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DBN's Top 25 Songs & BEST of 2011 Awards: CLICK HERE
DADDY B. NICE'S 2011 IN REVIEW (SCROLL DOWN)
January 29, 2012: Etta James, Johnny Otis, Latimore, Jesse Graham, MP3's vs. CD's, Bob Davis On Southern Soul
NEWS & NOTES 
1. Etta James, Johnny Otis, RIP The R&B pioneer Etta James died Jan. 20, 2012 at age 73 from complications of chronic leukemia. She had been struggling with the onset of dementia.
Before your Daddy B. Nice stumbled upon the underground reservoir of music now known as Southern Soul, Etta James was one of the "bridge" artists that slaked my thirst for deeper, blacker, more powerful music.
James' "At Last" found its way onto many of my mix-tapes, along with Clarence Carter's "Slip Away" and Brook Benton's "Rainy Night In Georgia" and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" before I had ever even heard of Latimore or Marvin Sease or Peggy Scott-Adams.
Etta's "Wallflower (Roll With Me, Henry)" was one of the first black records in the late 50's to break into the Top 40 in an age when jazz had a stranglehold on the culture--films, TV, theatre--and pop ruled the charts. "Roll With Me Henry" was a harbinger of the blues-birthed rock and roll revolution to come.
Johnny Otis, the 50's-era drummer who became a bandleader in addition to being a singer, songwriter, producer and talent scout, the man who wrote and recorded the 1958 R&B classic "Willie and the Hand Jive" and who also produced the original "Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton in 1952, died Tuesday at his home in Altadena, Calif.
Otis was 90. Greek by ethnicity, Otis always said he considered himself "black by persuasion". Ironically, your Daddy B. Nice had just made a reference to Johnny Otis in last month's Top Ten "Breaking" Southern Singles Review:
Ms. Jody's "I Did It" also has a nifty rhythm section reminiscent of Johnny Otis's Bo Diddley-inspired "Hand Jive."
Johnny Otis was credited with helping to create a new sound in the early '50s that later evolved into rock 'n' roll. Most tellingly, Otis discovered Etta James in San Francisco when she was just 14 years old.
They both passed away this past week within 48 hours of one other.
2. Latimore's "Let's Straighten It Out" One of The Most Sampled & Covered 
Your Daddy B. Nice heard DJ Handyman play a rap version of Latimore's "Let's Straighten It Out" on WMPR the other day. First impression: too nasty. But on follow-up impression I decided I wanted to hear some more of that nasty, so I went on the Web and searched for it and was taken aback by the number of rap versions of the tune. One was by a rapper named Webbie, another by a rapper named T-Bone. Neither was the one Handyman had played.
It put me in mind of the tremendous number of covers and samples this Southern Soul classic has fathered. Southern Soul fans are aware of Gwen McCrae's scorching version of five years ago, and many realize The Revelations featuring Tre' Williams covered the song on both their BLEEDING EDGE and CONCRETE BLUES CD's, although it's not one of their better efforts.
However, the popularity of the song never flags. Other performers who have covered the Latimore standard include the aforementioned Etta James, O. V. Wright, Poonanny, Rick Lawson, KC & The Sunshine Band, the WuTang Clan, The Fresh Prince, Usher and Monica, to mention only a few.
Coincidentally, a recent essay by the respected northern soul website and newsletter publisher, "Soul Patrol's" Bob Davis, uses the occasion of reviewing Latimore's new CD LADIES' CHOICE to riff on Southern Soul music as a genre. Davis's insights are brilliant and provocative.
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 don't know if any of you have had the chance to read Chancellor Williams excellent book The Destruction of Black Civilization. If you haven't and especially if you're black and of the African Diaspora living here in America it should be high on your list of books to read in 2012. In it Mr. Williams speaks of the very basic aspects of early pre-Euro civilization and how that came to be diverted, diluted and eventually undermined and stolen outright and completely.
