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AMERICAN BEAT
ARETHA FRANKLIN/Electrifying/Laughing on the Outside; Runnin’ Out of Fools/Yeah; Soul Sister/Take It Like You Give It: In the course of three twofer cds, we get Franklin’s entire Columbia output that shows Hammond and James knew what they were doing even if the powers that be wouldn’t let them do it all the way and allowed Jerry Wexler to set the stage to romance her away for her early, legendary work on Atlantic. You can spot how much love was needed to make a Franklin session work. Once the Wexler/Dowd/Mardin/Memphis/Muscle Shoals trust was busted, her later Atlantic stuff never measured up and she was on the road to footnotedom until Arista gave her the love for some pop extravaganza stuff that ran more on her iconability than her soul. Here we find her trajectory from churchy jazz into the super soul that stands the test of time today. The first three albums find her in more of black Streisand mode than we remember. Along about album three (Runnin’ Out of Fools), we see the shades of the Aretha we know and love taking root culminating in sides that set the stage for iconic work. Meanwhile, none of this is chopped liver and it has a tendency to be overlooked in the various Franklin gold rushes. These sides are not mere collectors fodder for Northern Soul complete freaks, this is a nice serving of early slices of the real deal. These sides go back 45 years and al least half of them sound way fresher than that. Check it out.
ROSIE FLORES: Roots music hadn’t quite had a name yet and Americana wasn’t even a glimmer in 3A eye, but there was some cool late 80s stuff escaping on Warners that didn’t fit the format and earned quite a loyal following. Flores set was from that crop of goodies that didn’t get their full due but were certainly well loved. It might be nascent roots music that didn’t have a name but you’ll really have a ball with it if you ever dug the genre.
JOE ELY/Musta Notta Gotta Lotta: Recorded while he was running around with the Clash and still keeping his Flatlanders partners close by via the song list, this set has several must have classics that belong in every Americana collection that wants to be taken seriously. It might have been recorded as his first golden period was running out of steam, Ely was showing he was much more of a punk rocker than anyone might ever have thought. It still delivers the goods over 25 years later.
BROOKES COMPANY
GEORGE JONES/The Hits Then Till Now: There was a pretty cool Jones wide ranging comp a few years ago that covered him pretty well and if you can’t find it and have been reconsidering ol’ Possum, this collection that looks back over 50 years of his hits is really a grand collection of contemporary country by a cat that might never had the crossover appeal of a Willie or Waylon, but damn if he isn’t an example of real country. The hard stuff for people that don’t want to play around, the non-stop action here will make you wonder what this stuff they are passing off as country today really is. Duets with everyone, classic singles, seminal cuts, this triple header collection is a real set for real country fans.
(Time Life)
REBECCA LYNN HOWARD/No Rules: Another chop laden refugee from the major label system shows there’s life on your own in going her own way and following the sound in her heart. More Americana than she has been in the past, this set genre splices well beyond her major label country sides but it doesn’t go so far a field that old fans won’t be able to recognize her. Certainly a tasty spiritual “debut” from a welcome voice from the recent past that finding her new voice and charting new courses.
(Time Life/Saguaro)
Volume 31/Number 230
June 17, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
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