Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

The Blues is Alright Tour 2009 all across the US of A in February and March...well mostly the South with all of my and your faves

http://www.heritageentertainments.com/

I think I will be able to see the DC area show at the Showplace Arena. Should be great.

Heard the Gator on WPFW play a raunchy fun number by Lee Shot Williams today, among other nice cuts

Lee's song-"Everything I like to Eat Starts with a 'P'"

pasta, pecans, you know...

Southern Soul Top 20 Countdown 2-28-09

1.1. The Beauty Shop Omar Cunningham
2.2. I Cant Stand The Rain Willie Clayton
3.3. Man Enough Karen Wolfe
4.6.Gone on Marvin Sease
5.5. What If He Knew Floyd Taylor
6.12.Keep A Light In The Window William Bell
7.4. One Night Stand Andre Lee
8.10. Soul Clap TK Soul
9.8. Another Kind Of Fool Bobby Rush
10.7. Wash Your Hands Lola
11.8. Starlight Diamond Kenny Neal
12.14. The Recipe Bigg Robb
13.13. Slippin and Hidin Willie Hill
14.9. Just Because Hes Good to you O.B. Buchana
15.14. Cheat On You Bobbye
16.* Look Good For You Carl Marshall
17.15. I'm Gonna Party L.J. Echols
18.12. Sang No More Calvin Richardson featuring Omar Cunningham
19.16. Woman Nellie Tiger Travis
20.18. Lock My Door Jeff Floyd

I gotta recruit someone else to post on here also...

Some of this stuff is great, really. As good as autogoon rap, School of 7 Bells, mambo merengue, Berlin techno, out-there jazz, Jazmine Sullivan, Nigerian reissues, Dennis Wilson outtakes, or whatever it is you're listening to.

As good as autogoon rap, School of 7 Bells...

Ha! I actually read this thread religiously, just don't have much to contribute as my local public radio show that used to play a bunch of this stuff no longer exists, and the artists NEVER tour here (Minneapolis.)

At least someone's reading it. I was looking at the tour schedule for that latest tour, and I see a Philly show as the farthest one North (no New York City !) and while it goes over to Texas it's via a Southern route. Amazing.

Now I know some folks years ago used to snear at the cheesy synth sound on Malaco and Ecko label releases, but I think the keyboards they're using now are sounding better these days.

Just discovered that the big soul tour is promoted by North American Entertainment, a company based in Connecticut (although they never book music there or in nearby NYC). They also promote 'urban' plays...Tyer Perry kind a stuff.

Tyler (spelling)

Mel Waiters' Throwback Days cd from a few years back is great. Was listening to it last night. Some of the lyrics go beyond the genre's cliches, and the melodies and instrumentation do as well. I think he does an online radio dj thing once a week too. I need to check that out some time. I'm planning on going to see him Friday night in Upper Marlboro.

Could you make a top ten of your fave Chitlin Circuit soul singles/albums, curmudgeon, please?

I'll try. Me, Chuck Eddy, Christgau and I think maybe Matos and the late Rickey Wright all voted for the 2007 Motel Lovers comp in the January or February '08 published critics polls (Voice and/or Idolator). That's a nice survey of recent songs in the genre.

Well, right, I have that one. But you're clearly so knowledgeable about the genre (or subgenre or whatever) that I'd love to hear, e.g., what YOU would do if Trikont entrusted you with Motel Lovers (or something akin to it). No biggie if you can't, though. (xhuxk, top ten away too if so inclined).

Oh, thanks. Will do. Mostly off the top of my head I love Ms. Jody's I Never Take a Day Off album from last year, Mel Waiters-Throwback Days from a few years ago, Denise Lasalle-Pay Before You Pump album, and a Barbara Carr best-of on Ecko. I have heard great songs by Sir Charles Jones, OB Buchana, Theotis Ealey, Willie Clayton, and Lee Shot Williams.