One of the things he spoke of is the way some native Africans chose to retreat further into 'the bush' (those virtually impenetrable areas of the continent that are so named because the overall natural boundaries of flora and fauna make it impossible to access). In so doing much of the culture and civilization of those indigenous people remain intact and untainted by any outside influence. In fact it's an arguable point to say that much of what remains is a direct link to antiquity and ancient times gone by. Southern Soul is very similar in that while maintaining it's allegiance to the beginnings of classic American black music with Blues, Gospel, R&B and one of it's children early Soul, Southern Soul is probably the ONLY pristine music we have today. Untouched and basically unchanged since it's peak in it's 60's Stax/Volt heyday, this musical niche is probably the ONLY form (with the possible exception of straight-ahead Jazz-thru-the-Blues) that will survive that time when there'll be nothing- The Black Hole of music surely to come.
From: Welcome To The Soul-Patrol Newsletter Album Review: Latimore: Ladies Choice" by Bob Davis.
Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Latimore.
3. Sugar Daddy, Anyone? Speaking of Southern Soul, would you believe that you can shop for "sugar daddies" online? A survey of ninety dating websites by the University of Colordo Leeds School of Business found that 21 of the 90 did not remove private information from their databases.
Among the offenders were MeetingMillionaires.com, Millionaire-Match.com and SugarDaddyForMe.com. The tagline for the latter's search engine entry is, "We Match Ridiculously Rich Men With Ridiculously Hot Women."
Here's the link--SugarDaddyForMe.com--for all those Southern Soul fans who thought this "sugar daddy" stuff only happened in song.
4. Jesse Graham Returns To The Stage 
Contemporary Southern Soul pioneer Jesse Graham is coming to a venue near you. The little-known singer who influenced current greats like Jeff Floyd and Floyd Taylor has been absent from the scene for years. Now the author of such Southern Soul standards as "(When I) Think Of My Baby," "Mr. Mailman," "Love Talk" and "Same Place, Same Time (Tomorrow Night)" will be joining his peers in February at Club Expose in Jackson and in April at Mobile's popular "Spring Fling" outdoor extravaganza.
9 pm, Friday, February 10, 2012. Club Expose, 4700 Robinson Road Extension, Jackson, Mississippi. (Old Home Depot shopping center.) Pre-Valentine's Southern Soul Explosion. Jesse Graham, Dave Mack, Fredrick Brinson, Sweet Angel. 769-798-9412.
Saturday, April 7, 2012. Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds, Mobile, Alabama. 18th Annual Blues Spring Fling. Latimore, Denise LaSalle, Jeff Floyd, David Brinston, Kenne Wayne, Mr. Ivy, Jesse Graham and more. Gates open at 1 pm.
See Daddy B. Nice's Concert Calendar.
5. Record Producers, Rejoice: CD's Really Are Better David Glasser is an expert on the fidelity differences between different audio formats. Here's what he has to say on MP3's vs. CD's:
"If you compare (MP3) with a CD, a three-minute song on a CD is about 35 megabytes of data. A three-minute song as a 128k MP3 is about 10 per cent of that. They throw out 90 per cent of the data to get it to be small enough so that you can download it quickly and you can store a bazillion of them on your phone. Something's got to suffer."
What suffers is the quality of the music, Glasser said. With less data on an MP3 music file, the richness and depth of sound available to hear lessens when compared to what's available on a CD.
"MP3's, I have no use for whatsoever," Glasser said. "I think that all that technology has played a part in really killing the music and the listening experience."
(From the Daly Camera.com/entertainment--Friday, January 27, 2012.)
--Daddy B. Nice
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Daddy B. Nice's Best of Southern Soul Award Winners for 2012: Click Here!
2011: THE YEAR IN SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC 
In 2011 Marvin Sease's "Gone On" took its place next to Johnnie Taylor's"Soul Heaven" at the turnstiles to Southern Soul's pearly gates.
It was another year of roiling change in Southern Soul music. The roll call for the genre's core artists continued to plummet, the death knell sounding for Marvin Sease in the first half of the year and for Lee "Shot" Williams and J. Blackfoot at year's end. In addition, one of Southern Soul's most promising younger performers, Reggie P., unexpectedly passed.
Even allowing for the unprecedented dominance of social media--Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, smart phones, et.al.--the outpouring of grief and homage for Marvin Sease, including many thousands of hits on this site, dwarfed all previous passings of the new century, including those of Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis and Little Milton Campbell, indicating just how central and beloved a figure Sease was to the industry.
