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September 1, 2020:  Various Artists (Ecko): Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul (Ecko)
Three Stars *** Solid. The artists' fans will enjoy.
I will always associate this latest entry, #31 in Ecko Records' Blues Mix Series, Dirty South Soul, with John Cummings and his grand finale to the sampler, "Memphis Blues Brothers".
This is a mellow album. Nothing much stands out or sticks out. Contributions by such heavyweights as Donnie Ray and David Brinston are pretty vanilla, and big guns like Ms. Jody and O.B. Buchana never get rowdy, much less cock their pistols. In such soft surroundings, it's easy for anyone---even a folksy-leaning blues man---to stand out, and Cummings' "Memphis Blues Brothers" indubitably does, although it's possible you have to be a southern soul insider to really appreciate it.
Listen to John Cummings singing "Memphis Blues Brothers" on YouTube.
John Cummings, for those who have never heard of him, is one of the most accomplished and well-loved songwriters in southern soul music. He's written or co-written such songs as:
“I Never Take A Day Off” by Ms. Jody
“Cutting Up Sideways” by Joy
“Girl In The Hood” by Jerry L
“Blue Collar Man” by Barbara Carr
“I’m Going Home” by O.B. Buchana
“Lipstick On His Pants” by Sheba Potts-Wright
“This Is The Party” by Rick Lawson
“A Man Like That” by Ms. Jody
“Why Can’t I Be Your Lover?” by O. B. Buchana
and “Trail Ride” by Jaye Hammer
Not to mention his own tunes, especially the classic, "Here In The South (Everybody's Talking 'Bout The Dirty South)”.
Research John Cummings history in Daddy B. Nice’s Comprehensive Index.
Cummings is one of a select group of Memphis-area singer/songwriters who write songs for Ecko Records, where royalties form the backbone of the label. Cummings, whose lyrics combine an affection for Delta culture with a storyteller's knack for the right phrase and a nursery-rhymer's sense of compression, is the most compelling of all the talent in the house, many of whom are mentioned in this song, and "Memphis Blues Brothers" commemorates them.
Here are a few of the "blues brothers" your Daddy B. Nice recognized: David Brinston, Terry Wright, O.B. Buchana, Mr. Sam, Gerod Rayburn, Buster Brown (although later I'm thinking Booker Brown?), John Ward, Morris J. Williams (who comes in for special acknowledgement as "producer extraordinaire"), Kirby Smooth, Larry Chambers, Nate Dogg, Charles Holyfield, Sonny Mack, Fat Daddy, Jaye Hammer, Big Poppa, Marquis of Soul, Jerry L, Melvino, Stacy Merino, Willie Hall, James Jackson, Joe Butler "and others..." as the song says at the end of every couplet. Only think what a list it would have been if Cummings had included the Memphis-area "blues sisters".
 Of the other artists of note on Blues Mix 31:Dirty South Soul, Jaye Hammer is represented by perhaps the best selections---"Party Mood" (a remix) and the wondrous "Party At Home".
Rick Lawson, a Jackson, Mississippi artist who has starting recording again recently, contributes an affecting ballad called "She Don't Love Me" and Mose Stovall makes an unusual appearance on an Ecko label release with his somber slow jam, "Somebody's Gettin' It".
In addition to the already-noted appearances by Ms. Jody ("Turn It Up," "You Can Ride"), O.B. Buchana "Shugga Daddy"), Donnie Ray ("Drowning In My Own Tears") and David Brinston ("Don't Tease Me With It"), the compilation includes Gerod Rayburn's Lee "Shot" Williams-like "Night Time Lovers" and Val McKnight's pleasant "Boo Thang Man".
---Daddy B. Nice
Listen to all the tracks from Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul on YouTube.
Buy Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul at Amazon.
See Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to John Cummings.
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
Or e-Mail:
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August 10, 2020: The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings. Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new. To state the obvious for the majority of fans reading this review: The Jones Boys are not related. Sir Charles Jones ("The King of Southern Soul") is from Montgomery, Alabama. Rejected by Malaco Records, the renowned, old-school label of southern soul's past greats like Johnny Taylor, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Little Milton, Charles (aided by Jackson, Mississippi's Senator Jones, no relation) more or less kicked off the contemporary southern soul era with the publication of his first two albums.
Jeter Jones ("The Kang of Trailride Blues") is from the Shreveport, Louisiana area. Appearing on the scene a dozen years after Sir Charles with a couple of unschooled albums utilizing over-used rhythm tracks, Jeter has morphed into one of the most creative, innovative and prolific artists of the last decade, and arguably the most dominant southern-soul writer/performer/artist-enabler of the last three years.
The jacket of the new CD features both Jones boys, Charles and Jeter, with World Wrestling Entertainment-style "belts" slung over their shoulders signifying their "royalty" and achievements.
I was mistrustful of this album at first. I knew a number of the tracks were not only "reruns" of past singles but duplicates (or near-duplicates) of songs simultaneously released by Jeter Jones on his new solo album Mufassa. (See Daddy B. Nice's five-star review elsewhere on this page.) So my initial reaction was: What's the point? But as I actually started listening to 2 Kings, my skepticism turned to appreciation and, gradually, pleasure and delight.
The set kicks off with a cover of the eighties' classic, Cameo's "Candy". In my review of "Mufassa" I compare it unfavorably to "Mind Playing Tricks On Me," the Jeter Jones' cover of the old hiphop standard included in "Mufassa". In the latter Jeter re-imagines the Geto Boys' rap as an almost bluegrassy (although not "acoustic," as I mistakenly described in my review) southern soul vehicle, while in "Candy" The Jones Boyz simply present a glorified, cover-band treatment of the original, epitomized at the moment Jeter sings (Cameo-style), "You give me a heart attack," at which point your head snaps back like you're traveling through a time machine.
Listen to Jeter and Sir Charles singing "Candy" on YouTube.
A funny thing happened, though, as I listened to the album as a whole. The tunes held up so well that I actually enjoyed "Candy" a little more each time I heard it. Jeter's winsome, unforgettable tenor. The novelty of hearing Sir Charles singing background. Even the snappy, throw-back rap by Storm.
"Candy" segues into a batch of songs far more varied and realized (including anger and hurt, but more about that later) than anything on Charles' own simultaneously-released album, Intimacy.
