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Down the soul music rabbit hole with Bull & The Matadors, Shorty Long, Etta James, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Bobby Womack, etc.

Another criminally overlooked master of blues and soul... and he turned Lonnie Mack on to his first Magnatone amp.

Another shot of deep southern soul, featuring long-lost demos by Eddie Hinton and a new release by Donnie Fritts.

Here are a couple new releases with decidedly old-school sounds. Bobby Patterson hails from Dallas, where he cut his first soul records back in the Sixties for the Jetstar label. He’s another one [...]

I just read a fascinating book about one of my favorite singers… Seems like a good excuse to showcase the music of Little Willie John while sharing a little love for the excellent bio Fever: A [...]

Flea market record bins are filled with artists who never got their due. And the fickle ways of listeners and labels alike are especially apparent when it comes to women soul singers. For every [...]

Is there a more perfect hybrid in American music than Memphis Soul? Give me a hard-driving rhythm section, throw in some screaming horns and a sanctified gospel singer, add some tasty blues [...]

SOUL! See you kids TONIGHT… Did YOU work on your BOOGALOO? It’s a Mashed-Potato, DO the ALLIGATOR, Summertime NORTHERN SOUL Dance CRAZE, and the kids are going NUTS! Another invitation to [...]

In our post on the Johnny Burnette Trio, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach listed some of his main inspirations on guitar. Burnette sideman Paul Burlison. Howlin’ Wolf’s original guitarist Willie [...]

One of the most soulful and satisfying reissues from the label that does it better than anyone – UK-based Ace Records – features a major figure in the Muscle Shoals music scene, Dan Penn. A [...]

Two years ago (on 10/10/10, to be precise), we lost one of the greatest soul singers of all time. Here’s a much-belated tribute – a few of our favorite Solomon Burke songs from his early years [...]

I’ve been listening to Eddie Hinton for years, and half the time I wasn’t even aware it was him. If you listen carefully, you can hear his chunky rhythm guitar and tasty fills on a whole slew of [...]

Last week I bitched about not coming across any new tunes that merit a second listen. Well, my daughter Allie must’ve heard me all the way down in Lexington, because she sent me a couple of [...]

American Idol’s Randy Jackson would probably describe him as “pitchy,” and I don’t think he’d make it on anyone’s team on The Voice. But Arthur Alexander is one of the great heroes of early [...]

Think of the many streams that flow into that big river called early rock ‘n roll – blues, gospel, R&B, doo-wop, country… You can hear all of those influences and maybe a few others (Southern [...]

Here’s a quick hit while I’m fumbling my way through Europe… A while back, we featured a great clip of soulmen Sam & Dave tearing it up in front of a TV studio audience in [...]

In previous posts, we covered a lot of fertile ground in southwest Ohio – King Records, Fraternity Records, Lonnie Mack, Roger Troutman… But the picture wouldn’t be complete without the man who [...]

Time for our long-overdue follow-up to this post, in which we reported that the soul music revival had finally made its way to the Rubber City. I wasn’t suggesting that Eighties Rock is now out [...]

I was trolling through the vast wasteland that is cable TV (one of those many “500+ stations and nothing to watch” moments) and came across a documentary on Showtime about the great [...]

We now have nearly 40 posts completed and properly filed with the internet authorities. Not what you’d call a highly prolific output. But as my sister pointed out, what I lack in frequency I make [...]

This is really just a cheap excuse to share a few samples of some pretty cool tunes I’ve been listening to lately. So if you’re one of those Northern Soul nuts from the UK, don’t expect me to [...]