Mike Little is a member of the Electric City Shag Club in Anderson, South Carolina.  He is also a member of the Association of Beach & Shag Club DJ’s and the National Association of Rhythm & Blues Deejays.  He hosted for 3-1/2 years The Saturday Morning Beach Party on WANS, 1280 AM in Anderson, which was rated by Arbitron as the highest rated AM show listened to and number three overall for that time slot.  In 2004, he was awarded the Rufus Oates Award by the National Association of Rhythm & Blues Dee Jays for his writing contributions.  He now serves on the Board of Directors of the NARBDJ.

Speaking of Judy, Judy Collins and sister Jeannie Elmore have been working hard as SISBRO Productions will be releasing its new compilation, Carolina Shag VI.  The album features several never-before-released tunes that are bound to be hits, Archie Bell's Power Of Love and Big Joe Maher's Tulsa Woman.  Big Joe's number is somewhat like his hit, Laying In The Allery.  Check out the piano intro on this one!  One of the hottest songs rising is Winzel Kelly's #1 Love.  Well, Number One Love is on Carolina Shag VI and promises to the one of the hottest songs played at the Spring Safari.  Beach Music 45's number one song today is Swing It by Lomax.  Guess what, it's on the album also!  Another that is sure to be plaed a lot during the 10-day festival is Music Machine's You're Gonna Know It.  Craig Woolard is also featured with his take on Rod Stewart's Sexual Religion.  Craig is also featured with The Embers on a shagable version of Uptown Funk.  Lesa Hudson joins in with a new song, Get Your Feet On The Floor.  Andy King is back with SISBRO, this time with his version of Jackie Wilson's Lonely Teardrops.  Gary Lowder and his Smokin' Hot band also has a new song featured, I Want It All Back.  Listen to the Santana-like intro on this one.  Rick Strickland is also featured on the album with two new songs.  The first is a duet with Lesa Hudson, Do La Lee.  The other is a Rick Strickland solo, It Is What It Is.  There are several previously released songs included, such as Big Boss Man by The Fantastic Shakers, Alimony Alimony by The Mojo Blues Band and a gospel number, He Has Been There Too by Quinton Mills.  Carolina VI is another that will debut for the Spring Safari.  Carolina VII is also in progress and, hopefully, will be available also at the spring SOS.  This Cd will feature music from O.B. Buchana and more from Archie Bell.  SISBRO Productions has really been on the go.        

Have you heard the album, Dance Hall's, Last Call's & Honky Tonk's 20 Great Hits.  David Wade and his Shanty's Records have kept us in tune with the origins of Beach Music, as well as enlightening us on more modern music.  Shanty's new release is appropriately named Dance Hall's, Last Call's & Honky Tonk's 20 Great Hits.  This anniversary edition features a remixed version of Rick James' This Magic Moment.  To my knowledge, This Magic Moment/Dance With Me by Rick James has never been released on anything other than a Rick James single LP.  Another highlight on the album is the hard-to-get Lovin' John by Vernon Anders and pianist Monroe Tucker.  Monroe was also the piano player backing singer Linda Hayes, who was the sister of Tony Williams, original lead vocalist for The Platters.  Another highlight on the release is Secret Love by Earlington Carl Tilghman, better known as Sonny Til', lead singer of The Orioles who is known for Crying In The Chapel, Bring That Home Home, Baby Please Don't Go and Many, many others.  Another song of interest was Lovie Dovie by the fifties group, The Jacks, of Why Don't You Write Me? fame.  The Jacks and The Cadets (Stranded In The Jungle, I Cry and I Got Loaded) were one in the same.  The only difference in the two was that band member Willie Davis sang lead with The Jacks, and Aaron Collins and Will “Dub” Jones sang leads in The Cadets.  After his tenure with these two groups, “Dub” Jones joined The Coasters in 1958, spending ten years singing bass with the groupon such hits as Charlie Brown and Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart backed with Yakety Yak.  Dance Hall's... also features Finder's Keepers by Frankie Lee (Don't Make Me Cry), Send For Me by Leon Daniels (Corrina, Cirrina and Have Mercy Baby), Gonna Happen  by Drizabone (Pressure and Real Love) and Let's Drop Out Of Sight by Johnny Nash. One of Johnny's biggest hits was I Can See Clearly Now, backed by Bob Marley's Wailers. And there's more, among them being Must Have Lost My Mind by King Ernest, Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout Me by Jimmy Bell and Don't Let Love Walk Out On Us by Garland Green.  Dance Hall's, Last Call's & Honky Tonk's 20 Greatest Hits!  This soon to be classic release is available at Judy's House of Oldies on Main Street of the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach (judyshouseofoldies.com).  I would advise that you go by Judy's early during SOS or call the store now.

