Soul Strutter: 07/16/23

Sunday, 16 July 2023

William DeVaughn [2023] - Thank You - Thank You (For Your Love) [Sound Gems Records]

UPDATE: A new remastered version has been released on 7 Aug 2023 which has much better sound quality.

We received a message from writer/producer and Sound Gems owner Frank Fioravanti on Friday notifying us of the release of a previously unreleased archive recording by William DeVaughn that he found on a tape. The song is "Thank You - Thank You (For Your Love)" written by DeVaughn and produced by Frank.

He tells us that it was recorded around 1974 for DeVaughn's debut album "Be Thankful For What You Got" on Roxbury but wasn't finished in time to be included so was scratched.

We thought initially that perhaps it was an earlier recording, as it sounds earlier to these ears, as he began his career playing with bands in Washington D.C. in the 60s and wondered if this was an early demo.

Frank relayed a couple of stories re DeVaughn. There was a DJ called Dr Bop in Milwaukee who 'claimed' that he broke the hit "Be Thankful For What You Got" (nothing changes then lol!). He hired DeVaughn to open for The Dramatics at a concert he promoted in a movie theatre and William stole the show. He was also booked for a tiny venue in NYC and Frank got fellow Philly natives Hall & Oates to sing background vocals for him.

As you can probably detect, the tape is a bit warbly (it is almost 50 years old!) but best efforts have been made to remaster it but Frank tells us that in the past he has had tapes baked to restore them with some success and may try it with this one.

We won't pretend that it's one of the best songs we've ever heard but it does grow on you with a few plays. It has more of a southern soul feel than most of his recordings and is a nice piece of undiscovered history, so thanks to Frank for making us aware of it to share with you.

It's available to download from the usual places.

For more on William DeVaughn we did his discography a few years ago, obviously we will now have to update it!

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Details

Rating:	7.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Southern Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Sound Gems Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	14/07/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£1

Milton Davis [2023] - Let Me In [The Albina Trust] (Full Album)

A new album from the Albina Music Trust dropped in our inbox on Friday which we have saved until today to post as we like to collect all retro and reissues for a Sunday so they don't get lost in the mix of the weekend's new release onslaught.

You may recall from previous posts of Transport and Slickaphonic that The Albina Music Trust preserves music from an under documented era in Albina and the Greater Portland area's history.

The subject of their latest release is Milton Davis with a collection of recordings that have released as an album "Let Me In". Davis was at that time the lead singer for Slickaphonic and had previously recorded with The Four Tempos on Rampart in the late 60s.

They tell us that his music was originally centred around the Portland Trailblazers’ quest toward an NBA championship which they won in 1977. A single, "Blazermania", was intended for release as the team's anthem but didn't get released although gaining local airplay on promo and the band performing it regularly.

Davis' backing band featured members of Transport, Slickaphonic and Pleasure. As was the case with a lot of the city’s musical output of the era, the tapes were shelved.

The Albina Trust has resurrected the tapes and released the previously unissued material in digital was well as vinyl formats.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital / Vinyl
Label:	The Albina Trust
Cat No:	None
Date:	14/07/2023
Price:	$8 / $20

Soul Tune Allstars & Maria Sanchez [2023] - Oh Your Love [Soul Tune]

Maria Sanchez (aka Groovy MS) from Riverside, CA has another new single on Swedish (Stockholm) label Soul Tune, "Oh Your Love", which features the house band Soul Tune Allstars aka producer and bandleader Niclas Wretelid and Finnish guitarist Mikko Räisänen (of Chicken Grass).

This song, along with another we received by Carlton J Smith, a blaxploitation-inspired tune, "Looking For Trouble", will feature on an upcoming Soul Tune album "The Soul Of The Viking".

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Retro Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Soul Tune
Cat No:	None
Date:	14/07/2023
Key/BPM:	10B/79
Price:	£1

Dawn Joseph [2023] - Imitation Love (Georgie B Remix) [Front Of House Records]

Former Brand New Heavies and current MF Robots singer Dawn Joseph has a new single out on Friday (14 Jul) which is a Georgie B. (George Bromfield of Second Image) remix of "Imitation Love" which was a track from her debut solo EP "Up Front" released in Nov '22.

For more information on Dawn visit the EP link above.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul / Remix
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Front Of House Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	14/07/2023
Key/BPM:	6A/116
Price:	£1

Cézanne [2023] - Hide & Seek [Self Released]

Puck Cézanne van Biemen is a Dutch singer, songwriter, producer who has now released the fourth single, "Hide & Seek", from an upcoming debut EP "Reflections"

She describes her music as cinematic soul: a lush combination of dreamy neo-soul, jazz and indie. Each single's artwork features a Tarot card inspired image.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	16/06/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£1

Sky Feliz [2023] - The Middle [Self Released]

British-Surinamese-Dutch singer Sky Feliz is a new artist who has now released three singles, all this year,

She debuted with "Patience" in April following it with "123" in May and her latest, and best, offering, "The Middle", on 7 Jul.

Further investigation shows that she has a few music videos released a couple of years ago (Jul,, Aug & Oct '21), so perhaps she has earlier material no longer available unless they were unreleased but then why go to the expense of producing videos for them?

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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:	07/07/2023
Key/BPM:	3B/97
Price:	£1

Sargent Tucker [2023] - All The Squares [Anada Records]

We were pleasantly surprised with the new single "All The Squares" from Sargent Tucker as it's not his general southern soul style oriented fare.

Sargent (Johnnie Lee) Tucker was born in New Orleans but cut his musical teeth in San Francisco with a Californian group called The Two Things In One in the 70s.

They had a retrospective album "Together Forever - The Music City Sessions" released in 2011. It has some very good sweet soul tunes on it ("Together Forever", a cover of "Walk On By", "Silly Song", "Confusion" and "Close The Door" (not the Teddy P song) as well as some early 70s funk and a cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her" and a funk/rock version of Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island".

'The Two Things In One' released a couple of singles, "Close The Door" and "Together Forever", on Music City in 1973.

Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Anada Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	14/07/2023
Key/BPM:	7B/110
Price:	£1