See Daddy B. Nice's "New Album Alert: Intimacy."
True, some of the tracks are versions of tunes also heard on "Mufassa". Trail Ride Version 2.0 duplicates "Old Back Road" from "Mufassa". Prior to that, the Jones Boyz (although not yet known by that name) put out a single and "official video". The title was "Trail Ride," incidentally the very collaboration that first signaled Charles' and Jeter's mutual simpatico.
The Slack-produced "Soul Brothers Moonshine" was first published in P2K's 2018 debut album, "Welcome To The Boom Boom Room," featuring Sir Charles Jones. Sir Charles even sang the first verse (typically the host artist does). "Soul Brothers Moonshine" was also released on "Mufassa," with Jeter taking P2K's place.
"Moonshine," as it's called in this iteration, has become so ubiquitous on YouTube and internet radio that it almost rivals "Friday" as Sir Charles' current signature tune. Now, with this third official publication, "Soul Brothers Moonshine" becomes a top-shelf, southern soul standard and one to be permanently associated with Sir Charles Jones. (R&B Pooh, another Jeter Jones discovery, contributes a verse.)
However, it's the new tunes---at first so easy to overlook---that really "seal the deal". Dedicated to zydeco star Brian Jack, the effervescent "Zydeco With Me" percolates on the froth of its cajun button-accordion accompaniment, with Charles engaging the uptempo vocal with enthusiasm.
"Like Voodoo," with a soothing refrain---"This southern soul / Will take control of you"--- marks a dazzling collaborative effort. Both Jones boys (aided by guest artist King South) give superb vocals, spiced with lyrics marking each singer's coming-of-age moments, and once again, Sir Charles is turned-on.
Not that Jeter Jones is in any way unequal to the task. The set's finale, "Can't Do It No More" is a solemn ballad sung from Jeter's heart, and the evocative ballad "Can I Get Some" is a stellar solo outing, meshing perfectly with the quality of the set as a whole. Jeter more than holds his own as a vocalist of the first order and an "equal" of Sir Charles. And, to look at the reverse side, Sir Charles seems to be in his true element around Jeter. He's seldom appeared as relaxed and in tune with his unique mojo.
There are only ten tunes on The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings---nine if you don't count the thirty-second intro---and little filler. To be picky, there's not much of interest in recycling Parliament-Funkadelic in "Party, which simply reminds me of coke-crystal-meth zombies clubbing to George Clinton at hours when working people are just getting up to go to work. (Mr. Smoke, Daddy B. Nice's "Best Debut Artist" of 2019, guests a verse on this one.)
But I have saved the best, including the aforementioned anger and hurt, for the last. It is sheer ecstasy to report I was knocked over like a Mack truck by the spectacular ballad, "I Don't Understand".
Listen to Sir Charles Jones singing "I Don't Understand" on YouTube.
Here Sir Charles gives us his all. Emotions---very real, very frightening emotions---pulse like strobes in Charles' vocal, and Charles' amazing vocal enhancements take the aural beauty to a celestial level. The production is off the charts in the way only a super-producer like Sir Charles can manage. All of the trademark techniques are there---only totally, brilliantly fresh.
This, for me, is the true Sir Charles Jones. The emotional tone is perfect. Why? Because love---I'm talking about real love--shines through the hurt propelling the tune's vehement power. And all the while the instrumental wealth just keeps raining down like coin poured from giant kettles. This is a song comparable to "Is Anybody Lonely?" and "The Letter". It's the kind of song we've waited years to hear from the King.
The Jones Boyz should make this a series.
--Daddy B. Nice
Listen to all the tracks from The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings album on YouTube.
Buy The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings album at Apple.
Buy the Jones Boyz: 2 Kings album at Amazon.
Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Sir Charles Jones.
Read Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Jeter Jones.
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Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
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Or e-Mail:
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July 20, 2020: JETER JONES: Mufassa (Music Access) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.It's easy to forget, but one of the defining characteristics of southern soul music is its modesty. This goes all the way back to Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis, whose hits didn't bowl anyone over technically.  (Taylor's "Good Love" is an exception and also borderline southern soul, although nowadays, the way the music has changed, "Good Love" would be considered mainstream southern soul.)
Today's audiences are so used to show-boating, be it by the vocalist or the producer, that they often are bewildered by the casualness, the ordinariness, of southern soul. Southern soul may sound gentle, for lack of a better term. Often, a song or two doesn't do the job.
Accustomed to the hyperbole and technical wizardry of contemporary hiphop and urban R&B, strangers to southern soul expect to be "blown away" by spectacular productions and over-wrought (listen-to-me-I'm-technically-the-best) vocals. What these tentative newcomers to the genre often fail to understand is the volume---the sheer numbers---of southern soul songs, which as a totality reflect and refract off one another like a school of myriad fish in the ocean. So what the newcomer assumes are isolated instances (as they might be in the North) are actually songs throbbing with meaning from within a multitude of musical kin.
And in this southern soul perfectly mirrors the rock and roll and Motown-through-Stax, rhythm and blues classics of the sixties and early seventies (and also early rap and hiphop of the late eighties and nineties, which sampled those tunes). Take any two or three songs from today's Top 10 Southern Soul and they have more in common with a typical line-up from those earlier genres than they do with contemporary hiphop/R&B. So---for example---Little Eva's "Locomotion," The Teddy Bears' (Phil Spector's first group) "To Know Him Is To Love Him", and Puff Daddy's & Faith Evans' "I'll Be Missing You"---all from diverse genres and time frames---are the kinds of songs southern soul emulates: the "golden mean," or what your Daddy B Nice often calls "the sweet spot of southern soul".
Jeter Jones understands all this well. Like his predecessors in southern soul, he doesn't sing to draw attention to himself but to get the song across. His new album Mufassa is a smorgasbord of low-key and self-contained tunes with no other object than to fascinate and pleasure, and in this he succeeds. Great cover art, by the way---Jones in a gold-plated, chain-link, Game of Thrones-style helmet.
