Soul Strutter: 03/23/23

Thursday, 23 March 2023

Autumn Corin [2023] - Autumn in Spring [Zooted Music] (Full EP)

Autumn Corin is a 20 year old artist originally from Queens, NYC, (but travelled around as her father was in the Army) and is currently studying Music Business at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

She's signed to rapper DDG's indie label Zooted Music and follows her debut EP "Autumn in Winter" (released on 21 Dec '22, the first day of Winter) with, of course, "Autumn in Spring" on 21 Mar '23, the first day of Spring.

She debuted with a single "Unbothered" in Sep 2020 and has already released nine singles and two EPs since then.

The first song "All I Want" uses a recurring sample which we've heard before (i.e. in Deanna Li "Deserve Your Love" from last Nov and others) and also sounds like a bit of Mary J. Blige's "Be Happy". One of the five tracks is an eleven second interval.

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Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	EP
Media:	Digital
Label:	Zooted Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	21/03/2023
Price:	£4.95

The Teskey Brothers [2023] - Take My Heart [Decca Records]

The Teskey Brothers are a blue-eyed blues/rock band from Melbourne formed in 2008 by Josh & Sam Teskey. To date they have released two studio albums and two live albums.

They have so far released two singles from their forthcoming fifth album "Winding Way" (due on 16 Jun '23). The last, "Oceans Of Emotions", appeared on 10 Feb and a third "Take My Heart" is released today (23 Mar '23). It's an earthy, bluesy, southern soul style song written by the brothers.

There is no music video available yet for the latest single nor was there one for "Oceans of Emotions" when released, but one has now been uploaded to their YouTube channel on 27 Feb, so will post it below.

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Details

Rating:	8.3
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Southern Soul / Blue-Eyed
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Decca Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	23/03/2023
Key/BPM:	11B/75
Price:	£1

Pearl Dowell [2023] - It's All Over & Good Things [Hit And Run #HR 1549]

The second new release from Hit and Run due on 31 Mar '23 is a reissue of Pearl Dowell's 1970 Saadia single "It's All Over" / "Good Things". Those with a good memory may recall that it was reissued digitally by Numero Group last May.

Available to pre-order from Garry via PayPal hitandrunsoul45@gmail.com with a release date of 31 Mar '23 (£15.00 each + £3.00 UK postage (good for 1-3 records), US postage £6.00 per order)

You will probably recognise the backing track of "It's All Over" immediately as "I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face" originally recorded by Justine 'Baby' Washington in 1963 and covered many times (e.g. Aretha Franklin, Madeline Bell, The Monticellos etc.). In fact we did a version excursion on it some time ago on a version by Madeline Bell.

Writers credits on this recording go to, Miami based, Saadia label owner Frank Williams who produced it with Willie 'Beaver' Hale (aka Little Beaver). However, the original writers were James Wesley Voight (aka Chip Taylor) and Jerry Ragovoy so I'm not sure how they got way with that one?

Note that on the original label her name is (mis)spelt(?) Dowdell not Dowell on the "It's All Over" side and original copies have sold for up to £685 on Discogs. It appears to be a one-off release for Pearl Dowell unless of course this was an alias and she recorded using another name.

The other side, "Good Things" is more of a late 60s/70s sister funk tune that are becoming more en vogue on the Northern Soul scene.

Whilst digging around I noticed that both sides were also released digitally by Numero Group on "Eccentric Soul: The Saadia Label" 31 Mar 2017. It also came out as part of a box set of 7" singles "Good Things - The Story Of Saadia Records" by Jazzman in 2006 which curiously isn't listed on Discogs. One, other or both have also appeared on various compilations over the years. For us anoraks it was also released on an orange as well as pink Saadia label which, I would guess from the values, may be a re-press?

Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Northern Soul / Crossover
Format:	Single
Media:	7" Vinyl
Label:	Hit and Run
Cat No:	HR 1549
Date:	31/03/2023
Key/BPM:	8A/102 / 8A/140
Price:	£15

Sharon McMahan [2023] - Do I Deserve It Baby / When Will Love Come To Me [Hit and Run #HR 1548]

The name Sharan McMahan may not be familiar to many other than die hard rare soul followers. She is possibly best known to them for her 1973 Columbia single "Get Out Of My Life" which was a modern soul spin and reissued by Expansion in 2011. However, prior to that she released two singles for Ollie McLaughlin's Karen label in the 60s and wrote several songs recorded by others.

A side from each of her Karen singles were reissued together on 7" single by Mark Bicknell's Big Man Records in Dec. last year. The A side was her 1966 single "Got To Find Another Guy" which was originally flipped with a version of Barbara Lewis' "Hello Stranger 66". The B side being her earlier 1964 single "Love Is Wonderful". She wrote both songs.

Garry J. Cape's Hit and Run label has another pair of recordings from her as one of two new singles from the label. The top side is her 1969, probably songwriter's demo, version of "Do I Deserve It Baby" later recorded by Barbara Lewis on her 1970 album "The Many Grooves Of Barbara Lewis". The flip side is an early recording of "When Will Love Come To Me" recorded in 1973 for a planned album for Columbia that never materialised, but the song was re-recorded for her 2007 CD only album "Somebody Else".

As always, the single is available to pre-order from Garry via PayPal hitandrunsoul45@gmail.com with a release date of 31 Mar '23 (£15.00 each + £3.00 UK postage (good for 1-3 records), US postage £6.00 per order)

Sharon began writing songs from the age of 12 and auditioned for Ollie McLaughlin who, as well as Karen, owned a number of Detroit labels in the 60s and early 70s, Ruth named after his wife and Karen, Carla and Moira named after his daughters.