I gotta go write a blog post for my local alt-weekly on Mel Waiters and the show coming up on Friday...

Friday night, DC area folks, is Mel Waiters, Clarence Carter, Roy C.,Latimore, and Marvin Sease at the Showplace Arena. They're advetising the show just on WHUR, that plays post-Luther Vandross style quiet storm mellow r'n'b. No media ads, no press releases to mainstream print media as far as I can tell.

I went to the show. There were good and bad aspects to the performances--good=soulful voices and tunes; bad=over-the-top dirty old man thrusting and gyrating and too obvious lyrics. Yea, I know, that should not be a surprise. The bill drew a crowd of several thousand. For those into demographics, I think I was the only white person there under age 50, and one of about 5 white folks. Yes I know many African-Americans and others frequently find themselves in the minority at places. The average age was from around 49 to 70. Lots of women howling for the performers.

Only newsprint coverage of the show--a preview in the Prince George's County Gazzette; blog coverage-mine at the City Paper and a DC tv channel 4 item. No mention in the Washington Post before the show and no review of the show.

So who does the "Southern Soul Party" (I assume that's its name) song where he keeps saying the party is at a golf course (!?), and they're going to play Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis songs there and serve cole slaw and chitlins and stuff? I heard that one on 88.7 in Austin this afternoon (community radio, I think), and liked it a lot. No idea if it's current or not, and Google is no help. They also played another song that mentioned Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis, this one about a lot of singers who'd "gone home" by dying (tons of soul guys, not all Southern, plus Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls). I'm not sure whether the show just comes on Wednesday afternoons or what, but it was very cool.

Mel Waiters, who is from and lives in San Antonio, did a tribute to Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis in his appearance live last week, and mentioned them as his faves in the interview I did with him. I love and highly recommend his last cd Throwback Days (on Waldoxy, a Malaco subsidiary). Waiters was once a fulltime dj, but now just records a weekly program that's syndicated (online I guess).

Yeah, Mel Waiters' "Smaller The Club" was maybe my very favorite track on that great great great Trikont Motel Lovers comp two years ago, though Google is still inconclusive about whether he has a song called "Southern Soul Party." (Also wondering now whether the radio show I heard may have actually been his syndicated one, and not an Austin-originating thing.)

Mel Waiters, who is from and lives in San Antonio, did a tribute to Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis in his appearance live last week, and mentioned them as his faves in the interview I did with him. I love and highly recommend his last cd Throwback Days (on Waldoxy, a Malaco subsidiary). Waiters was once a fulltime dj, but now just records a weekly program that's syndicated (online I guess).

Ha ha, today the same Austin station played a great song called "I Need A Bailout," where the singer asks Obama for money to help him pay his phone and cable bills. Again, no artist back-announced, though.

Here's a list of current southern soul that gets radio play

http://bluescritic.com/southernsoulsinglescharts.htm

Not sure if that one's on it. I think I heard it---either on the Saturday afternoon WPFW show I listen to or between acts at the Southern Soul tour gig I saw last week.

No bailout song on that list, as far as I can see, but apparently "Southern Soul Party" is by somebody named Floyd Taylor; here's a bio of him:

http://www.malaco.com/Catalog/Blues-R-B/Floyd-Taylor/list.php

Also hadn't noticed that you said Mel Waiters' show was syndicated online, which means it's probably not the over-the-air one I heard after all. Which may not be merely a specialty show, seeing how 88.7 was playing more Southern soul on Thursday. Need to do more research on this, obviously...

Also noticed a Betty Padgett song on one of those playlists; here are a couple things about her new album I posted on Rolling Country last week:

Best old-school soul-revival I've heard in a long time is Betty Padgett's Luv N' Haight on Ubiquity -- real good covers of "My Eyes Adored You" (smooth reggae) and "Rockin' Chair," plus "Sugar Daddy" is the catchiest, warmest, most propulsive early (as in mid '70s) disco facsimile in recent memory. Also, the gal can sing. (Apparently this is a comeback, but if I skimmed her bio right and she did indeed record in the '70s, I never heard her.)