In death the Southern Soul community could picture Marvin in a Richard Pryoresque pose, leaning on a bar counter surrounded by four beautiful, fawning, female background singers, as he was on his album covers, his face creased with his trademark lascivious grin. And in death it became clear that although Johnnie Taylor was the multi-talented genius of Southern Soul, Marvin Sease was its "everyman" patriarch, the singer who defined the themes and the ambience of the revived genre in the 21st century.
Recorded live for a DVD, Sease's "Last Will & Testimony," performed over the protests of his doctors to an adoring, standing-room-only audience in a church in Alabama less than a week after he'd been near death in the hospital, sent chills up Southern Soul's collective spine, the fans well knowing that Marvin's exertions--and the stubborn, furious power in his choruses--likely contributed to his death a week later.
The deaths of J. Blackfoot, whose career in Southern Soul traversed a luminous, generation-long arc from "Taxi" to "I'm Just A Fool," and Lee "Shot" Williams, whose music defined the middle-ground Southern Soul sound of Memphis-based Ecko Records in the late 90's and early 00's, were further blows to the viability of the genre.
Equally catastrophic was the passing of the youthful Reggie P., known as the "Prince" or "Rude Boy" of Southern Soul, whose trinity of powerful contemporary classics--"Why Me?," "Dropping Salt" and "Your Love Is A Bad Habit"--made him the great hope of fans hungry for the new O. V. Wright-styled singer of the future.
It made for another terrible and fallow year for the "King of Southern Soul," Sir Charles Jones, traversing a second, sluggish year in a row with only one new single while losing both his uncle (J. Blackfoot) and one of his best friends and peers (Reggie P). And yet, the popularity of the young Sir Charles Jones persisted unabated, with fan mail surpassing all other artists, and regions of the country beyond Dixie and formerly outside Southern Soul's reach clamoring for live performances from the "King."
Not only artists but record labels fell by the wayside. 2011 marked the first time in recent memory one of the Jackson, Mississippi Couches (Tommy or Tommy Jr.) hadn't released an annual Southern Soul masterpiece on the order of Shirley Brown's Unleashed or Denise LaSalle's 24 Hour Woman or Marvin Sease's Who's Got The Power or Bobby Rush's Night Fishing via its Malaco or Waldoxy labels.
Malaco, long the only Southern Soul indie label with a modicum of national exposure, had announced its intentions to phase out Southern Soul well in advance, but it didn't make the pill any less bitter for fans to swallow. Waldoxy (the domain of the younger Tommy, Jr.) in effect followed suit, although it did release Larome Power's single, "I'm Knockin'," towards year's end.
As if to rub salt in the wounds of the discontent, Malaco's headquarters in north Jackson--the finest facilities and largest cache of historical recordings in the Southern Soul world--were visited by a weird weather event, a calamitous spring tornado that decimated the building and complex.
CDS a funk label? CDS, the new California-based label, also voicing frustration with the sales of Southern Soul records in its first couple of years, abandoned the tried and true sounds of the genre, opting for the Dallas funk of producer Carl Marshall, who shoehorned one promising young Southern Soul artist after another--Mister Zay, Bobbye "Doll" Johnson, The Real Sugar--into Marshall's casual, New Orleans-based offshoot of George Clintonesque funk.
CDS was hampered by its lack of songwriters, and also its revolving-door of artists, who in many cases would have been better served to come to the label with their own visions of an overall musical concept.
But CDS and Marshall, Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul Producer of the Year in 2010, also came through with the production and promotion of Sir Jonothan Burton's "Too Much Booty Shaking," a line dance that captivated club dancers throughout the South, and Marshall added a stirring and funky blues accompaniment to Stephanie Pickett's "Too Many People," among other studio successes.
CDS was also instrumental in distributing and advertising fellow Aviara artist Jim Bennett, a new star for Southern Soul fans despite years of journeyman work in Maryland with the Hardway Connection and his own bands.
The emergence of Aviara Records (and CDS's partnership in distributing and promoting Aviara) was the single most significant addition to the ranks of Southern Soul labels in 2011, bringing brilliant new work by Bennett, Burton and Pickett to the public.