"Mufassa" is very like Jeter's last album, "Dhis Him," in that there's a lot of variety. That, by the way, is a by-product of Jeter's blossoming, mid-life career. He has no fear of going anywhere musically (thus the variety), even as he remains "Jeter," i.e. accessible, hook-driven and radio-friendly. And although "Dhis Him" remains the permanent showcase for "Black Horse," a song as primal as Sir Charles Jones' "It's Friday," Mufassa as a whole may actually be better.
Many of the tracks on this album are familiar to fans who've witnessed them charting over the past year in Daddy B Nice's Top 10 Singles: "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" being only the latest at #2 in June.
"Everybody should give "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" to their rap and hiphop-loving friends," said the capsule review. "It'll blow their minds while giving them an instant vision of what southern soul is."
Based on the Geto Boy's classic of the same name, this song is fascinating on a number of counts. It's very like--and to some extent an extension of--a track from Dhis Him with similar tempo, chord changes and vocal: "Ain't Gone Cheat No More."
"Mind Playing Tricks On Me" also marks the debut of a new producer on a Jeter Jones project, Chris “Bubba” Washington, although Ronald "Slack" Jefferson gets credit for most of the songs on the set. The leader of The Perfect Blend Band, Jeter's back-up band, does a magnificent job, referring back to the rap original's melodic hook but softening it with an entirely different---almost blue-grassy---acoustic arrangement.
Finally, "Mind Playing Tricks On Me" fares far better than "Candy," another cover of a vintage classic that Jeter sings with Sir Charles Jones on yet another summer-of-2020 Jones release, "The Jones Boyz: 2 Kings."
 "(Can You) Back It Up," the duet with Best Male Vocalist of 2019 winner R.T. Taylor, sounds even better than it did when it charted. The track seemed a little thin then, and that went for Taylor's vocal too, unfamiliar as he was at the time. But but after listening to R.T.'s great new full-length album "The Mule Man" for a couple of months, Taylor's vocal also sounds fuller. Tasha Mac contributes.
"We Come To Party," with a just-published YouTube video, sounds like a venerable classic, its come-hither, low-key vocal and gut-bucket percussion made more irresistible encased in an album format (not to mention a great video). Jones' voice-over patter, delivered in a low whisper, adds zest. A wonderfully-realistic stream-of-consciousness takes effect.
Listen to Jeter Jones singing "We Come To Party" on YouTube.
 Jeter also provides scintillating reworkings of Sir Charles Jones' exceptional single "Soul Brothers Moonshine" and Itz Karma's "I Like Da Way," originally written for her by Jeter. "Soul Brothers Moonshine," in which Charles assists, is one of the finest cuts on the album. The mysterious third voice on the track is R&B Pooh, a recent Jeter Jones discovery.
And these songs only touch the surface. "Mufassa" includes three other tunes that have already charted here and gained notice across the country: ."Clockwise," with Gary Jenkins, "Package" and "Old Back Road," with Addison Jones & Chalie Boy (and also a great video) all of which sound far better than they did on their original releases months ago.
Of a handful of new, never-before-heard tracks, I recommend "You Know I Miss You," a Peter Gabriel-like ballad although I hesitate to compare it to Gabriel or "Solsbury Hill" (even though it's an accurate description) because the tune owes even more to Jeter's humble (here's that modesty again) but powerful "Country Girl," a breakthrough single from the "Trail Ride Certified" album.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy Jeter Jones' Mufassa album (mp3 or audio) at Amazon.
Listen to all the tracks from Jeter Jones' new MUFASSA album on YouTube.
Buy Jeter Jone's new MUFASSA album at Apple.
Find Jeter Jones' charted singles in Daddy B Nice's Comprehensive Index.
June 21, 2020:  SHEBA POTTS-WRIGHT: So Damn Good (Ecko) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.I have to admit I was initially skeptical about So Damn Good, Sheba Potts-Wright's first album of new material since 2014's I CAME TO GET DOWN. Sheba released six LP's in the first decade of the new century but dropped off to only three (with one being a "greatest hits" collection) in the last decade. It was beginning to look as if Sheba had lost her edge and/or ambition, and tempting to consign her to the many has-been's left by the wayside from contemporary southern soul's break-out decade (2000-2010).
When the first single from the new album---the title cut "So Damn Good"---appeared, my response was lukewarm. The song was solid, yet it was also overly-familiar to anyone accustomed to Sheba's prior material, and I remained relatively unenthusiastic.
But when the second single---"Operate On Me"---came out, I was impressed by its commercial (for lack of a better word) simplicity and directness, a quality that had also been present to a lesser degree in "So Damn Good". Produced by Sir Charles Jones (surprise, huh!), "Operate On Me" was an eye-opener, a game-changer. The "pop" side of southern soul rather than the "bluesy" side. This song was radio-friendly in a big way.
Then I began to listen to the album as a whole. I played it at work, often in the background while carrying on business-at-hand, coming back to it in the pauses, and the first cut to grab my attention was the cover of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind".  Being a straight-ahead cover track, I wasn't expecting much. Nor had I forgotten that just a couple of years back, I'd lauded Karen Wolfe's redo's of the uber-classic in "That Chick Ain't Me" and subsequently "That Bitch Ain't Me".
And yet, every time Sheba's "I'd Rather Go Blind" played, my ears perked. First, it was enjoyable in the most pure sense. Second, Sheba entirely took the song over. She sang it as casually as if she were sipping coffee at your kitchen counter. No hyperbole. Just slow-burning passion and worldly wisdom delivered by a southern soul journey-woman, a word I use in the most positive sense to describe a singer whose every syllable is infused with technique and tradition.
Then more tracks began to emerge, their hooks increasingly "hooky". "Because Of You," listed in the liner credits as "Nothing But Love," was such a song. "One Lover To Another" was another. In "One Lover To Another" as in "So Damn Good," the lyrics seemed at times to be too over-the-top in their willingness to please the male partner. But the overall effect was to make the album more bubbly and positive, more like the flirtatious and hedonistic Sheba of old.
Ultimately, I was left with this conclusion. There's a lot of music on this album, and nary a bad cut. "One Freak To Another," which ends the set, epitomizes the concept of the set: good times---one might almost say appreciative times--with the male species. And musically, it would be hard to imagine anything more enticing and tuneful. Producer John Ward has never been more masterful. The "bottoms" and "tops" of the instrumental tracks mesh perfectly and provide the perfect backdrop for Potts-Wrights' southern-sugared-lemonade vocals.