― xhuxk, Friday, 13 March 2009

Turns out on subsequent listens that Betty Padgett is maybe a more average B-or-C-level soul voice than I implied in my post yesterday (and her covers of the Frankie Valli and Gwen McRae are less astonishing than I may have implied), but I still like her album, especially her very convincingly disco-bubbly single "Sugar Daddy" (incl. its second version with background party voices), where I'm pretty sure I read in an email press release earlier this week that she's backed by Detroit indie-rock Afrobeat nine-piece Nomo (whose first couple albums sounded funky enough, but whose upcoming one doesn't hold my attention for some reason. Never heard their third. Do like where they're coming from, however.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 15 March 2009

I just heard "Southern Soul Party" on the radio and yep, they said it was by Floyd Taylor, who I'm pretty sure is the late Johnny Taylor's son.

Here's what Daddy B. Nice said about Floyd's most recent Malaco release:

Boy, I was wrong about this one. I never took to "You Still Got It," the first title-cut single from the CD of the same name. It was just a little too vanilla, but since then song after song has pushed its way onto the Stations of the Deep South air waves:
"Southern Soul Party," "I'm Hooked On These Blues," "I Miss My Daddy," "If You Catch Me Sleepin'". . .

That bio you posted says Floyd was raised by his Mom in Chicago and that his dad is/was Johnny Taylor.

I heard a nice (new?) song "Upside Down" from Shirley Brown. Plus I like "I'm Gonna Change," which is the second catchy powerful voiced tune I've heard from O.B. Buchana. It's got a nice little spoken word portion. He also mentions Tyrone Davis and Johnny Taylor in the song plus Jay Blackfoot and Sir Charles Jones and others. I may have to get O.B.'s "Southern Soul Country Boy" album

Mel Waiters radio show is on southernsoulradio.com They just played that Shirley Brown song I mentioned.

http://southernsoulradio.com/#

R.I.P. Eddie Bo. See the separate thread on this New Orleans great.

Miss Jody and Denise Lasalle rule. Jody's coming to Lamonts in Pomonkey May 23rd to do the Miss Jody thang...(that's a dance y'all)

So that Southern Soul show on Austin public station 88.7 actually played Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" (see thread title), which I'd strangely never heard before, yesterday. Pretty wacky sex song! I liked it, though I've heard better songs on the show. I'm a little torn right now about current/ recent Southern Soul's tendency to go for the easy joke (many of which jokes aren't as funny as they intend to be) or the easy sex shocker (basically none of which seem as shocking as they intend to be.) But when the genre goes for straight blues/soul emotion (at least judging from what's on that show), it frequently seems to veer toward the generic. I dunno, I gotta say I was actually disappointed by the songs the station was playing yesterday; assuming they're playing the genre's hits and best tracks, pickings may be slimmer than I expected. (There was also an update of Levert's "Casanova" with a sort of semi-zydeco rhtyhm, only it was called "Roll With Me" or something like that. Not bad, not great.) Also not convinced that many (any?) of the current artists could hold their own against, you know, Johnny Taylor or Tyrone Davis or Z.Z. Hill (or Millie Jackson), and I get a little tired of those names being dropped so often in songs in an apparent stab to leech off their greatness (reminds me of how country singers are always dropping Hank's and Willie's and Waylon's and Merle's names, which has ranked with the genre's most boring cliches forever.) Still going to try to keep tuning in, though, to see what turns up on the show. And still wonder who did that "I Need a Bailout" song I heard.

Not that I particularly care about being shocked by sex songs; it's more like, why are they even trying? Reminds me of what Xgau wrote in 1987 about Marvin Sease's ten-minute "Candy Licker" (which I like anyway, though more in its shorter 45 version): "not so much audacious as preposterous." And usually the sex songs aren't even all that preposterous, truth be told.

