Southern Soul
Corner
With The Soul Dog
Corner Talk: The changeover in top music continues to flow like water in the Southern Soul arena. Current hot charting songs include:
Kenny
Neal – Bitter With The Sweet, James Smith – Everybody
Needs Love, Mel Waiters –
When I Get Drunk, Patrick Green – I Got A Woman, Mr. Sam – Wobble, T.O.V – Haters Gone Hate, Denise
LaSalle – 24 Hour Woman, Latimore
- Mr. Right Now, LaMorris Williams - Ring On Her Finger……..….
Soul veteran Carl Marshall is riding high right now
with two tunes in the Soul and Blues Report’s current Top 25. Good Lovin’ Testimony, featuring Rue Davis, and I Lived It All are from Carl’s 2010 album Love Who You Wanna Love from CDS Records. It is the second successful
album release on the Carlsbad, California based label for Carl. His third drop
on the label is the freshly minted just out of the hopper entitled Grown Folks Love To Dance…….
Donnie Ray continues to bring strong artistic consistency
to the table with the recent release of his new album Who’s Rockin’ You? It marks his seventh effort on
the Ecko Records label since 2005, all of which have produced charting hit tunes. Donnie is equally comfortable singing juke
joint rockers, bluesy shuffles or sultry ballads. The hot trackers off this latest CD appear to be the title cut as well Too Many Mechanics. I am also really digging
Truly Love You Baby and I Almost Did It ………..
We lost another great one this past month with the passing
of the legendary Marvin Sease on February 8th, eight days shy of his 65th birthday. Although primarily
known for his ribald lyrics and risqué style in his signature tunes such as Candy Licker, Marvin was truly an outstanding singer and songwriter. The South Carolina native got his start
singing Gospel in his home state before moving to New York in the mid-‘60’s and eventually switching over to focusing
on R&B. Marvin put together a band named Sease that featured three of his brothers. He later went solo, performing at
local dances and clubs for many years while also recording a few singles along the way.
Marvin released his first album, the self titled
Marvin Sease, on his
own label in 1986. After signing with London Records, Marvin would record and release another twelve albums over the next
fifteen years on the London, Mercury, Silvertone and Jive
labels. The vast majority of the songs he recorded were original self-written material. As Southern Soul has exploded in the
last several years, so had Marvin’s career. Signing on with the Malaco label, his album release of Playa Haters in 2003 made it to #4 on Billboard’s Top
100 Blues Albums. Following up with Live With The Candy Licker the next year, this release also cracked the Top 20. The
best album of his career may well have been his last. Who’s Got
The Power, released in late 2008 topped
out at #6 and contained several bonafide charting hits, including I’m Coming
Home, Quiet As It’s Kept and Gone On, which is ironically about all the well known singers that have recently
passed. Marvin Sease was one on the most popular entertainers on the current Soul/Blues circuit and will certainly be missed
in the world of music……..
A song we having been recently featuring on our Way Down South radio show is You’ve Been Good To Me from Soul scene performing newcomer Gerod Rayborn. The song is from his Call Before You Come album
which was originally on the New Groove Records label and has been picked up for distribution by Ecko. Although Gerod is just
now coming out as a performer, he is very accomplished songwriter, penning almost all of his own recorded material. He has
also written many hit songs for key Southern Soul artists like Denise LaSalle, Carl Sims, Ms. Jody, Donnie Ray, David Brinston,
O.B. Buchana, Sheba Potts-Wright and the late Quinn Golden. Look for much more to come from this very talented singer/songwriter……..
Another newcomer to the various Southern Soul charts is
Charles Blakely who has not one but two songs currently on the hot list. The Dallas,
Texas native was raised on Gospel music, eventually performing with groups such
as Spencer Taylor & The Highway QC’s and Willie Banks & The Messengers. Charles breaks into this market with
a HUGE splash on his latest songs I Saw Her
I Saw You featuring Andre Lee and I
Didn’t Wanna Wake Up……...
I recently ran across a new album entitled Southern Soul Party Every Night by an artist named Sharnette Hyter.
The release contained several strong grooves so I decided to look a little deeper. It turns out Sharnette is a radio/television
veteran from the Dallas, Texas
area who has also channeled her performing talents into several genres of music. Her first hit song, Hooked On Luv, came about in the mid’90’s on the European
K4B Records label in the House music arena. Sharnette has been tabbed ‘The Queen of Underground Music’ in the
Dallas area for her work in showcasing young talent while
in club management. She has recently recorded both a Gospel and a Jazz album as well as having a Zydeco hit tune entitled
If You Want It. A very interesting
and diverse performer across many venues!............
February Blues: Why would a month only have 28 days??
It sure caught up with me in a big way – it seems the more I do the more I need to do!! I’ve had a few emails
asking when I will resume the Betty/Bettye bio series, and I promise it will be next month for sure! We had to re-direct the
beachmusic45 research staff this month to gather and sort through important information for our forthcoming book, date TBD……..
Soul Dog’s Top 15 Southern Soul
Songs for March 2011
1.
Am I Mr. Right – William
Bell
2.
Only Time I Get Lonely –
Stephanie Pickett
3.
Personal Matter – Wilson Meadows
4.
I Saw Her I Saw You - Charles Blakely w/ Andre Lee
5.
Too Much Booty Shakin’ – Jonathan Burton
6.
Who’s Rockin’ You – Donnie Ray
7. Sugar Daddy – Angel Sent
8.
What You Want Somebody – Charles Wilson
9.
Bus Stop – David Brinston
10. Family Reunion
– Bigg Robb
11. I Need That –
Ms. Jody
12. You’ve Been Good
To Me – Gerod Rayborn
13. Gonna Get Paid - Keri
14. L’il House, Big
Party – Soul Children with J. Blackfoot
15. Won’t Let My Baby Down - Nina