All I could do was cry.....

"Moanin' and Screamin'" was one of the first songs I posted on this blog. That file is no longer active, so it seems like a good time to make the song available again.

This is not a re-post in the usual sense because this copy of the 45 is much nicer than the one I ripped previously. I still own my old scratched-up copy, in fact it's the one I continue to play most often, but there's no denying that this is the superior recording.

Here's Diamond Joe Maryland's absolute monster of a debut from 1961....

Moanin' and Screamin' Pt1

Moanin' and Screamin' Pt2

Time is getting shorter....

Larry Grogan is reporting that Diamond Joe Maryland is dead. How very sad. And perhaps even sadder is that many huge fans [myself included] had no idea he was still alive. Horrible really. There was never a lot known about him in the first place, would that someone had hooked up with him before now. As Larry says in his piece, "Until I saw the picture posted with his obit (seen above) I had no idea what he looked like."

Anyway, Larry wrote a very moving piece for Diamond Joe and ya'll should go check it out here if you haven't already.

Now, I own the same Diamond Joe records Larry does [unless he's sitting on a copy of the mythical "Too Many Pots"]. So I thought I'd post a few of the tunes Larry neglected [and that I haven't already posted and was meaning to].

My heartfelt condolences to Diamond Joe's family....

Help Yourself

Hurry Back To Me

Wait A Minute Baby

Guest Post at Derek's Daily 45...

I should go ahead and post this just in case someone hasn't seen it over at Derek's Daily 45...

When Derek asked me to guest on his blog, my first thought was....yikes! do I even own a record he hasn't already posted? In short, going toe to toe with Derek's collection is a little intimidating. Or, at least it is to me. But ya know, of course I do own some cool 45's which Derek hasn't posted, maybe even a few he hasn't scooped up yet. So, there's really no reason why I should get all twisted-up about this, right? [uh huh]

Anyway, I recently added a sixth Diamond Joe Maryland 45 to my collection. This is out of seven possible. So, in honor of my dogged pursuit of fairly obscure singles.....I'm offering up a song which I don't think has been posted on any of the soul blogs before. At least, I haven't seen it posted before and a quick search didn't turn up anything either.

This surprises me. It's a great tune...full of twists, turns, and stops. Most of all, stops. Heavy on the stops. Allen Toussaint produced it. I love it.

The title is, Don't Set Me Back. From 1966...

So many people fall in love just for fun...

I'm heading out for Austin Tx in a few hours...gonna visit with friends and spend some serious time digging through the piles of vinyl at the Austin Record Convention. Should be a blast.

My short list is rather small...but of course, there are hundreds of singles I'm likely to snatch if they cross my path.

Here's a record which until recently was on my must-find list. One of my better trading partners coughed it up in exchange for my second copy of Oliver Morgan's, Who Shot the La La.

It's Diamond Joe's second single and arguably one of Allen Toussaint's strangest productions.

Yep, that's an autoharp.

Enjoy

Moanin' and Screamin'

Diamond Joe Maryland shares the 'Great Lost New Orleans Soul King' crown with Eldridge Holmes. Every one of the seven singles he cut with Allen Toussaint is killer.

This is his first and creepiest release. I bought this copy for cheap and have never looked for another as I think the crackles and pops only add to the darkness. No sense in denying it.

My regards to Mr. Hernandez, he obviously cared about this record a lot.

From 1961...Moanin' and Screamin' Pt's 1&2