And to point a spotlight on the elephant in the room: If this kind of music was "anachronistic" 22 years ago (as Xgau said in that Sease review), what does that make it now that 41 years have passed since "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay"? And what does it mean that I still get way more out of this stuff than the vast majority of current r&b, which usually just strikes me as constricted and joyless in comparison? At least Southern Soul still seems written by grownups. (Basically it makes me an anachronism myself -- and not much different all the sticks-in-the-mud who are always saying current country music can't stand up to the country music of decades ago. Still think I'm right, though.)

Speaking of country, from the Rolling Country thread, here's me talking about the new Buckwheat Zydeco album:

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

And here's something about related music played on the Austin station that airs that Southern Soul show:

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

By "vast majority of current r&b" above, I obviously mean "stuff that gets played on contemporary r&b/hip-hop-stype stations and often crosses over to pop stations." Southern Soul being released now would technically be "current r&b" too, I guess, but it doesn't exactly sound modern or up-to-date.
As with current (popular) country, I don't get the idea it now incorporates many production innovations that were developed after the '80s. (Though it's interesting that music that was considered "pop r&b" around when Marvin Sease was hitting with "Candy Licker" seems roped in as part of "old school" now.)

I'll give my interpretation later. I agree with you in part. Gotta run...

Lot to respond to xhuck:

Here goes-

Not that I particularly care about being shocked by sex songs; it's more like, why are they even trying? Reminds me of what Xgau wrote in 1987 about Marvin Sease's ten-minute "Candy Licker" (which I like anyway, though more in its shorter 45 version): "not so much audacious as preposterous." And usually the sex songs aren't even all that preposterous, truth be told.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, April 7, 2009 4:15 PM (Yesterday

I 've been thinking about this as I just saw Marvin Sease on a bill with Mel Waiters, Clarence Carter, Roy C., and Latimore. 3,000 or so in attendance at a small arena and I was one of 5 or so white people there (yes I counted) and I'm guessing 47-year-old me was in the lower range age-wise. Plus there were lots of women there--mostly in their 50s.
And guess what--lots of those women like Sease. I mean, watching him wiggle his tongue between verses of "Candylicker" was just kinda gross to me. Plus he's getting older which for some reason made it even creapier. But sure enough, a number of women headed up the stairs after his set to go line up to get their picture taken with him. There's definately a dirty-old man aspect to the sex talk, especially as many of these performers age and their audience does as well.
I think part of the problem is this music is largely in its own isolated world and runs parallel to contemporary r'n'b rather than intersecting with it fully. It does intersect but how far can you go with the sex lyrics and the borrowed from contemporary r'n'b onstage grinding and thrusting moves? Musically, there are some modern keyboard touches and some of the upbeat songs sound a bit more contemporary. Maybe that's what this audience wants, and as long as these guys are playing arenas (which is something Sharon Jones, Bettye Lavette, and even Rafael Saadiq are not doing) they're gonna stick with what they think works.
I'd love to see the folks who discuss the ethics of the Tyler Perry movies weigh on these folks. I'm also thinking about stuff Nelson George wrote years ago about how African-American music changed from being a multi-generational thing to a more stratified by age and gender thing. On the other hand, some might argue that these sex lyrics are actually just part of a long history of both blues lyrics and raunchy comedian patter. But since I just heard a recent Mel Waiters song that focussed on economic problems in the lyrics in a semi-clever way, I'm not ready to dismiss this stuff.

Also not convinced that many (any?) of the current artists could hold their own against, you know, Johnny Taylor or Tyrone Davis or Z.Z. Hill (or Millie Jackson), and I get a little tired of those names being dropped so often in songs in an apparent stab to leech off their greatness

Yea, but I'm gonna give 'em a chance as I hear enough good cuts from OB Buchana, Floyd Taylor, Mel Waiters, Miss Jody and others to keep me interested.

