The Judy Files

Regular readers will know I am a fan of Judy White. The last time I featured her here was at the end of 2010. In that post I mentioned a very obscure record of hers I had picked up at a boot fair on the same day as I had also found one of her father’s LPs. One of those coincidences I love so much.

Well, the following summer there was another coincidence. At the same boot fair, in exactly the same corner of the field I had found the obscure single of hers the year before (though a different seller), I came across a souvenir programme of a Josh White concert. The concert was scheduled to have taken place on October 9^th 1967 at the Bristol Colston Hall (I don’t know if it did happen, but certainly around the same time Josh and Judy made an appearance on Swedish TV). I was thrilled to find that the programme had two full page photographs of Judy. As far as the photos were concerned Judy had equal billing with her father, although it was a shame that in the programme narrative Judy didn’t get a single mention!  I bought the programme, of course.

So, to think, Judy may well have made an appearance in my home town. I would have been 9 at the time and yet to discover the magic of soul music.

I have been waiting to post up the photos from that programme ever since but wanted to include a particular 45 of Judy’s in the post too, and that 45 eluded me until a few months ago.

The Clarence Reid penned “Girls Can’t Do What The Guys Do” maybe more familiar to you as recorded by a young Betty Wright and I had thought, naturally really considering the Florida connection, that Betty’s was the original release. But in fact I now believe Judy’s record preceded Betty’s by a few months. Sometime ago I stumbled across an extensive radio station interview with Judy, her brother Josh White Jnr, and her eldest daughter Kelli Ellis in which they talked about Josh White, and their own careers. In the interview they discussed the “Girls” song. I believe in that interview Judy said that she did not know of Clarence Reid. I thought that funny at the time, but thinking about it now it doesn’t seem so unusual. Now with the benefit of a good deal of hindsight, and an internet that is awash with historical information, it is easy to be knowledgeable. But in 1967 Judy was a young person trying to forge her way in a big music world. New York, where Judy was based then, and Henry Stone’s Alston in Florida where Clarence Reid was based, were a long way apart back then.           

Judy White – Girls Can’t Do What The Guys Do  1968

2010 - the final analysis

Another year almost done.

This year I took it upon myself to list everything I bought at charity shops, car boot sales and second hand shops. (But not ebay, specialist record shops, or record fairs – where, of course, I spend all the more serious money!).   

In the final analysis I would appear to have bought 137 pieces of vinyl (plus 168 singles I bought in one hit at a boot sale). The total outlay on all these was £110.55 and I have since sold a handful for a total return of £49.38 (I have a breakdown of purchase venues and condition of records too – after alI, I am male, and lists is what I do!). So £60 is not a bad outlay for the thrill of the chase and the pile of vinyl that has been acquired.

Here at Feel It over the course of the year I have recounted some of my digging stories, and shared some of the music found. To round off the year, and feed my withdrawal symptoms now we are in the car boot sale close season, here is one more tale. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this one before, apologies if I have.

If you are a regular around here you will know that I am a fan of Judy White, a lady blessed with as soulful a voice as you could wish for. I’ve written about her before and Judy herself wrote a comment on one of my posts! Judy released a handful of singles in the late Sixties. I only have a couple of her singles (the best though, I think) but I am always on the look out for others. Previous research on Judy led me to her father, Josh White. It’s fair to say that, although Josh was better known than Judy, neither were ever anything approaching household names, especially here in the UK.The Judy White connection led to me to pick up a couple of her father’s albums along the way out of curiosity. For the most part I’ve found his work a bit too folksy for my liking, but nevertheless it seems I still end up buying a Josh White record if I see one. 

So it was one day last July at a boot fair I bought another one of Josh’s albums – an early Sixties compilation. Then about 20 minutes later, on another stall at the same fair, what did I find? A single featuring Judy! None of her singles were ever released in the UK and it’s the first time I have ever found one of her singles “in the wild”. It didn’t look in good shape and I probably would have passed on it if I hadn’t known it featured Judy White.