Ecko was the ascending label. There was no lack of songwriting from Ecko Records. Having nourished and built up its stable of composers--Raymond Moore, John Cummings, Rick Lawson, William Norris, John Ward, talented newbie Gerod Rayburn and others--over many years, the Memphis-based label swiftly filled the vacuum left by the other labels by releasing excellent sets by Ms. Jody, Luther Lackey, Donnie Ray and Sheba Potts-Wright, along with interesting debuts by Gerod Rayburn and Sonny Mack.
Mel Waiters (on Brittney Records) maintained his dynamic pace, releasing what seemed at times a single a month, although not always with the quality of old. Ditto for Willie Clayton, who increasingly retreated into a singers-only world, somewhere between Southern Soul and urban R&B. Both stars toured extensively.
Bobby Rush, despite his fame and popularity one of the most under-rated of Southern Soul artists, proved once again he could deliver great music at an advanced age.
Latimore soldiered on, too, although his power was noticeably diminished.
The genre's three older-generation divas--Shirley Brown, Peggy Scott-Adams and Denise LaSalle--sat the year on the sidelines, although Peggy Scott-Adams told Daddy B. Nice in a mid-year interview that she was coming back to Southern Soul in 2012.
....Leaving the piñata-busting for upstart diva Ms. Jody, who seized the day with not one but two popular albums.
2011 was Ms. Jody time.
 By mid-year, she was being proclaimed by many critics the new "Queen of Southern Soul" despite that sobriquet never having graced one of her CD sleeves. (Vintage fans will remember that one of Scott-Adams' most popular albums was Undisputed Queen.)
And that was before Ms. Jody released her second CD of the year, Ms. Jody's In The House, arguably her finest work to date. The album's showcase single, "When Your Give A Damn Just Don't Give A Damn Any More," finished the year as Daddy B. Nice's #2-ranked Southern Soul Single of 2011.
New blood replaced old blood, both amongst labels and artists. And a performer who had been more popular with the straight-blues audience than the Southern Soul/chitlin' circuit market came through with a Southern Soul effort second to none. His name was Charles "Big Daddy" Stallings,' and his single "In Love With Yourself" was Daddy B. Nice's #1-ranked Southern Soul Single of 2011.
Stallings was representative of a new trend in the music: that even as the old stars continued to fall or release perfunctory, forgettable material, new stars like Jim Bennett, Gina Brown, Avail Hollywood, Sir Jonothan Burton, LGB, Bobby Conerly, Diedra, The Klass Band Brotherhood and Grady Champion would rise up and fill the void. These artists often accomplished their breakthroughs despite industry deejays and insiders favoring inferior material by familiar artists on their playlists.
The concert scene for Southern Soul continued to explode. In spite of flat record sales, the live-performance venues and frequencies of events across the South from Texas and Arkansas to the Atlantic continued trending upward and showed no signs of flagging. Demand for the top echelon of Southern Soul artists from "other" parts of the country was actually greater than the supply.
The Blues Is Alright Tour survived the economic turndown, reaching into the Northeast and Midwest, but travel expenses persisted in precluding national exposure for most solo acts. Primetime celebrity Mel Waiters, like a modern-day pioneer, extended his reach as a solo artist first to Kansas City and then to Denver, Colorado in 2011.
Cruise ship venues joined casinos as creative revenue sources for musicians as more and more artists, following the lead of T. K. Soul, signed contracts with Caribbean cruise ship lines for 3-7 day cruises, satisfying fans craving for one-on-one contact.
In other developments: --Luther Lackey revealed that he really wasn't O. B. Buchana's half-brother; it was just a "blues thing."
--Writer/producer Floyd Hamberlin told your Daddy B. Nice that he and fellow Chicagoan Nellie "Tiger" Travis have been in the studio and are testing the waters for a release date for a new Travis CD, signifying Nellie's official return to Southern Soul music.
--Austin, Texas's Larry Shannon Hargrove did a creditable cover of Marvin Sease's "Gone On."
--Producer Jonothan Burton came back reincarnated as the artist Sir Jonothan Burton and scored the most popular dance tune of the year: "Too Much Booty Shakin' Up In Here."
