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

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Posted in music | tour dates on September 25, 2011
Lee Fields playing a benefit @ Brooklyn Bowl, Budos Band & special guests playing NYE @ Music Hall (and other dates)
The Budos Band in Prospect Park (more by David Andrako)

Lee Fields & The Expressions are headlining a benefit show at Brooklyn Bowl on Monday night (9/26). Tickets can be had for as low as $15 and as much as $100. Proceeds support NYC's non-religious suicide hotline run by Samaritans of NY. Corey Glover (Living Colour), Danielia Cotton, and The Smyrk are also on the bill. It's one of only three upcoming shows right now for Lee. The other two are in Chicago and Michigan and are listed below.

oops. Well, it shows that Lee Fields is as relevant as those indie-rock cats

Newsflash: Latimore Plays Keyboard on the New Joss Stone Release

Woo Hoo!!! Southern soul going mainstream

So Lamont's in Pomonkey, MD does not have a website, but within the past year they added a Facebook page (and owner Lamont Savoy has one). But alas, they do not update it in advance so their October schedule is not up yet. Maybe tomorrow. Jeez, how do they stay open?

A dedicated older clientele that does not need the internets I guess.

Been doing my research on my longtime MD suburban DC fave the Hardway Connection (whom I wrote a feature about back in '99. They're now playing weekly on Thursdays in Upper Marlboro, every other Sunday at Lamont's in Pomonkey and on some Saturdays they're back at the Clinton Inn (where I saw them in '99--my City Paper article about them is still online)

Newsflash: Latimore Plays Keyboard on the New Joss Stone Release

Woo Hoo!!! Southern soul going mainstream

didn't joss use some of the old tk disco crew for her first album as well ? (timmie thomas for one .. )

Sounds right. I see that on her 2nd album, Mind, Body & Soul, she had an impressive lineup with her:

Personnel: Joss Stone (vocals); Nile Rodgers, A.J. Niilo (guitar); Tom "Bones" Malone (flugelhorn); Timmy Thomas, Benny Latimore (piano); Nir Zidkiyahu (Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer); Angelo Morris, Angie Stone (Fender Rhodes piano); Raymond Angry (Clavinet, Hammond b-3 organ, Moog synthesizer); Jack Daley (bass guitar); Cindy Blackman, ?uestlove (drums); Mike Mangini (programming); Betty Wright (background vocals).

this is why $tateside/EMI hit the reissue groove for old tk disco crew a few years back, as in each sleeve notes they made a reference to joss stone

DC's Eddie Jones & the Young Bucks may be playing out again regularly. They were just at Jo-Jo's on U St. They're more old-school soul classicists than raunchy chitlin types though.

Jonathan Burton's "Too Much Booty Shakin' Up in Here" still sounds awesome. The Youtube is posted upthread. ILXer Tim Finney praises it up there as well.

That song kinda deserves its own thread

And maybe a place on my year-end list. Now what albums to include? Carl Sims maybe?

Very good chance I'll reach back to late 2010 for Carl Marshall's album, and vote for that. New Ms. Jody album (her second this year) is surprisingly good, though, and I like the new Luther Lackey (though not as much as his previous one.) Carl Sims's "Hell On My Hands" and Gerard Rayborn's "Feels Like Prison On My Job" have a good shot at my singles ballot.

On Wpfw Saturday a dj was playing a new Miss Jody song but I wasn't really listening that closely at the time. She's had some good songs.

Any idea how old she is? (A website is asking for my top 10 albums of the year by artists age 50 and over, and I'm trying to figure out whether she qualifies!)

No, good question. She actually looks younger than most of the Southern soul performers. I previewed for my local alt-weekly but missed her 2009 DC area appearance.