"I'm A Cougar" and the quasi-bluesy "Just Be Yourself" are the closest Sheba gets to the blues, and they're fairly upbeat besides. And in retrospect, that may be a good thing. "I Don't Give It Away," "You Did The Right Thing," "Lifetime Man"... They're all good numbers, and they all lean to the "soul" side of southern soul, like Sheba, Potts-Wright's self-titled debut. Although they may not all be hit singles, they're exceedingly listenable, and taken together they're a CD lover's dream.
Here's my take.  Encouraged almost immediately upon her initial success to double back and adhere to the blues tradition represented by her father, Memphis bluesman Robert "Dr. Feelgood" Potts, Sheba has published CD's more or less divided between soul and straight blues. And yet, up until now Sheba Potts-Wright has never put out an album of such acutely-honed, radio-friendly material.
And while Sheba has recorded a "Best Of" collection including such career-defining and bluesy singles as "Private Fishing Hole" and "I Can Bagg It Up," she has never been able to surpass the pop luminosity of "Slow Roll It," "Lipstick On His Pants" and "I Caught You" from Sheba, her stunning debut.
So Damn Good comes very close to replicating that album and re-establishes Potts-Wright as one of the top vocalists of her generation.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy Sheba Potts-Wright's new SO DAMN GOOD album at Amazon.
Read more about Sheba in Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Sheba Potts-Wright.
Send CD's to Daddy B. Nice, P. O. Box 19574, Boulder, Colorado, 80308 or e-mail to daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com to be eligible for review on this page.
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June 1, 2020:  DEE DEE SIMON: Ahh Hell Queen Dee (Dream, Babyboy Publishing, Charlene Music Publishing)
Three Stars *** Solid. The artist's fans will enjoy.
As southern soul music grows in popularity, more aspiring R&B artists are casting inquisitive glances at the sub-genre and thinking about the possibilities. Right now southern soul has the insider buzz of early Motown. After all, it is a "smaller pond" than mainstream R&B in which to become a "big fish".
If that sounds cynical, it's not meant to be. Disappointment is more appropriate. Attracting performers who might otherwise be making it (or trying to make it) on the urban and hiphop circuits is a boon in talent for southern soul music, but there’s a down side. We now have to worry about losing those artists.
Of course, when you talk about artists crossing from previous genres, the majority of southern soul artists who leave go back to gospel, like Al Green and Peggy Scott-Adams. But now we're beginning to see young people crossover from urban/hiphop to southern soul and vice versa.
Dee Dee Simon's "Walk That Dog" (#6 February 2019) and "Big Gun" (#9 September 2019) both charted here and might have been ranked higher, were it not for their very facility and ease of technique raising a red flag. Would the five-octave, already-much-decorated Simon get stuck in that revolving "crossover" door?
Dee Dee Simon made an impression with southern soul fans not only for her vocal agility, but with the great voice-overs in "Big Gun" and "Walk That Dog" ("I don't want no dog/ That's been in every yard/ You know what I'm sayin'?") She seemed instantly comfortable in the genre's patois. In heft, clarity and directness, Simon was reminiscent of a young Sheba Potts-Wright; in her smooth delivery, Sweet Angel.
 But right now I'd rate the chances of Dee Dee Simon staying with southern soul slim. Her most recent singles are solid urban-smooth. Dee Dee is a musical friend of 2 Buck Chuck, who gained favorable review here a couple of years ago, during which time he reverted to an urban format in a subsequent release. The review was a cautionary one, praising his "2 Buck Chuck" debut EP and urging him to stick with the southern soul. Sadly, he hasn't released any southern soul since.
Dee Dee's new single, ”Halfway,” is definitely and definitively not southern soul. It's not on Dee Dee's new album, Ahh Hell Queen Dee, and that's good because the contrast in styles is stark. But what will surprise avid southern soul fans about this album is the mingling of two styles--southern soul and urban/electronic/funk--that beget distinctly opposing audiences. If you want melody, story and heart, you go to southern soul. If you want technically-impressive vocals and state-of-the-art instrumental tracks, you go to mainstream R&B. The two don't mix: they're like oil and water.
However, Dee Dee Simon has another song, "Da Fire," that straddles both styles and just missed coming in with a number-one bullet on the southern soul charts earlier this year:
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Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
-------FEBRUARY 2020-------
2. "Da Fire"-----Dee Dee Simon
The multi-talented Bay area diva strikes gold with an Isley-inspired tune instructing her enamored to "Put your wood in my fire/ 'Cause, baby, my flame is running low."
Listen to Dee Dee Simon singing "Da Fire" on YouTube.
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In April of this year Arthur Young was awarded a 4-star review for his four-song "Funky Forty" debut EP, and that was largely on the basis of only two tremendously popular songs, "Funky Forty" and "Stroking". If Dee Dee Simon had released a similarly scaled-down EP, including "Big Gun," "Walk That Dog," "Upgrade" and the extraordinary "Da Fire" instead of the album she did put out, the ten-song CD Ahh Hell Queen Dee, she would have garnered a 4-star-- perhaps even a 5-star rating.
What ruins Simon's much-hyped and long-awaited CD--for southern soul fans, at least--is the inclusion of incompatible material. I was actually doubly disappointed: first, because there are no new southern soul tunes of note (with one exception to be discussed later); and second, because I was under the impression Ahh Hell Queen Dee would be a southern soul debut. The tunes I already knew as successful southern soul singles are there, intact, but what I expected to be a bagful of new southern soul singles turns out to be something quite different.
Personally, your Daddy B. Nice would like to prescribe Dee Dee Simon a daily afternoon dose of southern soul radio. But here I'm betraying my annoyance with trying to play the CD as a whole, the same irritation I presume is experienced by the die-hard, urban-funk fan who doesn't want to hear any southern soul. The point is, it would have been far better for Dee Dee to present her southern soul songs in a generous EP and throw everything else out. (Or if that's a little harsh. Package for a different audience?)
"Dee Dee Slide" samples an early--almost Sugarhill-early--era rap. It's Afrika Bambaataa-percussive. It doesn't work as southern soul, and it's no fun to listen to, unless you're into history. "I Can't Leave Him Alone" is terrible. Who needs to live 80's and 90's funk over again? It's like Dee Dee has lifted her backing band out of a time capsule.