Only three singles are listed for the Ruth label released between 1959-62 and the last consisted of two songs written by McMahan recorded by Gracie Darnell which I believe may have been her first recorded song.

Other McMahon songs have been recorded by Barbara Lewis, Deon Jackson, Johnnie Mae Matthews and even a song posted in The Three Degrees playlist a while back, "You're The Fool", which was on their 1970 Roulette album and the B side of the single "I'd Take You" and was also recorded by Etta James and Mavis Staples the same year and Madeline Bell in 1971.

Popular Mersey Beat group, The Searchers, had a UK #11 pop hit with one of her songs "Someday We're Gonna Love Again" in 1966, also recorded, and was a big Northern Soul tune, by Barbara Lewis.

The song recorded by Johnnie Mae Matthews is a rare record, "I Have No Choice", that is huge on the UK rare soul scene (reissued by Hit And Run in 2020). It was also later recorded on an album, "Talking To The People", by Matthews son's band Black Nasty in 1973. An unreleased recording of the song turned up, which was thought at the time to be her daughter Audrey Matthews. A 1967 demo version recorded by Sharon McMahan has subsequently been released on 7" by Hayley Records around 2015/16. Audrey claims that it is not her singing on the first version, rather Sharon, and Sharon also claims it is not her either on the first version, and both version are different so it's still a mystery who recorded the one attributed to Audrey. You can listen to all four versions HERE.

In the 70s one of her songs, 'Love Is The Key", was recorded by Benny Golson on his "I'm Always Dancin' To The Music", and Northern Soul followers may be interested to know that one Jodi Mathis was the female vocalist on this track under the name Mortonette Jenkins (she also went by Mortonette Stephens). We did an article about Ms Mathis HERE.

More recently McMahon had a song, "Do Over", included on a Preston Glass CD "Soul In The Rear View Mirror" in 2014.

Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	7" Vinyl
Label:	Hit and Run
Cat No:	HR 1548
Date:	31/03/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£15

Chaka Khan - A Profile

Chaka Khan is celebrating her 70th birthday today so as a tribute we have put together a playlist of 40 of, what we consider, her best recordings. Some of her mid 80s recordings and obvious hits have been deliberately omitted as we've all heard these a million times!

Having performed with local Chicago groups from around 1969, Chaka replaced Paulette McWilliams in Rufus in 1972 recording five albums with them before going solo in 1978 but appeared on a further three up to 1983. Her first solo hit was "I'm Every Woman" in 1978 (R&B #1 / Hot 100 #23) but her biggest hit was "I Feel For You" reaching #1 R&B and #3 Hot 100.

It may come as a surprise to discover that, in a recording career spanning 50 years, she has had only 2 US Top 40 solo pop hits with "I'm Every Woman" (1978) and "I Feel For You" (1984). She achieved seven with Rufus. In the UK she has fared a little better with those two along with "This Is My Night" (1984), "Eye To Eye" (1985) and two remixes of "I'm Every Woman" and "Ain't Nobody" all being UK Top 20 pop hits. In the R&B chart she has had a dozen Top 20 hits with eight of them being top 10 and three #1s.

Khan has recorded around fifteen solo albums (13 studio and 2 live) plus eight with Rufus between 1974-83. She has won ten Grammys and sold an estimated 70m records.

The Jack Moves [2022] - Cruiserweight [Everloving, Inc.] (Full Album) AVAILABLE AGAIN ON VINYL

One of our picks for the best albums of 2022 (and a SoulStrutter Selection of the Week) by The Jack Moves is now available again on vinyl with the first press selling out pretty quickly. Simply Soul have it in stock now.

Newark, NJ, duo Zee Desmondes (vocalist, guitarist) and Teddy Powell (vocalist, instrumentalist, producer) debuted in 2002 with a vinyl only single "Kiss In The Dark" / "A Fool For You" (a cover of Chicago group The Ledgends which has featured on the blog in 2020).

Their acclaimed debut, self-titled, album arrived on Wax Poetics in 2015 followed by "Free Money" in 2018. Their third album "Cruiserweight" was released digitally in Oct '23 following their last two highly regarded singles "Somebody's Watching You" (18 Mar 2022) and "Seabra" (29 Jul 2022).

In addition to the two tracks released as singles there are some gems, in particular a trio of nice sweet soul sides "When You're In Love", "So Long" and "Don't Pretend". On the uptempo tip is the previously vaunted "Lionel Ritchie", "Six Ways" and the album closes with the moody "This Time" another sweet soul sound that nods to the 70s.

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Details

Rating:	8.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital / CD / Vinyl
Label:	Everloving, Inc.
Cat No:	None
Date:	14/10/2022
Price:	£7.99 / £14.99 / £26

Ben Jamin [2023] - Thru The Mirrorball EP [Discoholics Anonymous Recordings]

One you will either love or hate is a two track EP/ double single by Ben Jamin which samples / mashes up two well know songs from the 70s/80s. The first, "Some People", uses/loops sections of The Dramatics "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" (1971) whilst the second, "Injection", samples Trussel's "Love Injection" (1980).

Whilst it may not or may not please or appeal to traditionalists, at least it may give exposure to the originals to a younger generation to seek out.

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul / Sample
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Discoholics Anonymous Recordings
Cat No:	None
Date:	06/03/2023
Key/BPM:	9B/65 / 9A/111
Price:	£1.98

Halle Dias [2023] - Somewhere [Self Released]

Halle Rose Dias is from Mashpee, Cape Cod, MA, and previously used the name Halle Rose and now goes by Halle Dias.

She featured here with her last release in July 2020, a three track EP "Black Hoodie". Her latest single "Somewhere" is out today which is a moody, slow burning neo soul number.

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Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	23/03/2023
Key/BPM:	10B/60
Price:	£1