Soul Strutter: 08/01/23

Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Soul Liberation [2023] - Who Are You [BBE] (Full Album)

Soul Liberation was a Gospel group from Dallas, TX, led by Jimmy Miller and Teresa Miller. They were the brainchild of minister Tom Skinner, a former gang-leader turned evangelical preacher from NYC, who toured the states doing revival-style crusades. He began using local choirs and bands as his backup and then decided to recruit a dedicated band.

They released their first, self-titled, album in 1974 and another "Who Are You" in 1982. The latter is hard to find on original vinyl and a decent copy will set you back between £200-£300 or more. It was reissued digitally in 2015 by BBE and licensed to Japanese label BBQ for CD reissue in Japan only. It was also unofficially reissued on vinyl in France by Rainbow in 2015.

Therefore, the first official vinyl reissue is due by BBE on 25 Aug '23 which will be presented as a double vinyl, gatefold album.

Back in the day London's two step scene latched onto "Touch Me Again" which is reminiscent of The Controllers "My Secret Fantasy" (which didn't come until after long after this release) with shades of Keni Burke's "Rising' To The Top" so not surprising that it caught on.

Other tracks of interest include "It Won't Go Away" and "Send Me". Only two of the songs received a single release, the title track "Who Are You" (which is also rather good) coupled with "Blessed" on gospel label Rainbow (which is probably why the Rainbow name was used for the French bootleg).

Only one single was released from their first album but Luv N' Haight reissued an album track "Who Is Your Friend" from it in 2010 which sounds quite advanced for a 1974 recording as it has an early 80s boogie funk sound.

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Details

Rating:	8.5
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Gospel Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital / CD/ Vinyl
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	08/06/2015 / 25/08/2023
Price:	£7.99 / £16.99 / £36.58

Romero Mosley [2023] - Songs About U, For Strangers [Jamtown] (Full Album)

Cleveland, OH, native, L.A. resident, Romero Mosley last featured here with his sophomore album "Ro's Colored Glasses" in Jul '21.

Since then he's released just two singles ("Invisible Ink" (May '23) and "Sweeter" (Jul '23)) both included on his latest project "Songs About U, For Strangers".

He's a member of Guild of Music Supervisors working as a composer, music producer, program coordinator on music for TV, film and media.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	Jamtown / Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	28/07/2023
Price:	£6.93

Joe Leavy feat. Juanita Wynn [2023] - Give It Right (Radio Edit) [Self Released]

If you were wondering what all the 'fuss' is about regarding Joe Leavy's chart topping album "Soul On Fire" (which has topped the Soul Associates Top 30 for six consecutive weeks) and haven't yet bought a copy, then Joe will be releasing the next single from it "Give It Right" feat. Juantia Wynn in just under two week's time on 18 Aug.

It will be the fifth of the eleven tracks to have been released as a single, and is one that has probably been getting most airplay, but to be perfectly honest Joe could have chosen any of the tracks as "Too Much Love", "Up A Notch" and "Words", in particular, have seen plenty of airplay.

Joe wrote the song "Give It Right" with Juanita Wynn as an homage to one of his favourite 80s group's Change and a radio edit has been serviced to DJs this week so expect to hear a lot more of it in the coming weeks.

In line with his approach to marketing the album release, the single will only be available on his website www.JoeLeavy.com until the full album gains a wider release on digital platforms in early September.

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Details

Rating:	8.4
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	18/08/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£TBC

Gary B. Poole [2023] - Soul Talk (The Final Sessions) [Self Released] (Full EP)

A few weeks ago we posted a 12 track album "Revival (The Soul Talk Sessions)" by Gary B. Poole. Very soon afterwards it seems to have been withdrawn but a four track EP "Soul Talk (The Final Sessions)" appeared (in it's place) last week (26 Jul) which contains four of the album tracks.

One of the tracks, "Revival", was released as a radio edit (4:24 v 5:27) single on 5 Jul, which we thought has a touch of Frankie Beverly & Maze feel about it, and has been garnering lots of radio attention. Note the EP version is the full length 5:27 version.

Gary B. Poole last appeared here featuring with The Lovetown Allstars in Jan '21 with "Walk This Way" which was a rather good version of Run D.M.C, we kid you not ...check it out!

He featured in series 3 of The Voice in 2014 and was chosen by Tom Jones but was eliminated in the knockouts.

We assume from the album title 'The Soul Talk Sessions' that these are recordings made when he was lead singer with Soul Talk (with the Boogie Back boys Ernie McKone & Toby Baker) who released an album in 2010 reissued with two bonus tracks the following year by Expansion Records.

He was also a member of boy band trio Troi who released two albums and around eight singles in the late 90s.

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Details

Rating:	8.3
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	EP
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	26/07/2023
Price:	£3.96

Xavier Gordon [2023] - X Marks the Spot [Trio Ent] (Full Album)

Pianist, songwriter, producer and jazz artist Xavier Gordon studied jazz at Georgia State University. After graduating, he entered into the L.A. music scene and in 2009 got the opportunity of playing with Lincoln Jazz Orchestra as well as collaborating with Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx, John Legend and many more.

He's produced music for artists such as Angie Stone, Puff Daddy and Musiq Soulchild earning a Grammy nomination in 2018.

On Friday (28 Jul) he released his third solo album "X Marks The Spot". It's predominantly instrumental jazz but the standout has to be "Beautiful" which features Angie Stone on vocals, Norman Brown (guitar) and Kirk Whalum (sax). The song was actually a bonus track on a CD promo of Stone's 2019 album "Full Circle".

The album includes a cover of Bobby Womack's "If You Think Your Lonely Now" with an uncredited male vocalist, so we must assume that it's Xavier? Another good vocal track is "Angel", again uncredited so assumed to be Gordon.

Our pick of the instrumentals is "PCH", others include covers of Sly Stone's "If You Want Me To Stay" (feat. bassist Marcus Miller and saxophonist Gerald Albright) and Elton John's "Benny And The Jets" which features the sax of Candy Dulfer and flautist Ragan Whiteside.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Soul Jazz
Format:	Full Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	Trio Ent
Cat No:	None
Date:	28/07/2023
Price:	£10.29

Sandra St. Victor [2023] - You Are Here [Self Released]

Born is Dallas as Sandra Kay Matthews in 1963, Sandra St. Victor was the lead singer with The Family Stand in the late 80s/90s before leaving for a solo career to be replaced by Jacci McGhee.

In the 80s she toured with Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Chaka Khan, Freddie Jackson and Glenn Jones. She's had songs that she had written for her unreleased debut solo album ('Sanctuary') recorded by Prince, Chaka Khan and Tina Turner and appeared on a duet with Curtis Mayfield on 'I Believe In You' on his last album 'New World Order'.

In the early noughties she moved to Europe and formed a touring group named 'Daughters Of Soul' which included Nona Hendryx (LaBelle), Joyce Kennedy (Mother's Finest), Deniece Williams, Caron Wheeler (Soul II Soul), Lalah Hathaway (Donny Hathaway's daughter), Indira Khan (Chaka Khan's daughter), Simone (Nina Simone's daughter) and Leah McCrae (George & Gwen McCrae's daughter).

St. Victor has recorded three solo albums which have all been reissued in recent years, we featured "Oya's Daughter" (2013) in May '21.

She has a new single (which we were alerted to via a message from blog visitor Kees) released on Bandcamp yesterday titled "You Are Here"

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	31/07/2023
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	$1