Lou Ragland & Great Lakes Orchestra [2022] - Trouble [Numero Group]

Another quality Numero Group digital release, this one is from yesterday by Lou Ragland & The Great Lakes Orchestra with "Trouble". It was originally recorded in sessions in 1982-83 which I believe first appeared on a Japanese album "Lou Ragland & Great Lakes Orchestra" in 2016.

Ragland moved from his native Cleveland, OH, in the early 80s to Las Vegas and, with the lack of record companies there, he set up his own and Great Lakes Records and Casino Records were born. He released an album/EP "Love Moods" (1985) on Casino and a single "This Is The Night For Loving" / "Didn't I Tell You" appeared on Great Lakes in 1982. The 2016 album contained both sides of the singles and seven previously unissued songs, presumably recorded at the same sessions.

Lou Ragland has been known to Northern and rare soul devotees in the UK for decades ever since his 1967 Amy outing "I Travel Alone" hit the decks. He had previously released a single "Never Let Me Go" / "Party At Lesters" as Lou Ragland and The Bandmasters in 1964 on Way Out, although it had been recorded a couple of years earlier. Lester presumably referring to Lester Johnson who was joint owner of Way Out with Bill Branch.

It would be another six years before his next solo single appeared in 1973 (as he was a member of Cleveland group Hot Chocolate) with "I Can't Take It" (on Co-Co Cleveland with Hot Chocolate) and then "Since You Said You'd Be Mine" (on Warner Bros.). The latter belatedly got turntable action far too many years later and with it prices have climbed, but flip that one over and listen to the killer deep soul ballad "I Didn't Mean To Leave You". A great double-sider which thankfully I've owned on UK Warner Bros. from back in the day, picked up for literally pennies (a whole 25 of them!). 

The follow up single in 1974 was "What Should I Do" / "Understand Each Other" with flip being a nice modern soul tune.

His music has been respected by several scenes and the London rare groove scene picked up on his later recordings including "Love Moods" and a couple of tracks on "Is The Conveyor 'Understand Each Other'" from 1978 (which included "Since You Said You'd Be Mine" and "Understand Each Other") which now sells for big bucks on original vinyl and has subsequently been reissued several times (at least five) on vinyl, CD and digitally.

Ragland was a key player in the Cleveland soul music scene and started out as a recording engineer at Way Out Records between 1965-67. He died in Nov 2020 at his home in Las Vegas aged 78.

A little anecdote picked up from an interview with Lou Ragland is that he was The O'Jays (also from Cleveland of course as was Bobby Womack who used the Way Out studios) road manager between 1968-70 and relayed that their 1966 Mike Terry & Jack Ashford song, "I'll Never Forget You" on Imperial (possibly their finest Northern Soul tune also recorded by The Metros the following year as an album only track), was recorded at Motown who were set to sign them but their contract was sold to Imperial. Now imagine that if they had gone to Motown would we have ever had all their Philly Int. hits, or conversely I wonder how many Motown classics they may have recorded?

I've taken the opportunity of including some of the tracks mentioned above, for any who haven't already had the pleasure, as they are all available on Spotify. In fact a large portion of his back catalogue is available on a 3 disc set "I Travel Alone" released by Numero Group in 2012, digitally, on vinyl and CD.

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul / Reissue
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Numero Group
Cat No:	None
Date:	20/07/2022
Key/BPM:	9A/97
Price:	£1

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