Keepin' On, Gittin' Down

Today is this blog’s 20^th anniversary. It’s a stretch to say it has been active for all those years as, in recent times, there have been quite a few, shall we say, hibernations. But, in any event, I think it’s an anniversary worth noting.

I realise I’m noting this landmark with my first post of 2026 but let’s hope it kick starts me onto a few more posts this year. I have one half written, started as long ago as the first week of February. It would have been finished and posted back then but I then felt a bit meh for a few days and it stopped me in my tracks. Subsequently the words that were bouncing around inside my cranium did no more than that – the writer’s block kicked in again. As I say it’s half way there, although it was a bit of ramble. But with a bit of editing and a following wind I am hopeful it will manifest itself in another post soon.

I don’t do New Year’s resolution’s but at the start of the year I made a decision that amounted to one I suppose. I have over 6,000 records now, and that is too many. So I have embarked on something of a purge. Well, the intent is there at least, and I have hardly bought anything in the charity shops this year either. I have taken a methodical approach to this venture which has initially involved documenting my album collection (1,700 + albums) on Discogs so that our children might have a better idea of the records that are actually of real monetary value in the event they are suddenly left with this vinyl mountain. In ploughing through this task I have been pulling out albums that I think I could let go. I am giving them one last chance on the turntable to extend their life in my collection. I say one last chance, in truth I think some of these records were bought over the last 15 years or so and tucked away in the collection without ever being played! I am having some success in the weeding out, but I know I am not being ruthless enough, and I will need to have another lap of the process next winter (summer is not the time for such things).

I have made a few half hearted attempts at purges in the last 10 years or so. I find it almost impossible to purge records I bought back in the 70s as I find I have a strong emotional tie to them, even if they hardly ever get a play. I can picture them in the collection and that seems sufficient, and can preserve the memories.

One such album I felt sure would be purged this time was my copy of L.T.D’s Gittin’ Down.

I reckon I bought this in 1976. It might have been 1977 though as that was when they had some success with the single Back In Love Again, which may have been the reason I was attracted to this album. Anywaty, it has been in the collection for about 50 years now! It has a sticker on it that reminds me where I bought it – Disc ‘N’ Tape, on Bristol’s Gloucester Rd, sadly no longer there, it succumbed I think just before the vinyl comeback happened. I can still picture the second hand bins where I bought a fair few records (there were good bargains to be had), although the layout of the rest of the shop is very fuzzy. So the album scores high on the memories front but I think I have only ever played it a handful of times. Anyway, onto the turntable it went and I played it through, all of it …. and it’s a keeper!

L.T.D. (Love, Togetherness, & Devotion) were originally Sam & Dave’s backing band (a fact I have only just discovered) and had a run of 10 albums released between 1974 and 1983. Gittin’ Down was their debut album. Jeffrey Osborne was one of their main vocalists until he left the band in 1980 to go solo. In 1974, when this album was released, it was all the rage for band members to have their star signs shown on the album cover and so we learn L.T.D. contained three Libra, two Sagittarius, one Cancer, one Pisces, one Gemini, one Scorpio, and one Virgo.

I think after all these years I may have finally got around to properly listening to this album, and what strikes me is the overall upbeat feel. The interplay between the vocals and horns are great, and the sound has what I can only describe as an open and airy quality; it has a sort of joyous outdoorsy feel, “street” I suppose. Now I come to think of it that is a feel I associate with a number soul and funk albums from the early 70s. It’s very much of its time and has firmly hit my nostalgia button.

The sound I might describe as light and airy, the album art maybe a riot of bright colours on a white background, but this is one tough album. It’s now survived probably three purges in recent years. Back from the brink, and after some years ago being relegated to Division Two in my own quirky way of organising my collection it has now, proudly, properly taken it’s place in Division One.

L.T.D. – Groove For A Little While 1974

L.T.D. – Your Love Is The Answer  1974

PS. Happy Birthday Candi Staton!

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 24

So that’s it for another year. It seems to go quicker every year (a cliché, but true).

Compliments of the season to you all. Enjoy your holidays.

I have made a Spotify mix to represent this year’s Advent-ure. The doors have once again opened onto some very dusty corners of various abandoned wings of soul music’s vast mansion (you may well have some cobwebs in your hair!). It is therefore really no surprise that roughly 50% of the tracks featured I could not find amongst the 100 million or so that are available on Spotify, so think of this mix as something of an alternate take.

(Where possible the tracks featured on this Advent-ure are included in the mix. Where the tracks could not be found on Spotify related tracks are included. Some are simply another track from the same artist that was featured, others have some link that I’ll let you work out for yourself. The running order has been tweaked to help the flow).

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 23

 

Carol Anderson is yet another singer whose recording career started in the 60s and limped on into the Disco era. She had just eight singles released in that time. She is revered on the Northern Soul scene for two records roughly ten years apart in their release dates – Taking My Mind Off Love and Sad Girl - and it’s fair to say, I think, if those records hadn’t been “discovered” by the Northern Soulies Carol would barely make a footnote in soul music’s history. In saying that I don’t deny she made a few good records (especially her earlier ones), but it’s just that so many artists on the scene back then did too, and for every one who caught a break and got a deal with a major label there were plenty who didn’t and their 45s on local labels were destined to receive just a few plays on local radio stations before disappearing into the ether, and the dead stock warehouses. We should be grateful to the dedicated soul diggers who would eventually plunder those warehouses and shine a light on them.

