Search

Irma Thomas Rounder Rating: **** This one's a candidate for soul release of the year. Irma Thomas is usually associated with New Orleans, but here she is celebrating the songs [...]

This is the first-ever collection of Velvelettes material -- an LP was planned in the sixties, but shelved. Although the title refers to' the very best,' it's actually the whole [...]

Whispers and Higher and Higher were two of the biggest hits of the latter part of Wilson's career, which came to an abrupt end in 1975 when he suffered a [...]

Various artists Kent Rating: ***1/2 Philadelphia was one of the leading cities for soul in the Seventies, but there was lots of activity in the Sixties, as demonstrated by this [...]

Maceo Parker What Are Records **½ Hired and fired and rehired by James Brown more times than either can remember, Maceo Parker has also worked with George Clinton, Bootsy Collins [...]

Various artists Ace *** This is the fifth in a series of unreleased tracks from the vaults of Stax Records. As Toronto's Rob Bowman writes in his liner notes, this [...]

James Cotton Just a Memory *** When James Cotton left Muddy Waters's band in 1966, he took with him drummer Francis Clay. With the addition of guitarist Luther Tucker, jazz [...]

Marla Glen BMG **½ Marla Glen is originally from Chicago and has built a successful career in Europe, recording two CDs with a French producer in Paris and London. The [...]

Various artists Kent **** This CD focuses on the period 1959-64 when soul was differentiating itself through its gospel traditions from 1950s R&B, which was more closely aligned with blues, [...]

James Cotton Just a Memory *** When James Cotton left Muddy Waters's band in 1966, he took with him drummer Francis Clay. With the addition of guitarist Luther Tucker, jazz [...]

Various Artists Telarc Rating: *** In 1954, before rock 'n' roll, imagine the bracing effect of hearing Howlin' Wolf's No Place to Go : 'I'm goin' to the stairs/ I'm [...]

Various artists Polydor Rating: ***&#189 THIS well-researched two-CD compilation of track cuts between 1960 and 1977, features the female singers James Brown hired for his revues in the sixties and [...]

Jackie Washington Borealis Rating: ***½ JACKIE Washington, born in 1919 and a lifelong resident of Hamilton, Ont., is especially partial to the tunes of Tin Pan Alley -- from 1914 [...]

Various Ace (U.K.) Rating: *** GOT My Mojo Working became Muddy Waters's theme song and, perhaps more than any other tune, is associated with Chicago blues. But Waters was not [...]

Various artists Universal Rating: *** The movie may have stiffed, but the soundtrack has done very well, having been certified gold in the U.S. This success is deserved because the [...]

Freddie Scott Columbia Legacy Rating: ***&#189 THIS record is by Freddie Scott, but really it is the work of Bert Berns, a 1960s soul producer and songwriter who died at [...]

Black Ivory vs. Odds and Ends Sequel Rating: ***&#189 THIS is Round 1 in a series of four CDs, each of which is divided between two groups from the heyday [...]

Muddy Waters and Friends Just a Memory Rating: **&#189 Montreal's Just a Memory label (a subsidiary of Justin Time) has launched a series of collector's classics -- other titles features [...]

Various Artists Preservation Rating: ** MONTREAL-BASED Preservation Records showcases its artists on this compilation. Some of these performers have recently released CDs on the label; for others it is their [...]

MARCIA Ball is a highly entertaining, accomplished pianist and singer based in Austin, Tex.,who plays mostly in a blues and RB lyrics, and the New Orleans number Crawfishin'. There are [...]

When Pat Boyack was growing up in Utah, his guitar heroes played in bands like Van Halen and Aerosmith. When he got to college, a friend played him a Stevie [...]

HADDA Brooks is a lounge singer par excellence, mixing blues and pop songs to create an after-hours ambience, as Humphrey Bogart found out in the 1950 film In a Lonely [...]

AT various times in the sixties and seventies, Jo Armstead was songwriter, performer, producer and record-company owner, an almost unique level of creative control for a woman at that time. [...]

IRMA Thomas's career as one of New Orleans' finest singers began when, at 19, she had a local hit with a saucy number called (You Can Have My Husband but) [...]