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

New Mr. Sam and Ms. Jody albums on Ecko are definitely good enough to keep, but don't kill me. Actually think I like Mr. Sam's Just Like Dat more, of the two -- especially "Put A Little Water With It" and then the two songs naming downhome dive bars that come right after, "Down At Cee Cee's" and "Mama N Nems (Hole N Da Wall)." I'm thinking Ms. Jody and O.B. Buchana (who has another new album coming out soon) might want to slow their release schedules down, and get a little more selective with the material; they settle for a lot of rote writing. Then again, maybe their audience are such loyal buyers that those two have to churn out one album or another just to make ends meet.

"...one album after another...," that is.

Maybe Ecko pressures them to crank 'em out

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/latimore-denise-lasalle-and-shirley-brown-are-ignored-by-cultural-gatekeepers-but-beloved-by-longtime-fans/Content?oid=3287257

http://www.basement-group.co.uk/Site/In_The_Basement.html

Old-school classic soul zine from the UK is now a website

Vick Allen's "Soul Music" from last year has a catchy chorus, nicely delivered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_gZiwfUcU&feature=em-share_video_user

http://www.empmuseum.org/programs-plus-education/programs/pop-conference/2013/emp-pop-conference-2013-new-orleans.aspx

Chitlin circuit Southern soul at EMP New Orleans April 19th-21st

On the Memphis panel

I'm liking the most recent Mel Waiters album

http://soulandbluesreport.com/top-25/

Working my way through that list. Don't like the weak high-pitched guy voice of Ricky White who has the #1 song, but Miss Jody's #2 song ain't bad, and Katrenia Jefferson's "That Thang" is even better -- she's got a strong voice for that old-school feeling song with more modern lyrics.

The Mr. Sam "Just Like Dat" drop that booty dance song further down the list is fun too.

Charles Wilson "This Bed Ain't Big Enough (for the three of us)" works. Its better than his "(I wanna make your) Monkey talk".... How do these guys think of these lyrics!

The Avail Hollywood song "Country Road" on that list is not as good as this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELM6h2DokRs

It's got a bit of zydeco line dance feel to it plus a rap

Here's why Ecko is always cranking out new cds from artists so fast:

Ecko must steadily release new records to keep cash flowing. It keeps Chambers pressing the flesh at every soul blues festival within 150 miles, on the phone day and night, and burning up the highway to meet program directors, disc jockeys, and mom-and-pop shop owners. As the only Ecko marketing employee, his territory is the entire U.S., though he focuses on the Deep South, where the highest concentration of Ecko listeners and affiliated businesses are located.

http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/do-you-hear-an-ecko/Content?oid=1146762

New Bobby Rush Americana/blues cd is just ok, and I feel the same about the recent Theodis Ealey blues effort. These guys are trying to get a crossover audience.

So Sir Charles Jones "Country Boy" is a cover/adaptation of a song from earlier this century called "Mississippi Boy" by Will T (credited on youtube though to another singer)

Don't think I ever posted this:

http://www.soulbluesmusic.com/2012bluescriticawards.htm

That last Ms. Jody album, not the current one, but the one with "My Give a damn don't give a damn" is awesome.

Spin, for example, has notched up its competition against Pitchfork since July, when Buzzmedia bought the magazine (and within weeks shut down its print edition). Spin’s 870,000 readers now closely challenge Pitchfork’s 1.1 million. But comScore’s figures show that visitors to Pitchfork spend more than quadruple the time as visitors to Spin.

From something I read elsewhere. Now if only they'll let Xchuckx write about Southern soul there.

I've got Sir Jonathan Burton's "Too Much Bootyshakin' (up in here)" running through my head. Infectious linedance #

Ms. Jody's "Still Strokin" is ahead of R. Kelly in this beach music chart:

http://www.beachmusic45.com/id897.html

And its not that great a song. Not bad but not great.

syl johnson

It really is possible to like old-school soul and Southern soul

http://www.peterguralnick.com/post/47106712366/roosevelt-jamison-1936-2013

Without Jamison discovering OV Wright, where would Southern soul be.

x-post --They're playing Ms. Jody's "Still Strokin'" on WPFW right now, and I gotta say the song is growing on me. I like the backing vocals, the carefully inserted guitar lines, and the way Ms. Jody's voice rises on the chorus

RIP songwriter George Jackson who wrote "Downhome Blues" for ZZ Hill among countless other great songs for Candi Staton and numerous others (Seger, osmonds...)

Also Nathan Pedro Lewis from the Ovations, a 60s Memphis soul group

I'm liking the most recent Mel Waiters album

― curmudgeon, Saturday, March 23, 2013 3:42 PM

Some clever lines and great delivery. He should really be respected beyond the circuit. Its a shame he's not.

Saturday morning April 20th 10:15 to 11:45 am-- presentation on Chitlin Circuit Soul at the EMP Pop Conference in New Orleans at Tulane. Be there or be square.

