Sweet Soul Music - Dan Penn, Donnie Fritts, Eddie Hinton, Muscle Shoals sound in general, etc - C or C?

RIP Percy Sledge. There's a separate thread on his passing

Hadn't seen this before, great stuff. Ye olde Southern Rock thread has some relevant bits as well (ditto the Big Star thread, occasionally). So far, I'm digging the way Alabama Shakes are finding self-expression in reconfigurations of sounds usually confined to nostalgia these days: like the mix is the remix, but no turntables etc., far as I can tell.
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/12/398068310/first-listen-alabama-shakes-sound-color

Have not been a fan of the Shakes so far, while the singer's voice can be impressive, other times she is too Janis Joplin like. The band's playing I like even less. Have not heard their new one yet, though.

That link leads to the new album, Sound and Color, which I got into a lot faster than the debut full-length (liked the EP before that right away). I think they re-work/respond to their influences in a pretty creative way.

Oh yeah, do yall know Beale Street Caravan? Weekly sets, from clubs, concerts, festivals, even cruises sometimes. Pretty good range of artists and styles, usually blues and vintage R&B.
Another young band making good use of classic influences, whom I think of as soul-rock (horns and arrangements def soul, guitar and vocals can be more impulsive, keys--!): Birmingham's St. Paul and the Broken Bones. good at Coachella, even better here: http://bealestreetcaravan.com/listen/shows/2015-04-08Shows can be streamed or downloaded, usually.

They got a sweet set by Allen Toussaint too!
http://bealestreetcaravan.com/listen/shows/2012-01-18

American Routes also post shows, 2 hours weekly. Unlike Beale Street Caravan, AR's mostly from records (with an original interview in each hour). The Original Pinettes Brass Band are a find: immediately engaging sound of young female players, who have a lot of dayjob and family obligations, but they've really gotten it together. The following playlist gives the title of the track, then the album (the latter italicized in AR's original post).

Can stream or (if have Firefox's FlashGot, maybe other apps elsewhere) download: http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/895/soul-sisters

Hour One

Open Bed: Soul Sister Yusek Lateef
1984, Impulse
I Can't Stand It The Soul Sisters
The Sue Story: The Sound of Soul, New York City, Parlophone
I'm a Woman Peggy Lee
The Best of Miss Peggy Lee, Capitol
Sally Go Round the Roses The Jaynetts
Chess Rhythm & Roll, MCA/ Chess
SEGMENT Justine "Baby" Washington
Listen
Workout Baby Washington
45rpm, Neptune
Clean Up Woman Betty Wright
Best of Betty Wright, Rhino
Instrumental: The Soul Explosion Illinois Jackquet
The Soul Explosion, Prestige
Reconsider Me Margaret Lewis
Shreveport Stomp: Ram Records Volume 1, Ace
Why Not Me The Judds
Why Not Me, RCA
Soul Deep Tina Turner
Country My Way, K-tel
Five Long Years Tina Turner
Bold Soul Sister: Best of the Blue Thumb Recordings , Blue Thumb
Tramp Otis Redding and Carla Thomas
The Complete Stax Volt Singles 1959-1968, Stax/ Volt
Instrumental: Soul Twist King Curtis & The Noble Knights
Rock Instrumental Classics, Vol.4: Soul, Rhino
SEGMENT Maxine Brown
Listen
Soul Serenade Maxine Brown
Greatest Hits, Tomato
Angel from Montgomery Bonnie Raitt
Streetlights, Warner Bros.
Far Celestial Shore Mavis Staples
One True Vine, Anti
End Bed: Soul Serenade Willie Mitchell
Hot Rods Rock: Big Boss Instrumentals Vol. 3, Right Stuff

Hour 2

Open Bed: All For You The Funk Brothers
The Best of the Funk Brothers, Motown
Go To The Mardi Gras The Original Pinettes
Finally, self-produced
Mary Mack Lilly's Chapel School, recorded by Harold Courlander
Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol.6: Ring Game Songs and Others, Folkways
Spirit in the Dark Aretha Franklin
Spirit in the Dark, Rhino
Soul Sister Allen Toussaint
The Complete Warner Recordings, Rhino
SEGMENT Chris Clark
Listen
Instrumental: Whitey Lambchop
Nashville: The Other Side of the Alley, Bloodshot
These Boots are Made for Walking Loretta Lynn
Honky Tonk Girl, MCA
I'm a Honky Tonk Girl Eilen Jewell
Eilen Jewell Presents Butcher Holler, Signature Sounds
Blues a Catin Bonsoir Catin
Blues a Catin, Bridgetown
Down on Me Big Brother & The Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Sony
You'll Lose a Good Thing Barbara Lynn
You'll Lose a Good Thing, Jaime/ Arctic
Careless Love Dr. Michael White with Cynthia Girtley
Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Part I, Basin Street
Instrumental: One Naughty Flat AFO Executives
Compendium, AFO
SEGMENT The Original Pinettes Brass Band
Listen

