Soul Strutter: 05/19/20

Tuesday 19 May 2020

Bobby Harden [2019] - Where Is The Love [DALA 103]

What a great tune this is! Taken from his 2015 album River Of Soul which appears to have been released by CD Baby.

He's a new artist to me but must have been around for quite a while as he was inducted into The New York Blues Hall Of Fame in 2013. Don't confuse him with a country singer with the same name active between 1967-76.

He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, moved Houston and then New York. He's lead for The Original Blues Brothers Band which is led led by Stax legend Steve Cropper and Lou Marini who released The Last Shade Of Blue Before Dark in 2017.

Discogs list a 12" from him (probably from 80s) - I Found Love (When I Found You) on Nyota - the only release on the label listed so perhaps a self-release? No label scan except for the picture cover and no credits available.

I found a transcript of an interview he did in 2013. It would appear that the 12" was released around 1984. He thought he'd bought the rights to the song from the writer Charles Ray Burton but turns out he'd only bought the publishing rights and he mentions that he wrote the B side Tell Me You Want My Loving which isn't on this release of the !2", so perhaps there is another? I don't think it's the same song as recorded by The Spinners on Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow as it is credited to Phillip Pugh & Sherman Marshall but who knows?

Bobby Harden Website on here he has lots of live footage from performances.

He's released 2 albums

2002 - Soul Purpose

Playlist

2015 - River Of Soul

Playlist

Bobby Harden [2019] - Where Is The Love [DALA 103]

Bobby Harden & The Soulful Saints [2020] - Runnin' (To Get To our Love [Dala DALA-103]

Release at the end of last year around Nov 2019 is his first 45 and the third release on Datone imprint Dala is a neo Northern Soul track. This seems to be a single-sided 45.