Of course -- Like I said, I've been trying to give them a chance, too (that's why I'm listening to that radio show, and posting on this thread; will probably try to see some live shows, too.) And you're obviously right about the silly raunch lyrics being an extension of several-decades-old blues and comedy tradition. Just out curiosity, though, what are the best full single-artist albums you've heard in the genre over the past four or five years? Especially curious about Floyd Taylor and Mel Waiters albums. (Also, do any of those singers have best-ofs worth seeking out, that you may have heard?)

(There was also an update of Levert's "Casanova" with a sort of semi-zydeco rhtyhm, only it was called "Roll With Me" or something like that. Not bad, not great.)

it's a zydeco take-off on rebirth brass band's version of casanova, which is great:

x-post--was just getting to your positive interest in this stuff.

If this kind of music was "anachronistic" 22 years ago (as Xgau said in that Sease review), what does that make it now that 41 years have passed since "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay"? And what does it mean that I still get way more out of this stuff than the vast majority of current r&b, which usually just strikes me as constricted and joyless in comparison? At least Southern Soul still seems written by grownups.

At the show I was at I heard an Otis Redding cover I think and a Prince one. That's the musical spectrum this genre and its audience appreciate. Kinda like country in that way. I happen to like some current pop-r'n'b and this stuff, and while I can hear differences, I don't agree with you on the "constricted and joyless" description but I don't have a well-supported argument in mind right now that I think could have an effect on your thinking. I'll just agree to disagree. Also "still seems written by grownups"--I'm not clear on my history but how old were soul music greats from the 60s and the songwriting teams in that era? Were they all 'grownups'? I do not think so. I think Peter Guralnick might have touched on this in one of his books.

x-post

Houston and Louisiana zydeco acts have been subtly and sometimes blatantly incorporating contemporary r'n'b, New Orleans brass,chitlin circuit soul and hiphop rhythms for years now. I wish there was more of it. The aging roots-rock zydeco crowd in DC prefers the traditional stuff (meaning incorporating the kind of r'n'b that was popular when Clifton Chenier was young) though, and that seems to dictate to tours the East Coast.

how old were soul music greats from the 60s and the songwriting teams in that era? Were they all 'grownups'?

No, but I meant for my emphasis to be on the "seems to" - -By which I mean, historically, lots of soul music and r&b (and disco) seemed to deal with adult lives-- in the way, say, much country music still does, but I don't get the idea that much commercial r&b does anymore; sex lyrics, especially, just seem to get more juvenile and stupid as time goes on. For instance, who would be the commercial r&b equivalent of Womack and Womack, or Ashford and Simpson? I doubt there is one. Then again, I could be totally off base about this, and I don't doubt I'm missing a lot. (And I know there are exceptions -- R. Kelly obviously has great moments every now and then. And self-conscious retro artistes like Badu and Saadiq and D'Angelo and Sharon Jones probably deal with adult lives all the time, I'm sure, but that stuff has always pretty much left me cold, for some reason. My favorite commercial r&b songs of the decade, for what it's worth: Koffee Brown's "Weekend Thing" and Kandi's "Don't Think I'm Not," both from the decade's very beginning, and both with a perfectly respectable but not great album attached.)

i don't think badu can be called retro, not these days

Good point -- but she can definitely be called a "self-conscious artiste." Either way, I'm not a fan (and in my mind, at least, she seems far outside of the realm of "commercial r&b." Just like a sometimes-sort-of-retro self-conscious artiste like Springsteen, who leaves me just as cold these days, falls outside the realm of "commercial rock." Which yeah, I know, is an arbitrary distinction. But he's sure a long way off from, say, Puddle of Mudd.) (Not sure where Ne-Yo, who I like a lot, fits into this.)

