Roland Johnson & Emily Wallace [2021] - Best Outta You [Blue Lotus]

A new single from veteran singer Roland Johnson with blue-eyed singer Emily Wallace was released on 20 Apr 2021. 

According to the info on MD Records website, Roland Johnson released his first album 'Imagine This' in 2016 aged 68, but there is an album called 'Baby I'm Ready' from 2011 on Spotify and Amazon.

In any case, he had paid his dues prior to this as he released a couple of boogie tracks, in 1983 as part of the duo Johnson & Youngblood 'The Funk Is In The Music' (which, to be, frank is horrible ... you're going to check it out now I bet!), and another in 1990 called 'Nasty Love'. He goes back further than that as he co-wrote a song with Barbara Youngblood called 'What Can I Do To Make You Dance' which was released by Anita Maldonado in 1979, which is actually the best of the three, but that doesn't make it good I'm afraid .. someone left the following comment on Discogs: "The musical equivalent of a cat throwing up on a dog turd in a rat's nest". ... harsh ... but true! .. and it's 12 minutes long! Another one says: "To help answer Anita's question: Try clapping on the 2's & 4's instead of the 1's & 3's". Funnily enough it was her only release!

Anyway, to get back on track, some respected UK DJ's picked up on several tracks on 'Imagine This'. Mick O'Donnel played 'Sweet Little Nothing's' on his radio show and Brian Goucher favourably reviewed it on UK Vibe in which he drew parallels with Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. I'm pretty sure Mr. Merry would have probably played it as it is right up his street! His second/third album 'Set Your Mind Free' was released in 2019, now aged 71. 

It's quite amazing how many soul singers in their late 60s/70s, even 80s, are still releasing material, Al Lindsey, Don Bryant, The Notations, Brother Reggie, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. to name just a few off the top of my head that I've posted recently, and good on them.

UK DJ Cliff Steele visited the Blue Lotus studio in St Louis and picked up copies of the albums to bring back to the UK. He championed the title track of 'Set Your Mind Free' in his DJ sets and subsequently MD Records picked up on it and released it on 45 (MD108) in 2020 flipped with another track from the album 'Now You're Gone'. 

Two releases later (MD110) they released two tracks from his first abum 'Imagine This' on 45 'Yours And Mine' / 'Can't Get Enough'.

You can read the full story from MD records on a post they did on Soul Source.

NB Both 45s are still available from MD Records - links on the Cat No'.

Fast forward to 2021 and he's released a new single with Emily Wallace who also featured on his 2019 album.

Click icons below for further information or to connect with the artist.

Details

Rating:	7.9
Genre/Style:	Classic Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Blue Lotus
Cat No:	None
Year:	20/04/2021
Key/BPM:	6B/100
Value:	£1