"Put It On Him" is the one new song that might qualify as a southern soul single. Dee Dee can sing southern soul when she puts her mind to it. Both the foreground and background vocal tracks are excellent. Like the other "greats" (chops-wise) before her, she's restrained (think Bobby Blue Bland), leaving her technique and power implied. And not to forget: the light zydeco button accordion is an endearing touch.
But then, back to the common-denominator funk with "Slow Motion". Again, the listener is yanked into another musical genre--with a backing band so vintage it's wrapped in vacuum-seal. "Shake That Derrier" is more of the same, a smooth-jazzy, percussive arrangement and a slick, urban vocal. Funk inspiration doesn't have to come this freeze-dried.
For a look at a tune that qualifies as southern soul because it is doing something original with "funk," check out Chrissy Luvz's new jam, "I Sing Da Blues". Of course, an even more well-known example of funk transformed into southern soul, (and one composed by a legendary southern soul songwriter, Floyd Hamberlin), is Nellie "Tiger" Travis's "Mr. Sexy Man". It can be done.
But in the end, to cross-over and back-and-forth with urban/smooth and urban/funk betrays an underlying disrespect for southern soul music. Like, what? You can't get a whole album of southern soul together? With her formidable talents, Dee Dee Simon could easily do just about any southern soul LP project imaginable. The only new song on Ahh Hell Queen Dee that truly qualifies as southern soul, "Put It On Him," more than proves that.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy Dee Dee Simon's new southern soul debut album AHH HELL QUEEN DEE at Payhip.
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Send CD's to Daddy B. Nice, P. O. Box 19574, Boulder, Colorado, 80308 or e-mail to daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com to be eligible for review on this page.
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Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
Or e-Mail:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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under construction!!
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Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
Or e-Mail:
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION! UNDER CONSTANT REVISION!
September 1, 2020: Various Artists (Ecko): Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul (Ecko)
Three Stars *** Solid. The artists' fans will enjoy. I will always associate this latest entry, #31 in Ecko Records' Blues Mix Series, Dirty South Soul, with John Cummings and his grand finale to the sampler, "Memphis Blues Brothers".
This is a mellow album. Nothing much stands out or sticks out. Contributions by such heavyweights as Donnie Ray and David Brinston are pretty vanilla, and big guns like Ms. Jody and O.B. Buchana never get rowdy, much less cock their pistols. In such soft surroundings, it's easy for anyone---even a folksy-leaning blues man---to stand out, and Cummings' "Memphis Blues Brothers" indubitably does, although it's possible you have to be a southern soul insider to really appreciate it.
Listen to John Cummings singing "Memphis Blues Brothers" on YouTube.
John Cummings, for those who have never heard of him, is one of the most accomplished and well-loved songwriters in southern soul music. He's written or co-written such songs as:
“I Never Take A Day Off” by Ms. Jody
“Cutting Up Sideways” by Joy
“Girl In The Hood” by Jerry L
“Blue Collar Man” by Barbara Carr
“I’m Going Home” by O.B. Buchana
“Lipstick On His Pants” by Sheba Potts-Wright
“This Is The Party” by Rick Lawson
“A Man Like That” by Ms. Jody
“Why Can’t I Be Your Lover?” by O. B. Buchana
and “Trail Ride” by Jaye Hammer
Not to mention his own tunes, especially the classic, "Here In The South (Everybody's Talking 'Bout The Dirty South)”.
Research John Cummings history inDaddy B. Nice’s Comprehensive Index.
Cummings is one of a select group of Memphis-area singer/songwriters who write songs for John Ward of Ecko Records, where royalties form the backbone of the label. Cummings, whose lyrics combine an affection for Delta culture with a storyteller's knack for the right phrase and a nursery-rhymer's sense of compression, is the most compelling of all the writing talent in the house, many of whom are mentioned in this song, and like O.B. Buchana's "I'm Going Home" and Cummings' own "Here In The South," "Memphis Blues Brothers" commemorates them.
Here are a few of the "blues brothers" your Daddy B. Nice knew or recognized: David Brinston, Terry Wright, O.B. Buchana, Mr. Sam, Gerod Rayburn, Buster Brown (although he may mean Booker Brown), Morris J. Williams, Kirby Smooth, John Ward, Larry Chambers, Nate Dogg, Charles Holyfield, Sonny Mack, Fat Daddy, Jaye Hammer, Big Poppa, Marquis of Soul, Jerry L, Melvino, Stacy Merino, Willie Hall, James Jackson, Joe Butler "and others..." as the song says at the end of every couplet. Only think what a list it would have been if Cummings had included the Memphis-area "blues sisters".
Of the other artists of note on Blues Mix 31:Dirty South Soul, Jaye Hammer is represented by perhaps the best selections---"Party Mood" (a remix) and the wondrous "Party At Home".
Rick Lawson, a Jackson, Mississippi artist who has starting recording again recently, contributes an affecting ballad called "She Don't Love Me" and Mose Stovall makes an unusual appearance on an Ecko label release with his somber slow jam, "Somebody's Gettin' It".
In addition to the already-noted appearances by Ms. Jody ("Turn It Up," "You Can Ride"), O.B. Buchana "Shugga Daddy"), Donnie Ray ("Drowning In My Own Tears") and David Brinston ("Don't Tease Me With It"), the compilation includes Gerod Rayburn's Lee "Shot" Williams-like ("Night Time Lovers") and Val McKnight's pleasant ("Boo Thang Man")
---Daddy B. Nice
Listen to all the tracks from Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul on YouTube.
Buy Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul at Amazon.
See Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to John Cummings.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Various Artists (Ecko), Blues Mix 31: Dirty South Soul, 9-1-20
The Jones Boyz, 2 Kings, 8-10-20
Jeter Jones, Mufassa, 7-20-20
Sheba Potts-Wright, So Damn Good, 6-21-20
Dee Dee Simon, Ahh Hell Queen Dee, 6-1-20
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RECENTLY REVIEWED: R.T. Taylor, The Mule Man, 5-16-20 (Scroll down this column.)