I love Ms. Jody's I Never Take a Day Off album from last year, Mel Waiters-Throwback Days from a few years ago, Denise Lasalle-Pay Before You Pump album, and a Barbara Carr best-of on Ecko. I have heard great songs by Sir Charles Jones, OB Buchana, Theotis Ealey, Willie Clayton, and Lee Shot Williams.

Here are some of my faves i mentioned upthread.

just seem to get more juvenile and stupid as time goes on.

I normally am not too picky about lyrics. It's music not poetry. But yea, some of this stuff bugs me too.

Xhuxk,

You're a metal fan also. Do those lyrics ever bug you? Do you want them to sound like they're written by grownups? Just askin'

Excellent question. And it would probably take me several thousand words -- full of examples, counter-examples, exceptions, and hedges -- to adequatly answer it. But basically I'd say that I'm not nearly as much a metal fan as I used to be (partly because the words usually aren't audible anymore, and the songs tend to be barely distinguishable as songs), and lots of people (especially Stairway To Hell readers) would say I was never a true metal fan in the first place. And even if I was, I don't know how huge a fan I've ever been of metal lyrics -- definitely never had much use for sex songs by Motley Crue or Limp Bizkit or whoever (which, right, are as dumb and juvenile as anything in r&b.)

But one thing I'd say is that, if lyrics come out funny or heartfelt or whatever (in metal or r&b or anywhere else), I'll excuse a lot of juvenile crap. And obviously sometimes being juvenile will help make the words more entertaining. There are creative and clever ways to do everything. And I'm not hearing much cleverness in r&b these days, though the fact of the matter is that the cleverness might be hidden somewhere, and I just can't get past the sound of contemporary r&b, which as I said tends to hit me as cold, detached, humorless. (Guess you could add "soulless", if that means anything.)

And it's probably worth mentioning that I miss truly bubblegum-sounding r&b at least as much as truly grownup-sounding r&b. I heard "I Love Your Smile" by Shanice on the radio the other day -- early '90s, I think, and not a song that sounded particularly outstanding then -- and I wondered why no r&b I've heard lately can get that kind of sweetness and warmth across. (Not even "Lip Gloss" or "Chicken Noodle Soup" or "Cupid Shuffle" -- not in that way, anyway. And those songs are more hip-hop anyway.)

Played Keri Hilson's album a few times this week; don't like it hardly at all. "Knock You Down" lifts the album to life when Ne-Yo comes in (and then when Keri sings along with him -- at least that what I assume is happening -- at which time she manages to cut closer to the emotional bone than at any time she's singing by herself.) "Alienated" has a wee little bit of Patrice Rushen's "Forget Me Nots" buried in its melody toward the beginning, but the feeling doesn't stick around, and the song dulls out. Pretty sure "Make Love" annoyed me the most.

Checked out a couple Jazmine Sullivan songs on line the other day too (because I've been told her songs are smarter than the run of 20somethings-kicking-it-at-the-club crap out there), and in both cases I thought her blatant retro vocal mannerisms were just that: mannered. In "Need U Bad," which is basically reggae soul, I actually liked the "ooh ooh" backup (which seemed to directly reference some early '70s soul hit I can't place) more than Jazmine's lead. Did think she has a rich, powerful voice, though; maybe she just needs better material, or better songwriters. So there's potential there, at least. But it's like alt-country -- If you're gonna try so hard to sound like classic r&b, you're almost guaranteed to fall short. (The '80s and '90s r&b I love most usually wasn't explicitly retro.)

Probably repeating myself here, but one thing about lots of old r&b and metal and otherwise hits (about sex and otherwise) I love is that, if they didn't sound written by grownups, they were often funny.. By which I mean goofy and fun, not "clever lyricism that only seems clever if somebody puts it on paper, and I probably won't get even then but maybe I'll pretend to." And I know, if the words bug me, I should just tune them out and concentrate on the "great music" instead. Except it's usually not that great. (And I also know all of this is a gross generalization, and just proves my ignorance. But it's still what my heart feels...)