Soul Strutter: 08/02/23

Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Mark Scott [2023] - This Feels Right [TayJay Records] (Full Album)

The mention of Mark Scott's name in the Drew Shultz post reminded us that his album "This Feels Right" was released on Friday (28 Jul). We posted the lead single, and title track "I Just Know This Feels Right", from it earlier in July.

All songs are originals written by Scott except a cover of "Walk On By" and "Party Train". Some sound pretty dated (i.e. "Ain't Got Time To Play") so how long they have been in the can we don't know, as that one in particular sounds like a 90s, or even an 80s, song.

On "I Want To Get To Know You" he brings out his inner Smokey which makes it obvious why he was brought into The Miracles fold.

Scott was recruited to The Miracles in the mid 90s replacing former Shalamar member Sydney Justin.

Scott and Justin later created their own splinter groups, Scott's billed as The Miracles feat. Mark Scott (along with Damon Trice and Hassan Watkins) since the death of founding member Bobby Rogers in 2013.

Scott is from Flint, MI, and his debut solo recording was "I Don't Wanna Come Down" which featured on the "Breakin' 2 - Electric Boogaloo" soundtrack in 1984. His brother was a member of The Mark-Keys.

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

Details

Rating:	7.6
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	TayJay Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	28/07/2023
Price:	£1

Drew Schultz [2023] - Back to Class Vol. 1 (Deluxe Edition) [Skill Soul Music] (Full Album)

On Friday we came across a reissue of a single, "Crying in a Whisper", by Drew Schultz feat. Four Tops and bassist James Jamerson Jr. the son of Funk Brother James Jamerson which we posted on Sunday. We noticed that in fact the full album the single was from, "Back to Class", was reissued on Saturday titled "Back to Class Vol. 1 (Deluxe Edition)" with an additional six tracks which are all alternate versions of five of the album tracks.

We wondered about the timing of the reissues and it transpires that the clue was in the retitling as "Back to Class Vol. 2 " is scheduled for release next month.

The first volume features some legends of Detroit soul including Four Tops, Spyder Turner, Melvin Davis The Funk Brothers, Pat Lewis, Dennis Coffey, Chairmen Of The Board, McKinley Jackson as well as some new artists.

Volume 2 is due on 9 Sep and consists of twenty original songs and features many of the same artists as Vol. 1 along with names that will prick the attention of Northern Soul devotees such as Ronnie McNeir, Yvonne Vernee, Buddy Smith, Carolyn Crawford, Fantastic Four, Joe Harris (Fabulous Peps etc.), Joe Messina, Tommy Good along with many others including one-time Miracle Mark Scott. The name of Al Kent also crops up, who died in May '21 (for whom we did a tribute), so would assume that his contribution was recorded prior to that.

Like the first album, 50% of proceeds will be donated to the music programs of the Detroit Public Schools.

Drew is a soul music lover, drummer, percussionist, songwriter, and producer and drummer for The Four Tops since he was 19. He has performed with The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves, The Miracles, Dramatics, Contours, Chairmen of the Board, Harold Melvin's Bluenotes, George Clinton, Dennis Coffey, Freda Payne, Melvin Davis, Spyder Turner, and many more

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

Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul / Reissue
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	Skill Soul Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	29/07/2023
Price:	£7.99

Chandni & Blue Lab Beats [2023] - Gone [D2D Records]

A new name to us is Chandni Nayee who was born and raised in Crawley (West Sussex) but with Gujarati (Indian west coast) roots. It would seem that this is only her third single after releasing "Eye To Eye" (Jul '20) and "Closure" (Sep '21).

What drew our interest to her new single, "Gone", released today was of course Blue Lab Beats who have produced it.

We couldn't help but notice the name Antonio Conte as the song's co-writer, surely not the former Tottenham Hotspur's manager, sacked in March, moonlighting?

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

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

Details

Rating:	7.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	D2D Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	02/08/2023
Key/BPM:	3B/94
Price:	£1

Soul Tune Allstars [2023] - The Soul Of The Viking [Soul Tune Records] (Partial Album)

A couple of weeks ago we posted the new single "Oh Your Love" from Soul Tune Allstars feat. Maria Sanchez from a forthcoming album "The Soul Of The Viking".