Various Artists, Unkle Phunk's Juke Joint, Vol. 1, 5-1-20 (Contained in the Unkle Phunk Artist Guide. Click link.)
Arthur Young, Funky Forty EP, 4-5-20 (Contained in the Arthur Young Artist Guide. Click link.)
David Brinton, I'm An O.G., 3-8-20 (Contained in the David Brinston Artist Guide. Click link.)
Itz Karma, Karma: Unleashed, 2-16-20 (Contained in the Itz Karma Artist Guide. Click link.)
Avail Hollywood, Black Locomotive, 1-26-20 (Scroll down this column.)
Various Artists: Ecko, Blues Mix Vol. 30: Swing Out Soul, 12-16-19 (Scroll down this column.)
Slack, My Music, My Friends: Southern Soul Compilation, 11-17-19 (Scroll down this column.)
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Rating Guide:
Five Stars ***** Can't miss. Pure Southern Soul heaven.
Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new.
Three Stars *** Solid. The artist's fans will enjoy.
Two Stars ** Dubious. Not much here.
One Star * A disappointment. Avoid.
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Send CD's to Daddy B. Nice, P. O. Box 19574, Boulder, Colorado, 80308 to be eligible for review on this page. Or... E-mail daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
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May 16, 2020:
R.T. Taylor: The Mule Man (Jones Boys Ent.). Four Stars **** Distinguished Debut By A New Southern Soul Artist.
Top Ten Singles December 2019
The Top 25 Southern Soul Songs of 2019 (#8)
2019 Best Debut Nominee
Best Male Vocalist 2019: R.T. Taylor for "It's A Mule"
These are the entries for R.T. Taylor in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index. They were all made since December of 2019, only a few short months ago, based on music from Slack's My Music My Friends: Southern Soul Compilation.
Daddy B. Nice had raided this bounteous sampler for hit single after hit single in the course of 2019, including tunes by Jeter Jones, Crystal Thomas, Summer Wolfe, P2K DaDiddy, Tha Don and a bevy of exciting newcomers, among them Luziana Wil, Volton Wright, DJ Wildman Tim, Malcom Allen, and Slack (Ronald Jefferson) himself.
And yet, it wasn't until December 2019, after months of playing the CD over and over, that a "dark horse" charted on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Singles. His name was R.T. Taylor--as Bob Dylan once so aptly said, a "complete unknown". The song: "It's A Mule".
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2. "It's A Mule"-----R.T. Taylor
Obscure, from an overlooked album, and from an obscure artist (whose name--even if he was famous--would be hard to remember), this song reminds me of--and makes me feel as good as--the original "Mississippi Boy," which was just as obscure once upon a time. Like "Mississippi Boy," "It's A Mule" doesn't sound like much at first, but stay with it and you'll realize it runs on 100% heart. Slack on the track! Read Daddy B. Nice's five-star review.
Listen to R.T. Taylor singing "It's A Mule" on YouTube.
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Shortly after the December SouthernSoul charting, Jeter Jones, the indefatigable southern soul artist/impresario, published a new video of "It's A Mule," giving R.T. Taylor a face.
Listen to R.T. Taylor singing "It's A Mule" on YouTube.
Taylor was just as you might have imagined, unassuming, middle-aged-to-older, almost Bishop Bullwinkle-like, but tough-looking and virile, like he'd worked outdoors all his life. (On his Facebook page there are videos of R.T. performing in local venues in street clothes--cowboy hat and boots, jeans and down vest--which seems just about right.) And the juxtaposition of the weather-beaten singer and the astonishingly beautiful young girl in the video (who might have been his grandchild) only reinforced the bizarre chance that such a seasoned and rough-hewn artist would ever see the light of day.
But the voice! Something about the vocal (and certainly the material was part of it) brought out a grit, a soulfulness, a deep, yearning angst that once heard became unforgettable. A new tune by Taylor, "Do You Wanna Party," charted at #3 in March of 2020. Written by Jeter Jones (who also guested on vocals), "Do You Wanna Party" featured R.T. on a brisker, mid-tempo vehicle, but once again stressed the vocalist's ability to convey sensitivity--fragility, tenderness--along with hickory-hard, life experience.
Now comes the debut album from this unlikely senior vocalist. The Mule Man features compositions by Rodney Wayne Taylor (R.T.) with help here and there from Jeter and Gary Jones, Vernon Washington and DJ Wildman Tim. The production is by Ronald "Slack" Jefferson, again with input from Taylor. With the exceptions of the mid-tempo, Jones Boyz-penned "Do You Wanna Party" and "Back It Up" (done in two versions, one with Jeter Jones and the other with Tasha Mack and Jeter Jones), the album is mostly a compendium of ballads in Taylor's inimitable style in which romantic emotions and traditions mingle with details rooted in southern soul's gritty realism. "Country Woman" knows how to cook R.T.'s food. "She goes in the kitchen with her gown on," R.T. sings. "She goes in the kitchen with no drawers on."
In "Southern Soul (We Love You JW)" R.T. sings, "We're having a party..." Then, a long pause..."At southern soul," as if southern soul were a place name, leaving the what or where of his "southern soul" a mystery. With a gorgeously fleshed-out instrumental track by Slack and multi-tracked background chorus by Taylor, the kindred ballad "Rock With You" explores the same, romantic yet meditative mystique.
R.T. says that he wrote "Please Talk To Me" seven years ago, and the collection as a whole reinforces the old truism that accompanies strong debuts. Pent-up and unreleased material, in this case made more powerful by the artist's age, brings a head wind of originality, as in yet another slow jam, "Waitin' On You". And in "In It To Win It," a collaboration with DJ Wildman Tim, producer Slack replicates the rhythm track to Tim's "Funky Blues," one of the most irresistible tracks from Slack's MY MUSIC, MY FRIENDS, to raise the tempo before the set's close with a remix of "Back It Up" with Tasha Mac and Jeter Jones.
As for "It's A Mule," placed fortuitously at the start of the set so you can get your "mule-man" fix instantly, it will take its place as one of southern soul's classics. Compared with urban R&B or contemporary hiphop, it's modest and subtle, as are almost all of southern soul's great songs. But it's deep. It'll take you as deep as you want to go--or are in the mood for.
--Daddy B. Nice
Listen to all the tracks from R.T. Taylor's THE MULE MAN album on YouTube.
