The Feel It Advent-ure 2021: Door 21

I'm a sucker for a moody and melancholy tune. Here is one I initially heard on one of the always excellent Dogpatch podcasts. Each podcast has a rough theme and features music (always obscure) from the record collections of Dante Carfagna and Jon Kirby interspersed with wonderful dosings of their “color commentary” (to quote their About line). Always brilliant, and always educational if you like exploring the musical byways of the last 60 years or so, as I do.

There aren't any track-listings for these shows so I can't tell you which one this came from now. That's a shame because I want to listen to it again. From memory, there were a few tracks like this included in it and playing this one again I now want to take a stab at hunting down physical copies of a few more of them.

This one proved pretty easy to find (not always the case, I can tell you!). It's not expensive in itself, although after factoring in the postage cost it wasn't so cheap. I did have to get a copy from America because it does not generally seem to be in any UK dealers' stock.

This one arrived in its original sleeve, which is in fantastic condition considering its age. It looks great!

Ella Johnson with Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra - Don't Fail Me Baby  1958

The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 1

 

No posts for four months and now I'm embarking on a full on Feel It Advent-ure – yes a post a day right up to Christmas Day!

Foolhardy? Very probably. Certainly a gamble.

Here is Ray Agee making it a hat-trick of Advent-urous appearances hereabouts. He was behind Door 11 last year, where you can read a little more about him.

Ray Agee – The Gamble 1963

The Feel it Mini Advent-ure: Door 11

Here is a random pull from a stack of recently purchased 45s. This one came from the little R&R slanted record fair that pops up in town a few times a year. It was the first time in about a year I had been as the one or two dealers who had been carrying some soul had either sold off their remaining records or were not attending anymore. But I thought I would give it another whirl. It was not a good day to go. The weather was terrible and England had been playing New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup. Consequently I got there a bit late, and to find there were only 3 dealers in attendance. One of them was a regular and I knew he had some soul & r&b, although from experience his prices were generally a bit high for my liking. Still, he had a couple of half price boxes so I dug in.

This 45 was one of a handful I pulled out. Ray Agee has been on my radar for a few years now. He is not a well known or well documented singer, but he deserves to be better known. He was fairly prolific, recording for a number of small labels and 45cat currently have 47 different 45s noted. This release, on the obscure Brandin label, may date to 1966, or possibly as late as 1968. Ray, who hailed from Alabama, would  have likely been in his forties when he recorded it. It is believed he passed away in 1989/90, seeming to drop out of the music scene in the early 70s (as so many blues, soul, and R&B artists did in those times, particularly gospel rooted ones). He had developed polio at an early age which left him with a permanent disability, so that may have been the reason for his disappearance from the music scene. (This information has been gleaned from his brief Wikipedia entry and its linked articles).

Similar to “Any Day Now” featured yesterday, looking back in this blog I find this is Ray's second appearance here, and his first was also in a Feel It Advent-ure, almost to the day, back in December 2015.

This is another fine bluesy outing, supported by some fine Big City horns, which could be expected as he had been based in Los Angeles for many years.

Ray Agee – Love Is A Cold Shot 1966?

Put It On The Hawg

No great missive today. Sometimes it's enough to let the music speak for itself.

Some great funky blues here from Jimmy Dawkins.

Jimmy Dawkins – Put It On The Hawg 1972  

The Feel It Advent-ure 2015 #14

Keep smiling - good advice for a Chelsea supporter this season. The tables have been turned. 

Slow and moody, black and bluesy. Let's hope the mood of this song doesn't match mine later on tonight. Let's have a win to celebrate for a change!   

In my mind I had somehow misfiled Ray Agee as a Country singer (I think I might have confused him with Roy Acuff). I stand corrected!

Ray Agee - Keep Smiling  1968 

PS The A side of this is another wonderful Bobby Bland-esque slab of bluesy soul (or should that be soulful blues?). I might have to post it as well before the month's out.

The Feel It (One-derful!) Advent-ure 2015 #1

Yikes! All of a sudden it's December. How did that happen? 

As is now customary around here that means it is time for another Feel It Advent-ure. A post a day, can i really do it again? I'm not sure to be honest, but I'll give it a go.


McKinley Mitchell - All Of A Sudden  1962

(PS be sure to tell me if the downloads stop working). 

Otis wedding

Johnny Otis was a giant in the world of R&B throughout the Fifties and beyond. His Wiki entry fairly rips through his incredibly full life and leaves you sort of breathless.

I’ve picked up a few of his records recently. For instance this year I have found, at separate spots, two copies of a 1957 UK release on 78. What were the odds of that, I thought? Well it turns out that the release in question – Ma, He’s Making Eyes At Me - was a big hit, Otis’ first in the UK.  So maybe not so unusual. By the Seventies he wasn’t as prominent on the scene, with less touring and recorded output – of course he was in his fifties by then. However, every Seventies single I have come across with his name in the credits – all of them on small labels which I am guessing were his own – have been well worth the admission price.

As a band leader Johnny Otis often made a point of featuring and crediting collaborating artists on his records.