--In the department of new blood from outside the traditional chitlin' circuit, the great 2010 debuts of New Yorkers Tre' Williams and The Revelations and California solo artist Lina were followed by both acts making their pilgrimages to Jackson, Mississippi in 2011 to play in front of their core Southern Soul fans in triumphant appearances. (In the Southern Soul world, if you can make it in Jackson, you can make it anywhere.)
--The Zydeco sound was contagious, with artists from T. K. Soul to Kenne' Wayne to Ms. Jody endeavoring to incorporate it into their music. All of the attempts paled next to the mesmerizing rhythms of the real thing in the hands of veterans Keith Frank ("Cassanova," "Haterz") and Rosie Ledet ("When I'm Gone"), whenever Southern Soul deejays deigned to insert their masterful work into their playlists.
--The dawn of YouTube videos has been an unexpected boon to Southern Soul music, exposing the music to potential audiences and making the job of explaining the music so much easier. Adding YouTube links has become a daily duty here at SouthernSoulRnB, and no video in 2011 captivated more than Who Will Be The King Of Southern Soul Music?, a mock WWE-style onstage confrontation complete with gold-plated belt between Sir Charles Jones and Mel Waiters.
--Another vibrant rivalry, billed as "The Rumble In The Delta: Main Event T. K. Soul vs. Sir Charles Jones," was taking place in the Convention Center in Greenville, Mississippi the night of writing this year's-end review.
And in less than positive developments:
--Billy "Soul" Bonds' marvelous new "kitty kitty" song was still not released.
Bring it on, 2012!
Daddy B. Nice
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .
FEBRUARY 2012
1. "You Make Me Happy"-----------Al Green & LaMorris Williams
A match made in heaven, and also a natural pairing when you recall the Reverend Green and The Williams Brothers share Gospel music history. What a coup for LaMorris, and what a shining, secular, goose-pimple-raising moment for Al Green, whose brief appearance on the sample video reaffirms his connection to the primal Southern Soul rhythm.
Watch 30-Second Video Sample of "You Make Me Happy."
Buy "You Make Me Happy" MP3 on CD Baby.
Buy "You Make Me Happy" MP3 on I-Tunes.
2. "Back To The Sugar Shack"----------Shaunda
One of those rough cuts that catapult over all the belabored material ahead of them. Shaunda's shaky pitch here and there is more than compensated by the strength, immediacy and unself-conscious freshness of her vocal. Add the novelty of hearing the already popular Klass Band Brotherhood tune done in a vastly different arrangement (not to mention gender), and you spell H-I-T.
3. "Love Mechanic" ----Jesi Terrell
An outstanding, even more polished cover by yet another new female singer, Jesi Terrell, of the Willie Clayton standard written by Paul Richmond. A debut CD is in the works, courtesy of Tony Gideon Records.
Sample or Buy MP3 of "Love Mechanic."
4. "When The Ladies Are Happy"-----------Jerry L.
Ambitious, ground-breaking new style for Jerry L. ("Two Steps Behind," "Girls In The Hood"). The tempo is quicker, the arrangement is sleeker, and against pretty stiff odds the song works as Southern Soul-slash-Urban R&B. Hats off to producer and background singer Simeo.
Listen to "When The Ladies Are Happy" on ReverbNation.
5. "24 Hours"--------Denise LaSalle
LaSalle sounds tired on this song. Of course, that's the message ("24 hours, You can get my lovin' again"). Denise is "wore out/after loving you." The vulnerability conveyed in her calculated, often-cracking and sliding notes is painfully real.
Buy Advance Copy of Bargain Priced Blues Mix 6: Super Southern Soul CD from Ecko Records.
6. "The Lips On Her Body"------------Alonzo Reid
Marvin Sease's longtime drummer has an oft-delayed CD (Undercover Freak) in the works, and this is the best track I've heard so far. Borrowing the melody from Willie Clayton's "Love Mechanic" (see #3 above), Alonzo is talking about the "lips" between her legs, not the ones "on her head."
7. "Put Your Mouth In The South"----------O. B. Buchana
O.B.'s focus is below the navel, too. The melody is a reworking of the Big John Cummings-written' "I'm Goin' Back Home" (the song about O. B. moving to the North except for the fact they have no Southern Soul radio) from O.B.'s 2007 CD of the same name. Cummings' new, graphic lyrics inhabit a different geography.
