I can't find any concrete info about First Company. What would you call it - Psychedelic Soul? Free Soul? It's not easy to pigeon hole. Both sides of this 45 have a great lo-fi feel. I'm not even sure when it was released although looking at the handful of other releases on the label I would guess 1972.
Numero re-released another single on the label, by The Sweet & Innocent, not so long ago (I really love that one too) and offered some information on the label, although nothing on the groups that appeared on Active beyond the fact that they probably went to Manassas High School in Memphis.
According to the Numero article Ron & Sari Bledsoe operated the Active label out of a store front on Chelsea Avenue. I looked up the address on the label on Google Maps. It is still there, although many of the shops in the block seem to be permanently closed. Maybe scheduled for redevelopment? Or just a sign of the times. Looking at Street View the block was built in 1929 and 621 was most recently operating as a beauty shop/barber according to the sole review on GM, although separately I found a D&B listing for the business describing it as recently as 2017 as a hobby/musical instrument shop. One can only wonder how many different guises the shop has had since Active was operating out of it in the early(?) 70s.
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