Ma He’s Making Eyes at Me, and it’s B side, was credited to The Johnny Otis Show, fully qualified as Johnny Otis and his Orchestra with Marie Adams and The Three Tons Of Joy. The B side – Romance in The Dark – is something of a marriage of big band, R&B and doo wop and is certainly a joy. The Three Tons Of Joy also get the credit on the B side although it is in actual fact the Moonbeams doing the backing I believe.  I have not perfected recording a 78 yet, and even if I had in this instance there would be the basic problem that I have mislaid the disc, so it’s Youtube to the rescue for this one.                     

                  

My most recent Otis purchase is a 45 on Hawk Sound, released in 1972 according to 45cat. Hawk Sound was Johnny Otis’ own studio and label. Again it is the B side that shines and it is a bluesy deep soul gem with, this time round,  Big Daddy Rucker sharing the spotlight with The Johnny Otis Show. Big Daddy Rucker – aka Ervin Groves, aka Big Boy Groves – and Johnny Otis would seem to have been kindred spirits, both were on the scene in the Fifties, both led bands then, and both had offspring who also became successful on the music scene – Shuggie Otis, and Lani Groves who spent some years as a member of Stevie’s Wonderlove.

Big Daddy Rucker featured with The Johnny Otis Show – He Made You Mine  1972

When the world turns blue

So, the Tories, somewhat surprisingly, won the election this time around with a few seats to spare. Painful for many, but the “shy Tories” had their say at the ballot box. I don’t do politics here, so I’ll leave it at that.      

The mighty Blues are Premiership champions again for the first time since the UK had its last general election. TSO is back at the helm and normal service is resumed.

And what did I find at the car boot this Sunday? Blues albums!

Ella Fitzgerald – Jail House Blues  1963

Clifford Scott – Cross Talk  1963

Howlin’ Wolf – Rockin’ Daddy  1955

PS. This post's title is borrowed from a Merry Clayton track. I would have posted it but my 45 is a bit scratchy. You can have a nice YouTube HD clip instead.  

The 2014 Advent-ure : #9

This one dropped through the letter box today. I find it insanely catchy.

Lynn White was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1953 but her recording career didn’t start until 1977. At the time Lynn was working in Ike Darby’s record shop in Mobile. Ike had a song Blues In The Bedroom and to try it out asked Lynn to sing it. That song would be the B side of Lynn’s first single on Ike’s own Darby label. That was the start of a recording career that lasted into the 90s.

Lynn has got a really good voice. Unfortunately, by the end of the 70s Soul’s golden age was over,  and its currency sort of retreated back to the Southern states and the Blues circuits. To think that if Lynn had started her singing career 10-12 years earlier, which would have been possible (Betty Wright started at 15), she could have been a really big name because she had the pipes, and was certainly popular in her own back yard in the 80s.

Lynn disappeared from the recording scene in the 90s and from a few tidbits I found during a quick search it seems she married Ike Darby, and later became a Pastor. I found the recent picture of her (I’m certain it is her) here.

Lynn White – I Didn’t Make My Move TooSoon  1979

This was also released on Darby. The label states it comes from the album Too Much Woman, which would appear to have been released in 1981 on Willie Mitchell’s Waylo label. So I’m not sure where this Bust-Out release fits in. 

King Cockroach

I’ve found a few good B sides lately. It all started with the Ujima 45 I featured before Xmas. A couple more 45s from the same source have found their way into the collection since, which I will feature soon; and then there is this one from Albert King.

I love everything about this record, from the obvious merits of the constituent parts of Albert King’s performance, to the quirky lyrics, to the insistent bass riff, to the irresistible piano motif.

In fact you could imagine a big cockroach making a sound – bullfrogesque - like that bass guitar as it sits on the porch. And at the end of the evening, as it’s a big cockroach, it maybe ambles – even sashays - rather than scuttles away, and in the process makes a sound just like that piano. 

With all this wind and rain about it’s good to escape, if only in mind, to a porch in the deep south on a summer’s evening, even if your only company is a big brown fella (and I’m not talking about AK!)…

Albert King  - Cockroach 1969

From the album Years Gone By.

NOTE: The song is co-credited to Bettye Crutcher,  a prolific songwriter for Stax. This is a playful lyric and not one I would immediately associate her with. It reminds me there is an album of hers I have that I really must share with you soon.  

The 2013 Advent-ure #13

At a "booter" earlier this year there was no other record in the box that was remotely like this one. It's at times like this I can't help thinking 'what have I missed - has somebody got here before me and cleaned up?'. Don't get me wrong though, I'm grateful for whatever I can find.  

"From The Heart Of A Woman" is one of nine albums that KoKo Taylor (born Cara Walton and nicknamed KoKo because of her love of chocolate) recorded for Alligator records from the 70s through to the 90s. 
Side 1 of this album wins out over side 2 for me as it has a greater variety, side 2 being more in a straightforward blues vein.

Captured for the price of a chocolate bar.

KoKo Taylor - Something Strange Is Going On  1981