  Clifford Curry has a new hot charted single, Cold Beer, Hot Women.  KHP Music has been working with Clifford to release a new album.  The title?  Cold Beer, Hot Women, of course!  Clifford Curry, Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and his music career began in high school.  As Sweet Clifford, he recorded for the Nashville-based Excello Records label.  In 1967, he had a hit on the US R&B chart with the double sided hits She Shot A Hole In My Soul and We're Gonna Hate Ourselves In The Morning.  He also had a big hit in the seventies with Shag With Me.  In 1995, Clifford was inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Awards' Hall of Fame, along with Maurice Williams of Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs and Bill Pinckney, one of the original members of The Drifters.  In 2012, Clifford won a Grammy Award for his participation in the award winning album, Night Train To Nashville.  Not only has Cold Beer, Hot Women have new material, the album has an array of Clifford's hits from the past.  In addition to Cold Beer, Hot Women, the release features the new Booze Cruise and The Beach Goes On.  Other songs included are his duets with Steve Jarrell, Just Drifting Along and Two Soul Brothers.  Also included are some of his Metro releases from the nineties, I Can't Get A Hold Of Myself and The Feeling Is Mutual, as well as Love Thing, written by Clifford and produced by Masurice Williams.  Other songs appearing are 2008's Don't Be Shy from the late Jerry Goodman's JAD Music CD, Carolina's Best Volume 3.  You will also find I Love Women written by Mike Stewart and the popular Stacked In The Back from The Soul  Of Clifford Curry.  And there are a few more surprises on Clifford Curry's new KHP release, Cold Women, Hot Beer.

Rhonda McDaniel is pushing hard to get her new CD out in time for the Safari.  The album, Try It, You'll Like It, carries some of her most recent releases that were part of various compilations.  You'll hear Rolling In The Deep, I Need You Now, I Can't Wait and Love Guess Who.  There are tons of new music from Rhonda on the album, including an original written by Angel Rissoff, Little Black Dress, as well as the title track, Try It, You'll Like It.  Among the other songs that are new recordings, you will find Rhonda's versions of When A Woman Loves A Man and Shut Your Mouth.  Rhonda joined her first band, Southern Comfort at the raw age of 13.  Around 1991, she joined Brass Town, now called Brass Tyme, and spend nineteen years with the group as keyboardist and a singer.  In the early 2000's she embarked on a solo career while still with Brass Tyme.  Among her many awards, Rhonda was awarded Female Vocalist of the Carolina Beach Music Awards for seven consecutive years.  Try her new album, Try It, You'll Like It; you'll like it.

Delta Groove Music has released Gotta Bring It On Home To You by The Terry Hanck Band and Friends.  This is a powerful release and could have as many as four hits coming from it.  Several deejays have already posted some of the songs in their playlists.  After going through numerous times and listening to the songs over and over, I feel that There's No Gettin' Over Me may be just a little stronger than the others.  At least, that is my opinion. It was originally recorded by Ronnie Milsap.  The title track, Gotta Bring It On Home To You is also strong. The song is penned by Terry, and he starts the number just so that you think that Junior Walker has been raised from the dead.  There is no doubt that Terry Hanck is one of the greatest sax players of today.  The song was written by Terry for his wife.  Debbie Davies joins Terry on the vocals.  Another song of note is Elvin Bishop's Right Now Is The Hour.  Terry had played with Elvin on the gospel-like song and decided to record it.  Check out the band's version of B.B. King's Whole Lotta Lovin'.  The song features band member Johnny “Cat” Soubrand on the guitar solo.  I also took note of the ballad, My Last Teardrop.  The song was penned by Terry and previously released in 2008.  This time, there is a shift change in the second half of the song. Chicago-born and South Forida-based, beginning in the mid-60's, Terry began touring with Elvin Bishop, staying with him throughout most of the 70's and 80's.  You really do not want to miss out on Terry Hanck's Band and Friends Gonna Bring It Home To You.

  Memphis, Tennessee's Ecko Records just has released Donnie Ray's She's My Honey Bee.  You are very familiar with Donnie Ray for his mega-hits Who's Rockin' You and I'm Goin' Back, as well as others we've played and danced by.  Donnie Ray was born in Texarkana, Arkansas into a musical family.  At age fifteen he began singing in his father's band, learning to play guitar and soon becoming an instrumentalist, as well as a singer.  Later on, he mastered lead and bass guitars, keyboards and drums.  Breaking out, he began writing lyrics for recording studios, which led him into membership of the Ecko family.  The title track to She's My Honey Bee is an answer song to one of Rue Davis' hits.  She's My Honey Bee is one of the better songs on the album.  Don't judge the entire song just on the intro.  You need to listen to the whole thing to know what I'm talking about.  Another answer song is to O.B. Buchana's Take My Wife Back.  Donnie Ray's answer is I Can't Take Your Wife Back.  Other songs of note are I Got To Have It, I Never Had Nobody Love Me Like You and I'm Gonna Try Again.  Donnie Ray's She's My Honey Be should be available in all stores.

Another recent release from Delta Groove Music is Brazil's Igor Prado Band with debut release with Delta Groove, Way Down South.  Igor Prado fell in love with playing the guitar at age eleven.  Self-taught and left handed, Igor learned to master the guitar playing a right handed guitar upside down.  In the year 2000, he and his brother, Yuri, who plays drums, embarked on a fifteen year journey playing and recording south the border until 2014.  In 2015, they now release their first American album with help from the Delta Groove family of all stars.  Joining in on the recording are such notables as Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mitch Kashmar, Rod and Honey Piazza, J.J. Jackson, Mud Morganfield and the late Lynwood Slim.  The first song from Way Down South to grab my attention was Matchbox.  The band does a great job with this one, maybe even outperforming Jonny Lang.  Another that is outstanding is their version of Rooster Blues.  A couple of others on the release that have potential are the blues-driven What Have I Done and Talk To Me Baby.  The Igor Prado Band went way up North to record Way Down South.  And it was worth it.