soul Archive
15 Oct 2018
Fantastic Negrito: We Can Turn It Around (Part 1)
(An edited version of this feature appeared in print in Living Blues Magazine.) All photos © Audrey Hermon Kopp Fantastic Negrito is a a lot of things. On the surface, […]
27 Sep 2018
Jorge Santana and Malo: For Real
Malo was a San Francisco Bay area band that combined Latin flavor with a brass section, giving it a sound somewhere between Blood, Sweat & Tears and Santana. In fact, […]
19 Sep 2018
Hundred-word Reviews for September 2018
Time once again for some 100-word reviews. Please note that I receive many albums each day for review consideration; even when allowing for the fact that 80-90% of them don’t […]
07 Aug 2018
The Ru-Jac Records Story, Part Two
Continued from Part One… Something Got a Hold on Me covers 1963-1964, the earliest years of Ru-Jac, ones that featured the Kay Keys Band, Little Sonny Daye, Brenda Jones, Parker, […]
06 Aug 2018
The Ru-Jac Records Story, Part One
Beginning operations in 1963, Baltimore-based Ru-Jac Records was an African American-owned and -operated record label. Founded by Rufus E. Mitchell and Jack Bennett, Ru-Jac was a singles-only label that released […]
20 Jul 2018
EP Review: Sister Ivy – Plecia
Sister Ivy is an Asheville-based project, the nom de musique of Rachel Waterhouse. Sister Ivy has had a relatively lengthy gestation period: the group played its first gig some three […]
06 Jul 2018
Fifty-word Reviews for July 2018, Part 1
For years now, I’ve engaged in an occasional series of reviews in which I limit myself to 100 words. The point isn’t at all to give short shrift to these […]
12 Jun 2018
Graham Parker: Sticking to It (Part 2)
Continued from Part One… Parker was a mere 25 years old when Howlin’ Wind was released. Today he’s 67. Because of the straightforward, heart-on-the-sleeve quality of his lyrics, it’s fair […]
11 Jun 2018
Graham Parker: Sticking to It (Part 1)
When Graham Parker came on the music scene in the mid 1970s, he was pegged as an angry young man of the new wave movement. And while that label always […]
07 Jun 2018
Tank and the Bangas: Big Bang
One of the most intriguing and compelling musical acts to gain recent national attention is Tank and the Bangas. The New Orleans-based group combines spoken word, hip-hop, gospel and other […]