The Rudy of “Rudy and Judy” credited on this single is in fact Rudolph Isley, a singer I also hold in high regard. It can’t be said that either side of this single are strong songs, and as good a singer as Rudolph Isley is it’s when Judy White joins in that the tracks are lifted above the mediocre.       

So a family affair of a story, and a major coincidence that will stick in my memory.

After all that I’m not going to post the Rudy & Judy single for two reasons: 1) it’s a bit too scratchy and 2) I fear a takedown as somebody had put it on YouTube but it has since been removed.      

Instead listen to this:

Happy New Year to you.

PS: I’m off to celebrate my birthday , and passing 200,000 hits on this blog.

Jujubee gives me a BUZZ

In the small print on this page (right) I mention the spirit of ‘all back to mine’ meaning that this blog is true to that spirit of sitting down with some friends at home, lifting the lid on the turntable, and sharing some sounds that do it for you and you hope do it for others too. Listening to music is a very personal pleasure but at the same time you sometimes want to shout to the world “I love this, you must hear this”.

“All back to mine” evenings feature more in one’s youth I think and now I’m getting a bit long in the tooth they are certainly a rare event in my life, so this blog is serving as a good alternative method of essentially achieving the same thing. Really just doing a bit of research, putting up these records I love, and maybe getting a little feedback is enough for me. I don’t live for the comments but when they appear I can’t deny it gives me a little buzz. But I hope all of you who do converse from time to time will understand when I tell you that one particular comment I received recently really gave me a big BUZZ and underlined for me that the efforts I put into serving up this little blog affair are worthwhile.

Going all the way back to May 2006 I posted a couple of tracks from Judy White under the title “Southern Soul floats my boat”. Judy released a few singles on Buddah and T-Neck in the late sixties and…. well you can read more about Judy and her more famous father, Josh, in the aforementioned post. If you read the comments on that post you will also see that, a few weeks ago, Judy herself (!) dropped by to say hi and said:

HI Darcy, this is amazing, flattering and TIMELY that we would find one another..black history month!! If you dont know who this is..Its Me Judy White Goard..i am now married for 34 years and have four musically inclined children. 2 girls and 2 boys. Your research is phenomenal and on point..except for a couple of minor things. I was born in 1947 and in that picture is my sister Beverly with my brother and father. After T-Neck i began to travel with a gospel group the patterson singers going overseas for several years. My last singing engagment was in Vegas in 72'. I now sing in my church located in GA and have passed on my singing legacy to my oldest daughter Kelli Goard Ellis. Her album has just been realeased and is entitled KELLI a heart of worship. You are more than welcome to see her myspace page which is.. www.kjpraize.com. I am now teaching and encouraging other young talented musical protigy's . Once again thank you so much and PLEASE keep in touch. My love and thanks to you Ms. Darcy.

Judy may have got my sex wrong, or it may simply have been a slip of the keyboard, but who cares - this comment gave me a big BUZZ. I think I ended my previous post with the words ‘you can have your cake and eat it’. Well getting this comment from Judy is the icing on the cake as far as I’m concerned.

As you can see Judy put me right on a couple of points. At the time of composing the original post I had struggled to find any pictures of Judy but thought I had found one that featured her with her father and brother, but as it turns out it was her elder sister Beverly in the picture.

Anyway Judy’s note prompted me to do another Internet trawl to see if I could find anything more about her, maybe a picture.Two years is a long time in the life of the Internet, in the intervening time from my original post I found that there is now a comprehensive Wiki entry for Judy’s father Josh White. Buried in the links on that page I found the following YouTube clip from a 1967 Swedish TV appearance (that I had touched on in my original post) and featuring Josh and, I believe, Judy!



As you can see in Judy’s note she says keep in touch. Unfortunately other than through this blog I have no means of doing that as I don’t have a contact email address. So Judy (or from your skeletal blogspot do I detect you are also know as Jujubee?), if you should happen to read this: yes I would love to keep in touch. I have gone as far as emailing your daughter to say as much, but I’m not going to press the point as I maybe mistaken as some sort of stalker!

Again, Judy, if you’re reading this I hope you don’t mind but on my original post I have re-uped one of your spine tingling, gospel drenched, slices of Southern Soul.