Oh nice---Concord's Stax/Volt series continues (would also like to check new McCrary Sisters release at end of this column: they were compelling in recent public media fundraise--joined by Lee Ann Womack, even---and on archived Music City Roots livestream [show re Nashville's soul side history] w Fairfield Four, one of whom is their Dad) http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/music/20150416_Stax_leads_a_pack_of_strong_roots_releases.html

Some interesting discussion on the Yahoo southern soul email digest re who worked with Percy Sledge in the early days and where-Sheffield or Florence, Al vs Muscle Shoals ( and with Marlin Greene, later Malaco label heads Tommy Couch and Mitchell Malouf, Jimmy Johnson), and other great songs of his-- "Out Of Left Field", "Cover Me" and "It Tears Me Up".

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/03/-country-soul-by-charles-hughes-review.html

I heard Charles Hughes speak at an EMP conference in New Orleans a few years back. I was impressed. I rarely read Paste, but this was one of the first reviews of the book that I have seen.

Country Soul, a brilliant new exploration of the racial politics of the southern music recording scene from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, paints a less black-and-white picture than Sweet Soul Music or any other book on southern music that’s come before it.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/author-charles-l-hughes-takes-a-swing-at-conventional-wisdom-about-country-soul-and-race/Content?oid=5228976

I need to get and read that book

paints a less black-and-white picture...

o rly?

Another set from xpost Beale Street Caravan: The City Champs, veteran back-up for Rufus Thomas, Alex Chilton, Otis Clay, many others, and one of 'em's currently in St. Paul and The Broken Bones (whose own BSC show is posted upthread).
But this is not just the typical result of support aces left to their own jammy, foggy notions:
http://bealestreetcaravan.com/listen/shows/2015-01-14

http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/457263-muscle-shoals-to-become-johnny-depp-produced-series

Johnny Depp wants to produce a scripted series based on the events/people in the Muscle Shoals doc. I...don't know about this.

idk, seems like a cool project? he seems like a p thoughtful dude in interviews, even if his movies are annoying

i mean unless he makes everyone wear thirty scarves & dumb hats who cares if he's just producing it

i imagine it'll be like "tremé" just in alabama

in other words, boring as fuck

Duck Dunn DeMarco

Oh wait

Will it just focus on uh, Depp as Rick Hall, and not have Jamie Foxx as Arthur Alexander and I dunno, Chiwetal Ejiofor as Percy Sledge, and Beyonce as Candi Staton

Beyonce already played Etta James...

I know

Might create problems down the line if they want to do a crossover with the Cadillac Records universe

Ha ha

Just read a little of the Charles L. Hughes book curmudgeon mentioned. So far, so good. Seems like the guy knows what he is talking about, has carefully read the existing literature and can write and think clearly about the seemingly contradictory complications that have been glossed over in what has become the official narrative up until now without the "the Aha, you are RONG!" moments capsizing his argument.

Okay, just finished. Both of you guys should read.

Okay, just finished. Both of you guys should read.

Still not used to latest zing app sorry for double post

No problem. Looking forward to reading the Charles L. Hughes book. I was impressed with a presentation I saw him do at an EMP Pop Conference in New Orleans.

At the end he mentions the EMP and all the great people he met there including Ned

http://lcoutofdoors.org/events/muscle-shoals-all-star-band

Awww man, this was streamed live last night and I missed it.

The Muscle Shoals All-Stars
with special guests Patterson Hood, Bettye LaVette, Sam Moore, and Dan Penn
Donnie Fritts and John Paul White

Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 7:30 pm

Damrosch Park

A friend says it might still work:

http://lcoutofdoors.org/events/muscle-shoals-all-star-band http://lcoutofdoors.org/events/muscle-shoals-all-star-band

Sometimes LC streams come and go so it might be worth watching sooner rather than later -- plus you'll need this weekend to watch Porretta soul webcasts!

http://www.porrettasoul.it/pdf/2015/Porretta%20Soul%20programma%20generale.pdf

Soul fest in Italy this weekend

http://www.undeniablydonnie.com/

20 minute movie doc on Donnie Fritts online here

Cool thanks.

