![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/boddie.jpg\")
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The Numero Group has quickly developed a well-earned reputation for unearthing fascinating archival material. Jazz, soul, R&B, disco, psych…you name it, Numero has scoured old unreleased session tapes to bring previously-unheard music to \u2013 if not the masses \u2013 discerning 21st<\/sup> century ears.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most unusual entry in the ongoing Numero series (#35 if you’re counting) is Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio<\/em>. This sprawling set (3CDs or 5LP spanning some fifty-plus tracks) covers pretty much every genre and subgenre imaginable. According to the liner notes, the folks at Boddie \u201cissued nearly 300 albums and 45s [and] recorded 10,000 hours of tape.\u201d<\/p>\n Out of necessity, Boddie was very much a lo-fi operation, but the right amount of care went into these tracks. Clearly many were cut in a single session sans overdub. For every cut like The Chantels<\/strong>‘ \u201cWorld of Soul\u201d (an energetic number that’s nonetheless little more than a thin retread of \u201cIn the Midnight Hour\u201d), there are cuts like Rev. R. L. Hubbard<\/strong>‘s \u201cChild of the King,\u201d a gospel-reggae hybrid cut.<\/p>\n Apparently Boddie would cut anything, anywhere: they used a remote setup to capture the almost painfully thin sonics of Juanita Ellis<\/strong>‘ \u201cMake a Joyful Noise.\u201d But somehow, the desired vibe still comes through; forget that you could get a better recording today with your hand-held Zoom H2 and just enjoy the sincerity of the singers. The same is true of the Gospel Hebrews<\/strong><\/span>‘ \u201cJesus is All Over Me,\u201d a track that features vocal chorus, handclaps and a sole electric guitar.<\/p>\n There are a few gems, to be sure. Headlines<\/strong>‘ \u201cHe’s Looking for Love\u201d sounds like a Motown hit (albeit one that’s been channeled through AM radio via the speakers of your ’64 Falcon). The funk-psych of Creations Unlimited<\/strong>‘s instrumental \u201cChrystal Illusion\u201d suggests a cross between Shaft<\/em>-era Isaac Hayes<\/strong><\/span> and Iron Butterfly<\/strong>. And on \u201cThe Players,\u201d Inter-Circle<\/strong> combine an Allman Brothers<\/strong> aesthetic with what Frank Zappa<\/strong> once called the Carlos Santana<\/strong> Secret Chord Progression.<\/p>\n There’s some definite weirdness, too. A dance-party number titled \u201cDon’t Make Me Kill You\u201d doesn’t serve up the kindest of sentiments as it exhorts listeners to do the funky chicken. Another odd title is the propulsive \u201cMonkey Hips and Yice,\u201d which takes its cues from the Bar-Kays<\/strong> and James Brown<\/strong>‘s band. On many of the cuts included in the reviewer’s sampler, there’s more spirit than polish, but the immediacy and field-recording nature of the tracks serves only to add to their charm.<\/p>\n Certainly, with this many tracks there will be some stinkers. The vocal performance on the Wings of Faith Juniors of Grand Rapids MI<\/strong> is \u2013 to put it mildly \u2013 grating. And the backing harmonies on Harvey Hall<\/strong>‘s \u201cAll in Your Eyes\u201d could have benefited from an additional take (or a bit more rehearsing). And sitting through King James Version<\/strong>‘s field recording of \u201cHe’s Forever (Amen)\u201d will test the patience of all but the most resolute listener. But the missteps are few and far between, and are essential to tell the Boddie story.<\/p>\n Think of Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland Ohio<\/em> as a multi-genre answer to the Pebbles<\/em> series. It’s all but guaranteed that you won’t have any of this music in your collection already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Numero Group has quickly developed a well-earned reputation for unearthing fascinating archival material. Jazz, soul, R&B, disco, psych…you name it, Numero has scoured old unreleased session tapes to bring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1611],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-numero-group","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32087,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/32087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}