Taking My Mind Off Love is a Northern Soul monster, and due to it’s rarity and its Northern appeal commands a four figure valuation. It was apparently released in 1968 on the obscure Detroit label Whip, although there is a comment on Discogs stating a 1964 recording date. It sounds more like 1968 to me though and the backing singers remind me of some of The Parliaments’ tracks recorded around that time, also a Detroit based group of course.

I’m banging on about this Whip single but of course I don’t own a copy, it being way out of my league value wise. But I have been attracted to one of Carol’s early 70s singles which I could afford. You Boy/Holding On was released in 1972 on Mid-Town which I believe was owned by Carol’s mum, Essie.

The winter of 1983/4 would prove to be a tragic time for the Anderson family, Essie passed away on Christmas Day 1983 (cancer is often quoted as the cause, but it was more likely diabetes?) and three months later Carol succumbed to cancer.

Carol Anderson – Holding On 1972 

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 22

 

Bo Kirkland only has one record to his name (this one). Of course he doesn’t, but he only has one 45 released under that name alone.

Expand your search to Bo (Kirkland) & Ruth (Davis) you will find a few more records, and one very well known hit if you are of a certain age – at least it was massive in the UK. I wrote some more about Bo & Ruth back in 2019.

Now expand your search to Michael Kirkland and you will find another 45, and to Mike James Kirkland and you find a few more 45s and albums.

We’re gradually going backwards in time now, and we’re not finished yet.

Plug in Mike & The Censations and you will find his 60s output – a string of eight cracking 45s released in second half of the 60s. I featured one of them in my 2014 Advent-ure, and I should really feature some more (next year).

Yes Bo Kirkland = Michael James Kirkland = Mike James Kirkland = Michael Kirkland.  Don’t get him confused with Robert (Bob) Kirkland though, that’s his brother, he was also a member of the Censations, as was his sister and her husband.

Sure Got A Thing For You is a lovely piece of slinky mid 70s midtempo soul. A "B" side again, and in my opinion much stronger than the funky A side Grandfather Clock.

Bo Kirkland– Sure Got A Thing For You 1975

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 21

 

Oscar Weathers has appeared here once before, just over ten years ago now. That song – You Wants To Play - was beautifully arranged and this one, which was Oscar’s next 45, is too. Quite why it has taken me so long to acquire it I’m not sure.

Soul for the connoisseur.

Oscar Weathers – When You Steal 1971

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 20

 

Moving along into the last few days of this year’s Advent-ure (already!) and it will be early 70s records all the way – and they all have red labels too! It’s just the way it’s turned out.

Put “Dale Dennard singer” into a Google search and the AI response is that Dale is male, and that is because the only search hit which says anything about this record, other than the bare facts on the label, says so.

As you will hear for yourself, Dale is female.

This is one obscure singer, and label. This is the only record released by Dale Dennard, and the New York based Coach label itself only has two, possibly three, known releases. I wonder if its is actually related to Gene Redd’s Redd / Red Coach label, it shares the same coach graphic as early Redd Coach releases, and in time sits neatly in between when the label name dropped the second 'd'. I can’t find anything that confirms this though.

The sound of this one is sinuous, sultry and sleazy.

Dale Dennard – If You Can Live With Yourself 1972

* This advert appeared in all the main music papers - Cash Box, Record World, and Billboard in April/May 1972.  

The Feel It Advent-ure 2025: Door 19

 

In my head Atlantic Starr are filed as a 70s band as that is when I first heard them. But in truth most of their output came in the 80s and they hit it big commercially in the mid 80s.

Three of their songs have lodged themselves permanently in my memory to the extent that I can replay them in my head at will. Those songs are When Love Calls, Circles, and this one, Silver Shadow.

.. Pause .. Hmm, have I featured one of these songs before here? … opens a tab to check … yes I have.

Way back in 2011. I featured a Youtube clip of Silver Shadow because, as I said at the time, I couldn’t believe I had never had a copy of it. Well I finally picked up a copy a few weeks ago, and I did so because I was spurred on by recently playing Circles a few times (you can’t play these songs just once, they are infectious), which was the other track I featured back then. That 2011 post was published on the 29^th October which, weirdly, was the birthday of one of my old flames – and she had the album that When Love Calls was on and I remember borrowing it at the time (I gave it back eventually) - and, somewhat weirdly, Mrs. Darce’s birthday is the 30^th October. I must be attracted to Scorpios.

Silver Shadow is a gorgeous track. It was released in 1985, but I had it fixed in my mind it was from earlier in the 80s. I think it must have sounded a bit out of time in 1985 when soul was becoming increasingly bright and shiny, and poppy. It has an ethereal feel to it and, from memory, there was only one other track on the album it came from – As the Band Turns – that really approached it’s feel. 

Atlantic Starr – Silver Shadow 1985

RIP Wayne Lewis, a founding member of Atlantic Starr who passed away earlier this year (June 5th), he was only 68.