Yeah thanks, I really enjoyed that.

Here, NPR's Tom Moon claims that vintage journeyman Charles Bradley's new Changes moves past the Stax/Volt tropes of his first two, Daptones-backed albums, but, although the horns aren't as prominent, the reverb rhythm guitar and/or keys maybe move it from associations with '67 to dawn of the 70s, very cautiously. Which is fine when he occasionally creates an effective contrast with the relatively cool backing, or eases up just a bit himself--on the the final three tracks mainly---but most of the time he's singing too insistently, like "Notice Meeee, my time has finally come!", which is when I tend to notice that he's not a distinctive stylist, so get out of my face with the "drama," esp. when the songs aren't that distinguished either---the other albums aren't at hand, but seems like he did better when candidly or overtly writing from his own experience (getting past this is also supposed to be a refreshing step, claims Moon, lest the "well of experience runs dry" or something like that).
Mostly he wants to stay rough and wired, so maybe just speed it up more next time? Anyway, some of it's pretty okay, and more may grow on me: http://www.npr.org/2016/03/22/471312866/first-listen-charles-bradley-changes

Oh, and speaking of Fritts, here's my Rolling Country 2015 take:

Spent most of my lunch break w Oh My Goodness, by Donnie Fritts, mostly known as a songwriter and Kristofferson's long-time keyboard player (saw him with KK in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, so yeah goes back pretty far). Not a good place to soak up the good vocal influences, so maybe that's why it took me a few tracks to get into this. Not that he sounds like his boss, but at times just a bit like a sub-Levon, sub-Bobby Charles, even---he knows how to phrase, but thin pipes can make him a little bit too Mr. Pitiful. Still, musical smarts win out, and he gets aboard the studio bus, which never seems crowded, despite having members of the Swampers, Alabama Shakes, St. Paul And The Broken Bones, John Paul White, even John Prine at one point. It's actually an intimate, mostly late night, sometimes slightly surreal setting, with Spooner Oldham's (and maybe Fritts', and even Will Oldham's) elegant keys, especially, suggesting early Randy Newman (or, you know, vice versa; Spooner's been around a long time too). "Lay It Down" is even a Sir Doug-worthy, anguished call (to self and other) for no-bullshit face-to-face. "Choo Choo Train" could even be a Newman---or Loaded-era VU---track. I think. It is a down home geezer album, but rec to those who like any of the musical associations mentioned, without being dependent on them.

Tom Moon can get a bit over-enthusiastic about albums, in my view. I haven't heard the new Bradley yet though



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2017

COUNTRY SOUL PIONEER ARTHUR ALEXANDER’S SELF-TITLED ALBUM
RETURNS IN EXPANDED EDITION FROM OMNIVORE RECORDINGS
In Stores July 28

1972 release is reissued with six bonus tracks, plus liner notes
from Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento and former Warner Bros. staff writer)

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — When the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Humble Pie, Dusty Springfield, George Jones & Johnny Paycheck, Bob Dylan, the Bee Gees and countless other artists cover your songs, you must be on to something.

Arthur Alexander was a songwriter and song stylist whose first records in the early 1960s—such as “Anna (Go To Him)” and “You Better Move On”—were some of the earliest hits recorded at Rick Hall’s Fame Studios and to feature the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. After a short break at the end of the decade, Alexander released the second of only three albums that he made in his lifetime—a self-titled “comeback” album in 1972.

On July 28, 2017, Omnivore Recordings will reissue Arthur Alexander, expanded with six bonus tracks—two previously unissued.

With new liner notes by Barry Hansen (better known to most as Dr. Demento), the package also features the piece he wrote for the album’s original issue. Arthur Alexander’s 12 tracks were produced by Muscle Shoals bassist Tommy Gogbill, and include a version of “Burning Love”—covered by Elvis Presley shortly after the album’s release. Alexander’s two Warner Bros. follow-up singles are also here, as well as a pair of tracks from the original sessions, unearthed and unheard until now.

As Hansen wrote in the original notes, “Arthur is especially proud of the variety and versatility of his work on this album. All of it is strong medicine, and should be a fine antidote for a lot of bad scenes.”
He adds in the current notes, “[The Omnivore volume] honors the soulful wonderment that Arthur brought forth from his difficult time on earth. “
Arthur Alexander, inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, is a music legend. Arthur Alexander is a legendary recording.