Buy R.T. Taylor's debut album THE MULE MAN at RT Entertainment.
See Daddy B. Nice's "New Album Alert" for track list.
 AVAIL HOLLY-
WOOD: Black Loco-
motive (Avail Hollywood / AvailMusic-Nlightn-
records). Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new.
Avail Hollywood's 2019 album Still King marked a major step forward for the unique tenor with the hard-to-define style. Known for his problem-drinking hit singles like "Drinking Again," "Wasted," "Rehab" and "Rehab Ain't Working"--songs that plunged into emotional darkness and resurfaced with a singular soulfulness not heard in quite the same fashion on the southern soul circuit before--the album painted a broader canvas, incorporating domestic joys and sexual pleasures. Not that Hollywood hadn't recorded other themes before ("Club In The Woods," "Fatal Attraction," "Country Road," "A Little Age On It"). But prior to STILL KING those tunes hadn't carried the heft of the drinking songs. Suddenly Hollywood was singing emotionally-convincing material on a wide range of subjects: "Girl, You Bad," "Unbelievable Booty," "Don't Rush" and "DJ Let Me Grind On Her".
Avail's new album, Black Locomotive, continues this remarkable artistic maturation. The two songs that open the album, the punchy, guitar-driven "Box Top Chevy (Deep In The Woods)" and the orchestral-sounding, mid-tempo, lullaby-like "Love Train," are surefire crowd-pleasers and potential hit singles. The latter would have been better served with the album title "Black Locomotive," but that is easily overlooked. Watch for one or both of these tunes on Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 Southern Soul Singles for February 2020. If they're any indication of what's to come, we're in for a marvelous year to come in southern soul.
Listen to Avail Hollywood singing "Box Top Chevy" on YouTube.
Listen to Avail Hollywood singing "Love Train" on YouTube.
Nor does the balance of the set disappoint. The ballads "Stop Playing With My Emotions" and "Temporary Nigga" combine worthy lyrics with first-rate vocals and production. What does Avail Hollywood's "Got To Get It" have in common with another new single by Narvell Echols called "Country Folks Party"? They both share the iconic horn riff (from KC & The Sunshine's Band "Boogie Shoes") used by Floyd Hamberlin to great effect in Nellie "Tiger" Travis's "If I Back It Up".
"This Hit For The Grown Folks" is a novelty tune with nifty special effects including a cartoon-character-like voice over. "The Grass Ain't Greener (But Sometimes)" is a Hollywood ballad with a simple message: Sometimes it is greener. "That Was The Liquor Talking" mines Avail's specialty, the ballad, extracting a surprisingly strong message of apology. The instrumental track and production are sure-handed and impressively distinct. as they are throughout. Finally, "Box Top Chevy (Music Mix)" reprises the opening track with its influences made more prominent: namely Curtis Mayfield's beloved masterpiece, "Diamond In The Back". And like Curtis, we can...
"Just be thankful
For what Avail's got".
--Daddy B. Nice
Listen to all the tracks from Avail Hollywood's new Black Locomotive album on YouTube.
Download all the songs from Avail Hollywood's Black Locomotive album at CD Baby.
December 15, 2019:
VARIOUS ARTISTS (ECKO): Blues Mix 30: Swing Out Soul (Ecko). Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new.
Give John Ward and friends at Ecko Records credit for trying something new this time around with their #30--that's right, thirtieth--entry in the Blues Mix series: Swing Out Soul. The first three songs feature remixes of well-known, even iconic, tunes by Donnie Ray ("Who's Rockin' You?"), O.B. Buchana ("Just Cruzin'") and Jaye Hammer ("Making That Booty Roll"). Resistant as one always is to losing the pleasant memories of the original arrangements, the remixes still work. Much of what holds interest is the increased emphasis on bass and percussion, and as the rhythm tracks gel, the remixes take genuine flight.
 Not as compelling as the originals (which are pretty close to being "classics"), but just as engrossing for their adventurous variation, these three beginning remixes are followed by the best track ("I'm In Love With An Angel") Rick Lawson has released since his recent return to the recording studio, including if not surpassing last year's "I Done Found Your Good Thing". The vocal is confident and assertive, matching the comely melody. And Lawson is followed by another Ecko legend, Ms. Jody, with her new remix of "Still Strokin'". Once again, the percussion is dominant and textured, with a funky, dance-floor edge. In sum, the opening five tracks of this sampler--all previously unreleased--are unequivocally enticing, insuring this CD will not disappoint any southern-soul-inclined, holiday-gift recipient.
 An uncharacteristically bland David Brinston tune ("Here I Go Again")--the only real lapse in power and energy of the entire set--is followed by a rambunctious O.B. Buchana romp ("I Was Searching") complete with giddy backing chorus that sent me back into Buchana's prolific stack of albums doing some searching of my own. (It's from O.B.'s Starting Over album, 2013.) And the next song up, the now-retired, southern soul diva Barbara Carr's "What Kind Of Love?", is just as good if not better, with a vintage tunefulness and vocal mastery that almost takes one aback.
Donnie Ray returns with a steamy-tempo-ed "Southern Soul Blues Slide," while Val McKnight makes her first appearance on the sampler with "Good Loving Will Make Everything All Right". Vivacious Val's strong vocal--every bit as robust as the legendary Carr--reminds us that Ecko the label has possessed and still possesses some of the best blues-singing talent in southern soul. Jaye Hammer pounds that point home with a sledgehammer in "The Mississippi Slide," and the energy doesn't flag a bit with Ms. Jody's "Booty Strut". By the time you get to the end of this compilation, you want to start it all over again. It's all of a piece--dance-able and musically compelling. Even better, every tune is a powerful vocal statement, testifying to the authenticity of the label's artists.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy Ecko's VARIOUS ARTISTS: Blues Mix 30: Swing Out Soul at Amazon.
Buy Ecko's VARIOUS ARTISTS: Blues Mix 30: Swing Out Soul at Barnes & Noble.
Browse other Ecko Blues Mix samplers in Daddy B. Nice's CD Store.
SLACK: My Music, My Friends: Southern Soul Compilation (SlackTraxx / XLP) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.