Lee Fields is coming back my way. On December 10 he and Hardway Connection and a bunch of others will be at the benefit for WPFW dj the Gator at Lamont's in Pomonkey, Maryland

http://www.southernsoulrnb.com/corner2012.cfm

Daddy B. Nice's year-end column. The Voice and other alt-weeklies ought to run this in syndication.

xchuckx come back from facebook

I see that xhuxk has posted his top 10 on another thread and he has that late 2010 Carl Marshall cd on his top 10 while I have Miss Jody (and modern sorta Southern soul Anthony Hamilton) in mine. I also have Jonathan Burton's "Too Much Booty Shakin' Up in Here" in my tracks/singles list

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/2012/01/03/20120103soul-singer-robert-dickey-dies-72.html

"I'm Your Puppet" was awesome

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/in-concert-lady-alma-at-blues-alley/2012/01/05/gIQAFHFVdP_blog.html

Not exactly Southern soul, more neo but I need to give her a listen

I need to get up to speed on some of the stuff Daddy B. Nice wrote about

Soul Patrol's Bob Davis on Southern Soul
Here's a taste:

The fact that Southern Soul is rarely if not ever mentioned or discussed as a viable genre or niche in American black music is a major injustice to it as well as ALL music ever made in this country.

I need to hear Omar Cunningham's "I'm Your Maintenance Man"...I like the title

Plus OB Buchana has a new album coming out on Ecko that will likely be good

I assume "Put Your Mouth In The South" on the latest Ecko sampler is from OB's new one. Just another candy-licking song. Also got a Boogie Report email last week about some guy called "Candy Lover" -- flannel shirt open with bare chest beneath; cowboy hat on his head. The hat intrigued me a little I guess, but I'm really getting frustrated by the sonic and lyric saminess of most of this stuff lately --I'm obviously on record as loving the genre, but it just seems so limited to me these days. It's been a while since anything really jumped out from the pack, and I stopped keeping up with Daddy B Nice's page several months ago. I'm sure there's good stuff I missed; just lacking interest and energy lately to dig through tons of generic stuff to find it.

What is that Soul Patrol quote from? Is there a link?

Daddy B Nice quoted it. I guess it is on this site somewhere:

http://www.soul-patrol.com/

Everytime I get bored with the sonic and lyric sameness of southern soul I turn to NPR indie-rock faves like Sharon Van Etten or Alabama Shakes and I shake my head over its just ok-ness, and return to finding the southern soul that stands out (or trying to find it)

Ha, I still haven't heard either of those NPR acts, though I've heard their names a lot in recent weeks. But what you're saying about them is kind of what I assumed, and why I've been avoiding checking them out. But it's not like NPR indie-rock is the only alternative out there, obviously.

Numerous other genres, plus there are the Yahoo Southern Soul group emails where fanatics from both sides of the Atlantic marvel over reissues of soul obscurities, and ocassionally Betty Lavette and Sharon Jones and Eli Paperboy Reed(Reed also chimes in on the emails re various 45s). I have been too busy to check out the reissues and obscure regional faves these folks like.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/despite-the-divide-within-the-national-blues-community-the-nashville-blues-festival-chugs-along/Content?oid=2780715

Ron Wynn re Southern soul's isolation

There were a few good gigs down South recently:

The 2nd annual Valentine’s Blues Show takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. The lineup includes LeBrado, OB Buchana, Jeff Floyd, Falisa Janaye and LaMorris Williams; Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of show. They’re available through Ticketmaster and at the Coliseum box office. 2350 Beach Blvd., Biloxi. 228-594-3700, www.mscoastcoliseum.com.

The same night brings the inaugural Pensacola Blues Festival with Jeff Floyd, Ms. Jody, Karen Wolfe, Clarence Carter, Mel Waiters, Sir Charles Jones and TK Soul to the Pensacola Civic Center. Tickets for the show, which starts at 8 p.m. Feb. 10, range from $32-$48 and are available through Ticketmaster. www.pensacolaciviccenter.com, 850-432-0800.

One day later, the 5th annual Big Easy Blues Festival brings Millie Jackson, Mel Waiters, Sir Charles Jones, Clarence Carter, Tucka and Jeff Floyd to UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. Tickets for the event, which starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, are $45 and $55 and are available through Ticketmaster. 6801 Franklin Ave. in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. For more information, visit arena.uno.edu, e-mail arena✧✧✧@u✧✧.e✧✧ or call 504-280-7222.

I think Roy C. and Jim Bennett are at Lamont's in Pomonkey, MD tonight

But I can't find anything online about it. Southern soul fans do not seem to tweet much

I need to get some new Southern soul (it's got to be as good or better than the new Springsteen and Magnetic Fields songs I have heard)

Still haven't caught up, but I intend to. NPR is not streaming the new OB Buchana and Sasha F-J is not writing about it in the New Yorker

Well, it's not that great, as far as I can tell after a couple listens -- Not nearly as good as his previous one, anyway. Though I do think I like the rather paranoid track "Mind Your Own Business" and the fairly lovely, country-leaning ballad it ends with, "Moon Over Clarksdale." I really wish Southern Soulsters did the country thing more; it almost always works for me when they do. The rest may or may not grow on me.