Track Listing:
1. I’m Comin’ Home
2. It Hurts To Want It So Bad
3. Go On Home Girl
4. In The Middle Of It All
5. Burning Love
6. Rainbow Road
7. Love’s Where Life Begins
8. Down The Back Roads
9. Call Me Honey
10. Come Along With Me
11. Call Me In Tahiti
12. Thank God He Came 


Bonus Tracks:
13. Mr. John
14. You Got Me Knockin’
15. Lover Please
16. They’ll Do It Every Time
17. I Don’t Want Nobody
18. Simple Song Of Love 


Tracks 17 & 18 previously unissued 

# # #

Watch (and feel free to post) the Arthur Alexander trailer:
http://youtu.be/IpyqLmjVZ9w

Nice.

I'm gonna go do a tour of the Fame and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio tours. Hopefully will be entertaining and educational and all that.

Enjoyed the tours. Fame Studio just has tours at 9am and 4 pm in the afternoon, and is a functioning studio in between tours and after. At 9 am we were waiting as the place was locked up. Then 2 interns showed followed a few minutes later by a guy saying how tired and hungover he was from a late-night session. He was an engineer there and the tourguide and the only one with a key.

Thu. Sept 28 - Dan Penn - Vernon City Auditorium, Vernon, Alabama -

https://highway61music.blogspot.com/

Rick Hall, of Muscle Shoals/Fame Studios

https://www.rollingstone.com/country/news/rick-hall-father-of-muscle-shoals-music-dead-at-85-w514854

Charles Hughes writing in Country Soul re Rick Hall is a must read

I finally got around to talking to Donnie Fritts late last year: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/20985423/donnie-fritts-the-cream-interview

Cool. Look forward to reading.

Charles Hughes writing in Country Soul re Rick Hall is a must read

Cover Me: The Eddie Hinton Songbook is an ace Ace import, easily findable for a nice price, on at least one ecommerce behemoth: Dusty Springfield, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin, Box Tops, Candi Staton, Sweet Inspirations, Tony Joe White, Cher, Lulu (both of whom do well (a duet might be even better), and a bunch of people I never heard of: one guy just walked in to sell a song, and the studio cats were like omg you gotta cut something, and he did and it's good but he sailed on somewhere---others are still in the biz, but not as singers,, and then there's an early protege of Bacharach and David (he doesn't sound like Dionne Warwick, maybe a little smooth but r&b for sure, and I want to hear him on some B&D songs.

Hinton's offerings can seem a bit generic at times, but they're usually good vehicles for better singers, and though his own voice (heard here on demo of "It's All Wrong But It's Alright"), is thin and he tends to strain it, otherwise canny phrasing provides a handy template for stronger vox, as compiler Tony Rounce points out in typically astute liner notes. Don't quite hear Left Banke in the one he does, but do hear it (as a joke on sensitive Southern Gothic x LB-type sentiment?) in some of "Poor Mary Has Drowned," as lead sung by The Brick Wall's Eddie Marshall, future daddy of Chan.
(speaking Hinton demos, the well-produced series on UK's Zane label is also worth checking out).
I don't like all of these---Willy Deville has always seemed tiresome, Don Varner's track is a Northern Soul fave, so what---but overall, oh mah soul.
track list:
1. Breakfast in Bed - Dusty Springfield
2. Down in Texas - Oscar Toney JR
3. Cover Me - Jackie Moore
4. A Little Bit Salty - Bobby Womack
5. Sure As Sin - Candi Staton
6. 300 Pounds of Hongry - Tony Joe White
7. Masquerade - Don Varner
8. Always David - the Sweet Inspirations
9. Poor Mary Has Drowned - Brick Wall
10. It's All Wrong But It's Alright - Eddie Hinton
11. Help Me Make It (Power of a Woman's Love) - Mink Deville
12. Save the Children - Cher
13. Every Natural Thing - Aretha Franklin
14. If I Had Let You in - the Box Tops
15. Satisfaction Guaranteed - Judy White
16. Standing on the Mountain - Percy Sledge
17. I Got the Feeling - the Amazing Rhythm Aces
18. Home for the Summer - the Hour Glass Featuring Greg and Duane Allman
19. Lay It on Me - Gwen McCrae
20. People in Love - Lou Johnson
21. Where You Come from - Bonnie Bramlett
22. Seventeen Year Old Girl - Mickey Buckins & the New Breed
23. Love Waits for No Man - Al Johnson
24. Where's Eddie - Lulu

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/donnie-fritts-songwriter-dead-obit-877617/

Aww. I need to check out Fritts most recent effort, a tribute to Arthur Alexander I believe. RIP