Alas, it won't be streamed online.

http://empmuseum.org/programs-plus-education/programs/pop-conference/2013/emp-pop-conference-2013-new-orleans.aspx

Awesome, dude, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to be square. Also:
Finding the Real South: Music,

Memory, and Re-Imaginings of Southern Identity
10:45am-12:15pm

Featuring
Charles Hughes
Diane Pecknold
Jeff Kollath
David Cantwell

I will check out that panel

Cool. The lady on your panel has presumably read the new book, since she wrote a glowing blurb for it.

My Southern soul presentation went well I thought, although all of the EMP presentations at Tulane U in New Orleans were inexplicably poorly attended-- they had announced in advance that they had "sold out" all of the seats (and they were free; but lots of folks didn't show). A Memphis-based prof, Charl*s Hughes, who is writing a book on race relations in 60s to 80s, and did a great presentation himself, attended my presentation as did a former Living Blues magazine editor Scott B., and professor David Cantwell who is writing a Merle Haggard bio.

Some folks I spoke to said they had never heard of any of the stuff I was talking about-- I played youtube excerpts from "Ms. Jody's thang" and Sir Charles Jones "Country Boy" plus had a powerpoint slideshow going with lots of Ecko label album sleeves.

I liked Pecknold's presentation (about white people writing about white people talking & singing about race) and Holly George-Warren's also (Fame records and Muscle Shoals)

RIP singer Artie Blues Boy White

http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoekstra/2013/04/the_deep_soul_of_artie_blues_b.html

In preparing my presentation I gathered more information than I needed. I might post some of my interviews on my blog and link to them here

So Lattimore's next album is gonna go old-school--a tribute to Ray Charles

Please feel free to post away, Steve.

the roots:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Southern-Soul-Began-1954-1962/dp/B00BTEAYOS

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/san-antonio-soul-secret-history

Not current southern soul, more old stuff dug up by Numero

My top Southern Soul singles of the year so far, in very tentative order of preference. (Mainly Daddy B. Nice picks):

Equanya – Want Ad
Mr. Sam – Down At CeeCee’s
Vic Allen – I’m Tired Of Being Grown
Luther Lackey – When I’m Gone
Jeff Floyd – Party Time
Sweet Angel – Still Crazy For You
Luther Lackey – Blind, Blind Snake

I like that Mr. Sam cut too. Forget which ones of the others I have heard.

Probably a long drive for you but looks at this gig:

94.5's zydeco meets the blues fest:

May 11 (Skyline Ranch @ 1801 E. Wheatland Rd., Dallas, TX, 75241) 1:15pm

Step Rideau & The Zydeco Outlaws, Brian Jack and The Zydeco Gamblers, Lil' Nate & The Zydeco Big Timers Cupid, Mel Waiters, Floyd Taylor, Latimore, Denise LaSalle & The PG Man, and Don Diego & Eddie G

x-post-- I need to check back into Daddy B. Nice's list myself

Ms. Jody's coming to Lamont;s in Pomonkey, MD. Yes!!! Meanwhile "Americana" singer John Murry (whom I have never heard of before) is getting critical love from the Brits while Southern soul artists continue to be left out of the "Americana" world

SO much to keep up with-- Southern soul plus old-school deep soul--was reading on the Yahoo soul group email about Jimmy Lewis and some out of print singles of his and a reissue comp on Kent (um, who is he? I say sheepishly).

Also, Mississippi’s a cappella gospel group Como Mamas who got signed to Daptone

Not Southern soul per se, but I saw Dennis Edwards and his Temptations revue with the Dynamic Superiors (great song "Shoe shine"), Jr. Walker's Allstars(only the conga player played with the late Jr. Walker), and the Delfonics. Packed 1,200 seat Lincoln Theatre on U St in DC. My gf and I were 2 of only a 5 or so non-Black audience members there. Weird, but standard for the W DC area.

curmudgeon, I actually wrote a little about Como Mamas when they played a record store here during SXSW. Scroll down to the middle or so:

http://news.rhapsody.com/2013/03/16/sxsw-2013-day-3-killer-mike-solange-como-mamas-and-more/

Their album is good, too. But as I say in there, I like the Relatives' gospel-funk album (The Electric Word on Yep Roc) even more.

Ms. Jody's June 1 show in Maryland is rapidly approaching. I'm excited.

Did more reading on a plane of that Lauterbach book detailing the history of the Chitlin Circuit. Fascinating stuff-- so many artists I do not know; interesting themes as well.

Ms. Jody at Lamont's in Pomonkey, MD (near Washington DC) on Saturday for Gator Day. Gator is a WPFW Saturday dj who plays southern soul and blues

Small crowd(around 125-- 9 white people if you're wondering) but a fun time at Lamont's with Ms. Jody. She sang over tracks (and announced that she had wanted to bring her band, but I guess the club couldn't afford them). I lov her her voice and some of her songs, but can do without her raunchy between song patter and her tongue movements. She looked like a snake at times (more than anything sexy).

A few folks there were linedancing to Ms. Jody and to dj Larry Robinson playing "the Wobble"