Relegated to behind-the-scenes, producer-composers are the life blood of southern soul music. Floyd Hamberlin (Nellie "Tiger" Travis, Will T.), John Ward (O.B. Buchana, Ms. Jody), Charles "Highway Heavy" Lewis (Pokey Bear, ColdDrank), Christopher "Big Yayo" Mabry (LaMorris Williams, J-Wonn) and Daniel "Beat Flippa" Ross (Jeter Jones, The Louisiana Blues Brothas) are the current heavyweights, taking over from early-century legends like Harrison Calloway, Charles Richard Cason, Senator Jones and Jimmy Lewis. And with the release of Slack's My Music My Friends: Southern Soul Compilation, we can now add another composer/producer to this list of luminaries: Ronald "Slack" Jefferson, 2018's Southern Soul Producer of the Year.
Jefferson produced P2K DaDiddy's remarkable 2018 debut, Welcome To Da Boom Boom Room, in addition to working on Jeter Jones's panoramic Dhis Him and Lady Q's debut, Class 'N Session.
This record hasn't been given the acclaim it's due. I look at the charts just six months after the release and there's not a sign of it, although far less valuable samplers abound. You can put this record on the top shelf with Beat Flippa's I Got the Blues, Vol.1, which pretty much wrote the current "book" on southern soul samplers. Like that much-heralded 2015 compilation, Slack's new Slack: My Music, My Friends not only introduces a raft of worthy new recording artists (along with some stars). It announces the emergence of a true southern soul impresario, from whom we may expect a (hopefully) steady stream of music in his intoxicating style for years to come.
Jefferson doesn't have the hiphop-influenced, instrumental finesse of fellow Louisianans Beat Flippa and Highway Heavy. (They're from Baton Rouge, he's from Shreveport.) Slack has a more casual and/or modest (some might say traditional) style befitting Memphis's Ward or Chicago's Hamberlin. He's not going to wow you with technique--just get the message across in the most accessible and mesmerizing way.
Slack's love for melody is his biggest strength. Indeed, he sometimes errs a little too much on the popular--that is, the "pop" side--of composition, as in one of a couple of songs he performs himself, "Don't Cry," which verges on the sentimental. Of course, Slack isn't his own best interpreter. In the hands of any of the powerful singers gathered together on this set, the tune's impact would be magnified and perhaps transformed into a gritty anthem.
But make no mistake...Melody rules. Hooks rule. Slack's colleagues would kill for some of these melodies and hooks. Just reading a list of the compilation's nineteen--yes, nineteen, no filler--songs is to recognize some of the most familiar and enjoyable sounds from this past summer's playlists:
Listen to all the songs from Slack's MY MUSIC, MY FRIENDS on YouTube.
Consistently musical, with a variety that holds your attention, the sampler gets better and better the more you play it. The songs benefit from the surrounding quality, too. Here's a necessarily brief snapshot of the album's sprawling content:
"That Thang"---Volton Wright
This opening track is representative of the whole album--casual, accessible, catchy, unsophisticated. It doesn't bowl you over; it's just steady rocking in the best southern soul sense.
"We Came To Party"---Jeter Jones
In Jeter's recent, understated style ("Black Horse," etc.), this is Jeter Jones at the top of his game.
"Got To Find Me A Lover"---Malcom Allen
Written and sung by a great new vocalist. Think Stan Mosley. The verses roll along, ending in choruses in which Allen riffs responsively to a female background singer.
"Teach You How To Love Me"---Crystal Thomas
All Crystal really needs to do to become a  dominant, first-rank, southern soul vocalist is simply record more songs.
"Just Another Day"---P2K
More easy-going, melodic southern soul. No one keeps it as simple and informal as the charm-master, Keith "P2K" Taylor.
"Country Party"---DJ Wildman Tim
Everyone on this album knows their southern soul. As the pre-song drop says, "We're about to go to the juke joint, the hole in the wall, the sugar shack, the place called Annie Mae's." Great bass line.
"It's A Mule"---R.T. Taylor
In a set spilling over with hit singles, this may be the most durable single of all. "It's not no goddamned pony / It's a mule." Another notable new vocalist.
"It's Your Day"---Slack
A stepping song transformed into a romantic aria.
"All The Way Lover"---Ci Kelly
Kelly is a female artist with an urban r&b/jazz pedigree, and the tune successfully combines funk elements with a show-tune gloss.
"I Wanna Know"---Luziana Will
The singer has a novelty-song approach, talking more than singing, and (along the way) referencing Frankie Beverly, Pokey Bear, Marvin Gaye, Sir Charles Jones and more.
"Funky Blues"---DJ Wildman Tim
It's really a novelty song with a nursery-rhyme simplicity, terrific melody line and slinky/funky rhythm track.
"What You Looking For"---Luziana Will feat. Crystal Thomas
Luziana Will has a nasal twang that's authentically rural. Crystal Thomas brings utter credibility to this duet focused on Wilson Meadow's iconic "Still My Love".
"Love Don't Live In This House"---Tha Don
 Introspective ballad filled with sadness and regret.
"Hoe To A Husband"---Summer Wolfe
One of the young diva's best songs yet. Beautiful melody. The verses roll out with skill and charm.
"Don't Cry"---Slack feat. Dee Shepherd
(Referenced above.)
"I Never Thought"---Who Am I
"Over Now"---Tony Sullivan
"Gave My Heart To The Wrong Man"--Tanji Emmeni
"Change Gone Come"---Franky Vocals
If there is a fallow section in this bounteous collection, it is probably the last few tracks (including the four songs above). They're not terrible projects; in fact, they're not even poor and generic enough to be labeled "filler". However, these culminating tracks don't shimmer and shine with identity and charisma, as do the almost two albums worth of material that precedes. The reprise of Sam Cook's "A Change Is Gonna Come" is done acapella, and although it might seem presumptuous on an ordinary sampler, on this set it seems apt and even perfect, like a reminder of the inspiration that generated this explosion of talent and tunefulness. Put another way, this album has earned the right to cover Sam Cooke's signature song. Slack: My Music, My Friends is by far the best southern soul sampler of 2019.
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy SLACK: MY MUSIC, MY FRIENDS SOUTHERN SOUL COMPILATION at Amazon.
See Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Ronald "Slack" Jefferson.
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