Buy Advance Copy of Bargain Priced Blues Mix 6: Super Southern Soul CD from Ecko Records.
8. "Love Or Infatuation"--------------Michelle Miller
The singer who did a cover version of Carl Marshall's "Good Loving Made Me Cry" returns with a well-done, mid-tempo ballad.
9. "She Was At The Hideaway"--------------Donnie Ray
Donnie Ray is back with another peppy, fizzy track in the uptempo mold of his popular 2011 single, "Who's Loving You."
Buy Advance Copy of Bargain Priced Blues Mix 6: Super Southern Soul CD from Ecko Records.
10. "Island Girl"----------King Loverr
New singer with superlative old-school tools, including rich-toned, three-maybe-even-four-octave range. Recommended if you like Luther Vandross and Wendell B.
Listen to full-length sample of King Loverr singing "Island Girl" on Showcase Your Music.
Buy MP3 of King Loverr singing "Island Girl" on CD Baby.
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Review For. . .
JANUARY 2012
1. "I Never Knew Good Love Could Hurt So Bad"----------------Ms. Jody
And I never knew bad love could sound so good. Yet another contemporary classic from Ms. Jody's latest collection.
See Daddy B. Nice's Best Southern Soul CD of 2011.
Bargain-Priced Ms. Jody's In The House CD
2. "Check Your Mailbox"----------------Ghetto Cowboy
"A night of pleasure bound us together." Within a pleasantly-arranged, mid-tempo melody, Ghetto Cowboy examines the even bigger mess the world would be in if Iowa Republican primary co-winner and anti-contraception crusader Rick Santorum had his way and outlawed all birth control. Cowboy's lyrics are vivid and readily recognizable.
3. "Wife, Woman & Hoochie"----------------Clay Hammond
Make way for yet another grossly-overlooked practitioner of the genre, so distinctive on this song that it's hard to pinpoint precedents: Joe Simon, maybe. Clay Hammond's "Wife, Woman & Hoochie" (first recorded in 2003) establishes him as a Southern Soul vocalist of the first order. The CD has been digitally remixed and mastered.
"Wife, Woman & Hoochie" mp3 on Bargain-Priced I Kissed Her Gone CD
4. "We Gonna Party Tonight"--------------T.K. Soul
Not as catchy as last year's "They Wonna Party With Me." It might have benefitted from some ornamentation (background singers, sound effects), although it's obvious TK's going for a groove thing with the little keyboard frill as the hook.
5. "Show Some Sign (New Version)"------------Carl Marshall
I think of it as the "Show Some Sign (Rock & Roll Version)" because there are moments in this song when you can imagine Marshall fronting a rock and roll band. Think of "Show Some Sign" as Southern Soul Meets The Ramones or The Sex Pistols.
Listen to mp3 of Carl Marshall singing "Show Some Sign (New Version) on MySpace.
6. "(You Ain't Got To) Go Home"------------Klass Band Brotherhood
Another good single from the new band that's making a big splash with "Sugaa Shack." Klass Band has even secured dates on the Blues Is Alright Tour. See Daddy B. Nice's Concert Calendar.
Listen to Klass Band Brotherhood singing "You Ain't Got To (Go Home)" on YouTube.
7. "Young Folk Love The Blues"-------------------Bigg Robb
I still find it hard to put down Bigg Robb's Soul Prescription CD. Love the bass line on this one, and Bigg Robb milks the powerful groove with yet another flawless orchestral arrangement.
"Young Folk Love The Blues" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Soul Prescription CD
8. "Baby Come Home"-----Diedra
This is a potentially great song that starts well. Unfortunately, the chorus disappoints with a vocal that strains too deeply by an octave. Diedra should re-record the song in a different key or enlist some background help.
9. "If You Want To Love Somebody"----------------Patrick Henry
With a suspect, overly-busy production by Carl Marshall, it's hard to tell just how southern soulful this song could be.
10. "Show Me" ---------Rude
The Smokey Robinson-cloned, underground single, floating around for years, is finally available. On YouTube, at least.
Listen to Rude singing "Show Me" on YouTube.
