soul Archive
12 Apr 2012
Album Review: Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984
Here’s an interesting thought experiment: What might happen if you gathered a bunch of musicians steeped in 70s soul, funk and r&b, took away their guitars and basses, gave them […]
30 Mar 2012
Album Review: Lou Ragland – I Travel Alone
Way back when I was nineteen, I was a full-time college student, but I also held down a part-time job in retail. I became friendly with a co-worker name Wade […]
09 Jun 2011
Album Review: Father’s Children – Who’s Gonna Save the World
The story of Father’s Children is fascinating, but not altogether unique. Group comes together, develops a style, records an album, sinks without a trace. This Washington DC-based group recorded an […]
22 Dec 2010
The City Champs – Representing Their Hometown (part 2)
Continued from Part One… BK: The last time I saw you, you were up the street at the Orange Peel, opening for the North Mississippi All-stars. While I’d imagine that […]
21 Dec 2010
The City Champs – Representing Their Hometown
In January 2010 I reviewed The Safecracker, the debut album from Memphis soul/jazz instrumental trio The City Champs. A month later I saw them onstage for a great show at […]
30 Jun 2009
Album Review: Ray Charles — Genius: The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection
The word Genius is thrown around far too cavalierly. At this writing, Michael Jackson (the self-proclaimed King of Pop) has been dead only a few days, and tributes everywhere call […]
29 May 2009
Album Review: Wattstax: The Living Word
With apologies to Sir Walter Scott, “oh, what a tangled web we weave, when again we practice to re-release.” The 1972 Wattstax festival was black R&B’s excellent (if belated) answer […]
28 May 2009
Album Review: Stax: The Soul of Hip-Hop
This compilation would have been an inspired, brilliant idea, had it not been done already (see review of the 2008 Blue Note compilation Droppin’ Science). So instead it’s merely a […]
27 May 2009
Album Review: Various Artists — Stax Does the Beatles
Before succumbing to the vicissitudes of the record biz, Stax Records was one of the coolest labels in the 60s and 70s. Rawer and earthier than Motown, the black-oriented label […]
25 May 2009
Album Review: Droppin’ Science: Greatest Samples from the Blue Note Lab
This is one of those projects that makes you ask, “Why didn’t someone do this sooner?” Many artists on the famed Blue Note label have had their work sampled over […]