It seems that the vinyl album has already been released on 11 Aug ahead of digital which is due on 25 Aug.

However, another single from it, an instrumental "Sunday Afternoon", was released digitally on Friday and another instrumental we missed "Chicken Chase" was released on 30 Jun.

Curiously none of the three singles released digitally are available in the playlist for the album on Bandcamp but another three are ("Viking Intro", "Looking For Trouble" feat Carlton J Smith and "Hang On") so six of the eleven tracks are available to listen to before the full album drops digitally in two weeks.

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

Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Retro Soul
Format:	Part Album
Media:	Digital / Vinyl
Label:	Soul Tune Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	15/08/2023
Price:	€7 (Bandcamp) / £24 - £29

Saturday Night Band [2023] - Come On Dance, Dance (Dave Lee Remix) [Unidisc Music]

A huge disco hit for Saturday Night Band back in 1978 who were a Prelude Records studio band who released two albums and two singles. Their vocalist was Lorraine Johnson who is probably best known for her cover of Teddy P's "The More I Get, The More I Want" a year earlier on Prelude.

Jesse Boyce (previously of Bottom & Co.) and Moses Dillard (who were in a duo together as Dillard & Boyce) wrote most of their songs. They also recorded as Constellation Orchestra, Frisky and Juice around the same time, each releasing just the one album with little commercial success apart from "Come On Dance, Dance" as Saturday Night Band which peaked at #70 R&B in 1978 but made it to #16 on the UK pop chart in July 1978.

Dave Lee has just done four mixes of "Come On Dance, Dance".

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

Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Disco
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Unidisc Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	28/07/2023
Key/BPM:	8A/131
Price:	£1.79

A Message from Joe Leavy

A personal message from Joe Leavy from his facebook page last night, to the UK DJs and promoters in particular, for supporting his new album "Soul On Fire".

His new single from it, "Give It Right" feat. Juanita Wynn who he co-wrote the song with, is due on 18 Aug.

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

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

SoulStrutter Neo Soul Top 30 Jul 2023

With so much music being released on a daily basis inevitably many slip through the cracks. We try to capture and present as many as possible and some we don't get around to making a full post for, but the majority we normally have on the day of release.

We have trawled through our playlists for July and attempted to pull together a Top 30 Neo Soul releases for July, but ended up with 34 as we couldn't decide which four to leave out.

Some of them have received attention but the majority haven't so hopefully you may find some that you like that you've previously missed.

They are in reverse date order of release, not in any particular order of merit.

Paulette McWilliams Interview

An album released on Friday "These Are The Sweet Things" by Paulette McWilliams is currently our SoulStrutter Selection of the Week and will undoubtedly feature in the list of top albums of 2023 come the reckoning at the end of the year.

Our good friend Bill Buckley at SoulAndJazzAndFunk caught up with Ms McWilliams last week and has published the interview with her yesterday which he has shared with us.

As Bill introduces her, she has sung with a veritable who's who's in music starting out with American Breed/Rufus, Bette Midler, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughn and the list goes on. Read what she spoke to Bill about here:

The Sweetest Things… The Paulette McWiliams Interview

onlyemonie [2023] - BAD LOVE [ONLYORIGINAL RECORDS] (Full Album)

This new album "BAD LOVE" released yesterday (1 Aug) by onlyemonie appears to be a debut album. Only two other releases for the artist exist "These Violets" (Feb '19) and "TAKEMEBACK" (Jan '21). The latter is included on the album.

Our recommended track is "UR WAY".

She has music going back nine years on her Souncloud channel and we found a good live cover of "What's Going On" from Apr '21 on her You Tube channel (included below).

There is no information on the artist but songwriter credits are to Emonie A Mitchum who we traced to Emonie Ambre Mitchum from Atlanta, GA, originally from Orlando, FL.

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

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

Details

Rating:	7.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	ONLYORIGINAL RECORDS
Cat No:	None
Date:	01/08/2023
Price:	£7.99