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Daddy B. Nice's
TOP 25 SOUTHERN SOUL SONGS OF 2011
1. "In Love By Yourself"------------Charles "Big Daddy" Stallings
Southern Soul amounts to great themes and melodies sung by gritty, powerful blues singers. Nothing in Stallings' first two albums with all of their contemporary blues technique hinted at this one-of-a-kind, surefire Southern Soul classic. "In Love By Yourself" isn't just a story, it's an entire moral code.
"In Love By Yourself" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Blues Party CD.
2. "When Your Give A Damn Just Don't Give A Damn Any More"---------Ms. Jody
With heart-breaking foregrounds and backgrounds, Ms. Jody's finest chorus vocal since "I Never Take A Day Off." John Ward's carefully modulated arrangement is key. This is about as close to Southern Soul heaven as you can get without actually dying. Before you realize it, you're pinching yourself, "Did I just listen to Ms. Jody sing and testify for six-plus minutes?"
Sample or Buy Bargain-Priced Ms. Jody's In The House CD
3. "Show You A Good Time"-----------Bobby Rush
Year in, year out, there's nobody better than Bobby Rush. Nobody. As he proves herein once again, Bobby could bang on a tub and blow on a harp and dance circles around the rest. He's one of Southern Soul's natural wonders.
"Show You A Good Time"MP3 on Bargain-Priced Show You A Good Time CD
4. "The Body Roll"-------------Jim Bennett
I probably played this song more than any other in 2011, and every time I did I turned up the volume. A mainstay of the DC area (along with the more well-known Hardway Connection), Jim Bennett knows where he's going and how to get there. I've seldom heard a Southern Soul band sound so tight.
Sample or buy "The Body Roll" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Shots of Southern Soul, Vol. 3 CD.
5. "Drinking Again"------------Avail Hollywood
There's nothing more satisfying than watching a young musician blossoming into a true artist, marshalling an intensity and focus he hadn't quite mastered before. A "young gun" backs up his bravado by laying it on the line.
"Drinking Again" MP3
6. "They Wanna Party With Me"------------------T. K. Soul
The synth/disco beat is casual and insinuating, the rubber toy-squeezing sound and woman giggling in the background are the perfect details, and TK's vocal--clear as a mountain brook--enthralls any stragglers.
"They Want To Party With Me" MP3 On Bargain-Priced Evolution Of Soul CD
7. "We're Having A Party"------------Gina Brown
The "G-Slide" Girl's good-time Southern Soul party song has a one-in-a-million sound in the tradition of David Brinston's "Party 'Til The Lights Go Out," with a cameo by and style beholding to the masterful Mel Waiters.
"We're Having A Party" MP3
8. "Remix Our Love"--------Bigg Robb
The paradox of Bigg Robb is that when he talks on record he's big--he's huge--but when he sings on record he's small. Nevertheless, his experiment with doing his own singing has to be judged a success: his CD is packed with songs like "Remix Our Love" that wed electro-funk to Southern Soul better than anybody out there.
"Remix Our Love" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Soul Prescription CD
9. "Hold My Mule"---------Luther Lackey
Great foray into folklore and fable--the song has an aura of timelessness--but the best part for the Southern Soul fan is hearing a less cerebral Lackey deliver perhaps his most unguarded vocal ever. His humming in the chorus is to die for.
"Hold My Mule" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Married Lyin' Cheatin' Man CD
10. "Too Much Booty Shaking"-----Sir Jonothan Burton
The club hit of the year, with homegrown line dances to be seen throughout the YouTube universe.
"Too Much Booty Shakin" MP3 on Bargain-Priced In The Zone: Southern Soul Style Volume 1.
11. "I'm Knocking"-----------------Larome Powers
Remember the "Shake And Shimmey" guy? Larome Powers is back with "I'm Knockin,'" slower and more groove-oriented. This song is going to get inside some heads. Hypnotic.
12. "Jealous Wo-man, Yes I Am"-------------LGB
The "Reality Slowly Walks Us Down" lady tackles something a little less philosophical, something we all can understand--a jealous wo-man--served up with a one-of-a-kind vocal, an off-the-wall-retro arrangement and stupendously old-school background singing.