I still intend to give it a listen.

It's hard for r'n'b in general it seems to crossover, even young contemporary artists:

Miguel thread--

"sure thing" was the #1 song on u.s. urban radio last year and his song w/ wale brings his total of big r&b hits to 4, but he hasn't crossed over to pop audiences at all, even to the moderate extent of trey songz or whoever

― some dude

I interviewed soul/folkie/gospel singer Ruthie Foster and asked her about Southern soul. She said she grew up hearing Malaco stuff from her mom and truck-driving uncle

WCP: Are you familiar at all with southern soul artists on labels like Ecko and Malaco—folks like Miss Jody, Denise Lasalle, Mel Waiters, and O.B. Buchana? What do you think?

RF: I am very familiar with the Malaco music family. I grew up, through my mother’s Zenith console stereo, listening to cuts from Z.Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, King Floyd, and Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," as well as the Muscle Shoals influence and connection to that label. My uncle was a truck driver and kept his record collection at our house, so I got a great soul/blues education. This music will always be a part of me, mostly because it reminds me of watching my mother smile and sway while snapping her fingers and singing to them.

Have been catching up, a little. I like these tracks (singles? if he says so) recommended by Daddy B Nice in 2012, more or less in this order:

Avail Hollywood – Domestic Love
Vel Omarr – Everybody’s Dancin’
Carl Marshall - Show Some Sign (New Version)
The Revelations feat. Tre Williams – Until You Get Enough Of Me
TK Soul – We Gonna Party Tonight
Donnie Ray – She Was At The Hideaway
King Loverr – Island Girl

The Revelations album (released last November, I think) is really good as whole, too -- It's kind of amazing that they're based in Brooklyn.

Don't know the Revelations. Will have to investigate

So I thought it would be interesting to visit a few of Southern Soul's most prominent artists and put a representative track from their "classic" phase against a representative track from their recent work, with a few comments to stir the pot.

Is Southern Soul slipping in quality?

Readers are welcome to chime in at:

daddybn✧✧✧@southernsoul✧✧✧.c✧✧

Theodis Ealey
Classic track: "Stand Up In It"

New track: "Slow Grindin'"

Status: Slipping. Since the heart attack, it hasn't been quite the same for Theodis.

http://www.southernsoulrnb.com/corner2012.cfm

This screed isn't so much about the artists as it is about the deejays.
The music of the last fifteen years is the backbone--the substance--of 21st Century Southern Soul. Go to it. Remember it. Play it. Don't allow the great Southern Soul music of yesteryear to die from neglect.

In a genre as tender and young and unknown as contemporary Southern Soul, anything produced in the last fifteen years is like yesterday. Since the original classics were heard by so few people, it's important to spread the word about these songs as if they were brand new.

--Daddy B. Nice

P.S. And let's thank the artists for releasing ALL the songs, the favorites and not-so-favorites, giving us fans something to talk about. The world is a better place for having BOTH Floyd Taylor songs

Heard some Southern soul on Saturday WPFW radio, but still have not latest albums and tracks highlighted above. Need to find the time.

Wonder if I'd like retro soul guy Charles Bradley. He's getting attention in indie circles but not Southern soul ones.

He's got a great throwback voice and the Daptone folks do a their standard revivalist soul backing

Saw Bobby Rush at Jazzfest in New Orleans. He has got a tight, well-rehearsed band and he and his booty shaking dancers have their schtick down. A bit one-dimensional, but he has some good songs too.

I read Christgau refer to Irma Thomas as overrated in his piece on Dr. John's special series of shows in NYC. I saw Irma do a spell-binding tribute to Mahalia Jackson at the gospel tent at Jazzfest, and I saw Dr. John another day, plus the good doctor did a song with Springsteen. I think maybe Dr. John might be the overrated one (although I still liked him).

I missed Lee Fields (he was just playing at night at a club in New Orleans but was not at Jazzfest). Brother Tyrone and the Mindbenders were good but not brilliant deep soul. I heard lots of stunning voices at the gospel tent.