hope ya'll enjoy...

Salt and Pepper

I don't usually post records just because they're obscure, but I figure some of you might like to hear this one. I doubt you'll find it anyplace else.

I've been told Earnest Holland played in Fats Domino's band but can't find any info to confirm that.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

...to fall in love with me

This one goes out to Lady Mem'fis, aka Jackie Johnson. Took me more than a year to find a copy, in fact I wasn't even sure any copies still existed until six months ago. Hope you enjoy it hon. It's been a total pleasure.

Recorded at Cos Matassa's studio while she was still in her teens, this is the only record on which Johnson gets sole credit. If you'll check "Jackie Johnson" in the sidebar you can hear one of her sides with Bobby Powell, with whom she worked as a duo in the New Orleans area. She also wrote that song. It's fabulous.

The Tulane label is ultra-obscure. The RnB Indies only lists one 45 on the label, but that information is incomplete. There are three known releases, this 45 being one of the two that's not listed, the other being the first release by Ray Washington, aka Guitar Ray.

Hope ya'll enjoy...

I was a fool....

I have an odd relationship with Willie Tee's output. On the whole his records are not really my thing, often a little too slick, too breezy, too "jazzy" without actually being jazz.....but then there are times when the tunes seem so perfectly realized that the word "crystalline" comes to mind.

Which probably only means I have to be in the right mood to appreciate them. It may also mean that some day, when I grow up, I may well treasure his recordings.

Anyway, this 45 is the exception to the rule. I love it so much that I probably need to buy a new copy. That hint of groove wear is all my doing. Given that the vinyl was almost perfect when I got it, that translates as what?......a minimum of a hundred needle drops?

It's that amazing guitar solo, and then, towards the end, that scream. I can't really tell you why it works for me. It just does.

Hope ya'll enjoy...Earl King wrote the tune, Wardell Quezergue produced it.

[Oops, an obvious screw up, the tune was written by Willie Tee. Earl King wrote the flip-side]

Crystal Ball...

"Never enough trombone!"

This one goes out to the person who left the above comment on the last post. Thanks hon, you made me laugh. Actually, It's time to thank everyone who bothers to comment. I may not always have time to answer each and every one of your notes, but believe me, they are all appreciated.

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I'm not a huge fan of Allen Toussaint's work with his West Bank Army buddies.....but this cut is different. In a perfect world I'd be bombarded by umpteen variations on "Fortune Teller" every-single-day. Such exquisite torture. Ya know, after a couple of years I might just get tired of it.

Alon singles are impossible to scan. The record is "Crystal Ball" by the Stokes. Produced by Allen Toussaint. Mr. Toussaint is of course playing piano as well.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

[It may not seem like I took much of a break, but it was long enough to come to a rather obvious conclusion. Letting the blog slide during the weekdays, only posting on the weekends, is totally the way to go. No biggie, a lot people don't have time to blog more than once a week. I just got a little spoiled over the last couple of years. Anyway, that's how it is for the time being. If I feel inspired I'll offer up two records.]

If I should jump up and holler....

When I start getting bitchy for no real reason it means I've got too much going on.

Changes are coming fast this month. I'm about to take over some of my aunt's business obligations. I'm not actually sure I'm ready for the job, but in the long run it's definitely the smart thing to do and the position has the key advantage of being baby friendly. Actually, as baby friendly as I want it to be as long as I get the job done.

Anyway, I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed at the moment, so I'm gonna take a little vacation from the blog and concentrate on getting myself up to speed. First on the agenda is a sharp assistant who doesn't mind holding the baby once in a while. Chances are I'll be back in a week or so, although it could take longer than I imagine. We'll see how it goes.

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I forget how many records Clifton Chenier had on the Chess/Checker/Argo labels, I own two, could be there's another one I'm forgetting.

Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy...it's from 1960.