Listen to "Jealous Woman (Yes I Am)" on YouTube.
13. "Walk Away"----------Big G
A singer develops a technique (in this case artfully cracked vocals) through years of hard experience to be able to convey the hurt Big G. conveys in the lines--
"I'm not a play-thing,
I'm a full-grown man."
The heir apparent to Roy C.
Big G's "Walk Away" MP3 on Bargain-Priced All About Me CD.
14. "Who's Rockin' You?"--------Donnie Ray
With a refreshing arrangement reminiscent of early-seventies Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Donnie Ray's vocal skips along like a stone thrown across a pond on the first warm day of summer.
Bargain-Priced Who's Rockin' You CD
15. "I Need Some Attention"------------------Vick Allen
Vick Allen followed up last year's classic "If They Can Beat Me Rockin'" with this sophisticated gem, accompanied by a stunning music video reminiscent of vintage MTV.
"I Need Some Attention" MP3 On Bargain-Priced Truth Be Told CD
16. "Let's Get A Room Somewhere"--------Jesse James w/ Millie Jackson
This great duet with veterans Jesse James and Millie Jackson was distributed to all the deejays and radio outlets but has still not been released for sale to the public. (12/31/11)
17. "Do It With Your Boots On"-----------------Cupid
Many Southern Soul artists experimented with zydeco sounds in 2011, but none came close to the devastatingly catchy zydeco fills of Cupid or cajun legend Keith Frank ("Haterz," "Cassanova").
Free Online Dowload of "Do It With Your Boots On"
18. "I Ain't Never Had It This Good Before"---------Bobby Conerly
Almost too funky, sincere and soulful to be believed, this is the song listed as "Now I Know What" the second time on Conerly's New Old School CD. (P.S. Looks like that's been fixed on the last-posted CD at CD Baby.)
Bargain-Priced The New Old School CD
19. "I'm Your Maintenance Man"--------------Omar Cunningham.
This is the toughest, most aggressive rocker ever by Omar, and a radical departure from his patented lyrical style.
"I'm Your Maintenance Man MP3 on Bargain-Priced Growing Pains CD.
20. "My Kind Of Man"-------------Sheba Potts-Wright
Sweet, lullaby sounds from one of Southern Soul's sweetest and most seasoned.
"My Kind Of Man" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Let Your Mind Go Back CD.
21. "Make That Monkey Jump"-------------Grady Champion
Jumps out of the stereo speakers and grabs you by the throat with an immediacy that has even chitlin' circuit vets shaking their heads in dumbfounded amazement.
"Make That Monkey Jump" MP3 on Bargain-Priced Dreamin' CD.
22. "Steal Away To The Hideaway"-------------Uvee Hayes & Otis Clay
Uvee Hayes and Otis Clay deliver a primer in how to sing rhythm & blues, Clay's vocal especially being one of the last great examples of the old-school soul style.
"Steal Away To The Hideaway" MP3 on Bargain-Priced True Confessions CD.
23. "Only Time I Get Lonely"-----------Stephanie Pickett
Arguably the best of a batch of uptempo female forays into vintage soul including Diedra's "Rent Man" (based on Betty Wright's "Clean Up Woman"), Monro Brown's "I'm In Love With A Man" (based on The Staples' "Do It Again) and Fantasia's "Collard Greens & Cornbread" (based on Marvin Gaye's and Tammi Terrell's "Heaven Must Have Sent You From Above").
Bargain-Priced "Only Time I Get Lonely" MP3
24. "You Got To Cheat" ---------------------T. K. Soul
With an original-sounding, twanging guitar riff, "You Got To Cheat" is a cross between TK's "You Ring My Bell" and "It Ain't Cheating Until You Get Caught," and just as deep and moving.
Bargain-Priced Evolution Of Soul CD/"You Got To Cheat" MP3.
25. "Gone On, Part 2"----------Larry Shannon Hargrove
The Texas Songbird sounds absolutely smashing on this faithful recreation of the late Marvin Sease original, now a classic Southern Soul bookend to Johnnie Taylor's "Soul Heaven."
Bargain-Priced The Crown Prince Of Southern Soul CD/"Gone On Part 2" MP3.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!
--Daddy B. Nice
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Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
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