Southern Soul floats my boat

I was turned on to Judy White only recently by John Ridley at his excellent page at the equally excellent Soul Of The Net. There he features “Save Me”, a great deep soul song Judy cut in 1969 ably assisted by the Isley Brothers on the T-Neck label. I say this is the first time I became aware of Judy White, but then again maybe not. I present exhibit A…
This is a snippet from a “Soul House” sales list from 1977 (“Soul House” were based in Wakefield UK and are now probably long gone). As you can see the record featured in this post was marked by me with TWO dashes. Normally I marked records I was interested in with a single dash or maybe an asterisk. So did the two dashes mean I had heard the record and desperately wanted it? Don’t know, can’t remember. All I know is I didn’t buy the record then and it was only after hearing “Save Me” at John Ridley’s page about 18 months ago that I started – or possibly restarted – my hunt for Judy White records in earnest. The search was fruitless until a couple of months ago when, within the space of a couple of weeks I finally secured both “Save Me” and “Satisfaction Guaranteed”/”I’ll Cry” for very reasonable sums.
“Save Me” you can hear at John Ridley’s page, and it’s a peach. I’m featuring “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “I’ll Cry” here. A single with both sides as strong as this doesn’t come along too often. Two slabs of gorgeous southern soul recorded in Sheffield, Alabama at Quin Ivey’s Quinvy Studio. I think this is about as good as it can possibly get. No words from me could possibly adequately describe the tracks, you need to listen to them.

I have been unable to find much information on Judy beyond that offered by John Ridley. But here is what I have found.
Judy is the daughter of Josh White. I had never heard of Josh White but reading up on him it appears he was an accomplished and high profile blues guitarist and singer in the 30s. Into the 40s he played alongside jazz artists such as Billie Holiday and played the society circuit and subsequently moved more into the sphere of protest songs and folk music where has was to gain a significant white audience. He was a major draw on the folk circuit in the pre Dylan 60s and also toured Europe (coming to the UK several times) and Scandinavia during the 60s. He died in 1969. (The picture here shows Judy with her Judy's father and brother and sister Beverley).

A review of a video of appearances he made in Sweden in 1967 mentions Judy (more specifically her voice) as being the best reason for watching the video. It also states that she was 19 at the time which would mean she was probably born in 1948 1947. It seems that Judy accompanied her father (together with her brother Josh White Jr) on many stage performances in the 60s as a backing singer.

The Swedish tour must have just predated her recording career at the Buddah label. As John Ridley points out, that started with her appearing as one half of Bongi & Judy. Bongi was Bongi Makeba, daughter of Miriam Makeba. It is likely that Bongi and Judy met in New York in the late fifties. The White family were by that time based in New York and Miriam Makeba made appearances at the Village Vanguard in 1959 and also a guest appearance at Harry Belafonte’s concerts at Carnegie Hall which were also, I believe, attended by Josh White. Bongi Makeba would later die in 1985 following complications in childbirth.

Judy White cut a number of solo singles for Buddah before moving to T-Neck (which was distributed by Buddah) in 1969. Only two singles from her are known on this imprint.

I have only heard snippets of some of her other Buddah output. Based on that I would say that the three songs mentioned here are the standouts - but what standouts! Judy certainly had a fine voice and it seems a shame that she doesn’t appear to have recorded solo beyond her T-Neck outings. On All Music I can only find two references to her – as providing backing vocals on an Archie Shepp album in 1972, and on an album by her brother Josh White Jr. in 1978. It’s possible the death of her father hit her hard. Maybe she also moved onto the folk circuit. Who knows? Wherever life took her the soul music genre ended up the poorer for it.

UPDATE February 2008! Judy is alive and well and living in Georgia USA. She has contacted this blog(see the comments!) and let us know where life took her after her time at T-Neck.

Judy White - Satisfaction Guaranteed 1969?

Judy White - I'll Cry 1969?

Update:
You can find both sides of this 45 on the CD "Buddah Deep Soul" (be aware that only a few of the tracks on the CD actually qualify as Deep Soul).