About the soul and getting the blood-a-pumping
g about
t night our gig.
t when Gospel music is in the air n’s? with our lead-off review for
expectthis week’s installment of Ear ll and aBliss. Once again, we turn to
riendlyan offering from the relatively s nevernew, Memphis-based Bible
have a& Tire Recording Compathereny. ff With a slogan that reads “Retread You Soul,” the label is the brainchild of Fat Possum Records co-owner Bruce Watson. Its mission is to showcase current gospel music which in spirit and sound hearkens back to the past, as well as material from that lengthy past of the genre. To date, a major source of the historic variety has come via the label’s mining of the catalogue of the D-Vine Spirituals Recordings label which began in Memphis in the early 1970s. That “excavation” continues with the new multi-volume collection Sacred Soul: The D-Vine Spirituals Records Story Volume 1 and 2. It features a sanctified and stirring set of southern sacred soul, originally recorded between 1972 and 1986 for pioneering gospel producer Juan D. Shipp’s D-Vine Spirituals label. Joining it in this week’s Ear Bliss spotlight is a look at the reissue of the album Nina Simone and Her Friends. Originally released in 1960, it quickly followed Simone’s stunning 1959 debut for the label called Little Girl Blue. It also represented Simone’s swansong for the Bethlehem record label and also features tracks from two other former Bethlehem artists in Chris Connor and Carmen McRae. More below, so let’s get to it.
Various Artists
Sacred Soul: The D-Vine Spirituals Records Story Volume 1 and 2
Bible & Tire Record Co.
The Memphis-based D-Vine Record label was birthed in the early 1970s thanks to the collaborative efforts of record producer Juan D. Shipp and studio engineer Clyde Leoppard. It was at a coffee shop in downtown Memphis in 1970 that the young black preacher Shipp and the aging hillbilly bandleader and recording engineer Leoppard first struck up a friendship (Leoppard was a former studio drummer at Sun Records and leader of the long-running western swing combo The Snearly Ranch Boys.) The friendship between the two would morph into a partnership that would lead to the formation of the D-Vine Spirituals record label and the release on 45 RPM records of some of the most stirring gospel sounds to come out of the Bluff City from the early 1970s through the mid80s. A savory taste of their
can be found on the new collection from Bible & Tire Record Company called Sacred Soul: The D-Vine Spirituals
Records Story Volume 1 and 2. Available separately or as a multi-volume bundle in either CD or LP format, each volume contains 14 tracks. Appropriately, the first volume leads off with the label’s most successful release, “I Heard the Voice” by Elizabeth King & The Gospel Souls first released in 1972. King has already been the subject of a Bible & Tire Record Company reissue of her early D-Vine sides, not to mention an excellent album of new recordings by her released in 2021. It is the perfect starting point. From there, it is onto a coterie of artists, none of them anything close to household names unless you happen to be a gospel aficionado, kicking out a jubilee of wonderfully raw spirituals with wads of soul and swagger. These includes such artists, and ypu just have to love the names of these groups, as The Seven Brothers, The Gospelaires, The Heavenly Stars, The Supreme Travelers, Elder Ward & The Gospel Four, The Joy of Memphis, The D-Vine Spiritualettes, The Spiritual Wonders, The Shaw Singers, The Southern Aires, The Exciting Legion Aires, The Angelic Five, and The Southern Bells. Gospel fan or not, this is music as much about the soul and getting the blood-apumping in more than just a spiritual way and hopefully, there is more to come! Recommended. Visit www.biglegalmessrecords.com/collections/bible-tire.
Various Artists
Nina Simone and Her Friends
Bethlehem Records/BMG
A case of cashing in? Such surely seemed to be the case with the 1960 album Nina Simone and Her Friends from Bethlehem Records. Upon its original release, Simone had already left the label opting for a new suitor in Colpix Records who signed her as a result of the success of her 1959 debut album for Bethlehem called Little Girl Blue. Hoping to seize whatever more financial rewards they could reap from Simone, Bethlehem packaged a song from the Little Girl Blue sessions along with several others that did not make the cut for her debut along with tracks from two other former Bethlehem artists in jazz vocalists Chris Connor (four numbers taken from her 1953-55 period with Bethlehem) and the song stylist Carmen McRae (from her lone 1955 album for Bethlehem) into the album Nina Simone and Her Friends.A newly remastered stereo version of the original artifact has just recently been released by BMG. It follows a reissue earlier in 2021 of Simone’s aforementioned 1959 Bethlehem Records debut Little Girl Blue (and which we reviewed in these pages and is highly recommend). To say the reissue of Nina Simone and Her Friends is must-have goods would be a stretch, however, it does put the lid on the cup, so to speak, for her brief period with Bethlehem which for completists out there may be all they need. Of the dozen tracks, only four feature Simone with all coming from the 1957 Little Girl Blue recording session. Still, they are indicative of a true talent on the rise and the addition of such talented vocalists as Connor and McRae into the album mix make an even finer listen.
LIVE SHOTS:
With the COVID-19 cases sky high, please check ahead before heading to any of these venues to verify scheduled shows are still happening. In addition, many are continuing to maintain COVID-19 restrictions, so please visit their respective web sites for the latest information. Beginning in South County and nearby spots, Courthouse Center for the Arts in West Kingston next presents music on Saturday, January 29, with Saints In the City- A Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band. Prince Tribute act Dean Ford and The Beautiful Ones come to the Courthouse on February 5. A full weekend of music is planned at Pump House Music Works on Kingstown Road in Peace Dale. Things kick off Friday night with favorites Saddle Up the Chicken. Saturday evening is a twin bill featuring The Honk and The Faux Paws. The weekend closes out with an all-ages showcase early Sunday evening. A doubleheader is in store at The Knickerbocker Music Center in Westerly (35 Railroad Ave) on Friday night with acoustic trio Live Fade in the headlining position and Americana acoustic band Arrowhead in the opening slot. The Chris Leigh Band brings the blues to The Knick on Saturday night. In the Northern reaches of the state, Ocean state blues mainstay Neal & The Vipers are at Chan’s Restaurant in Woonsocket (267 Main Street) on Friday night. Chan’s welcomes Texas guitar slinger, songwriter and soulful blues singer Willie J. Laws on Saturday with show time 8 pm each evening. The Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland next offers music on February 5 with the acoustic antics of the Mike Block Trio. The Disco 54 Band brings the ultimate disco experience to the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, Stadium on Friday night. Up next at The Met Café in Pawtucket is Dogs in a Pile with Guess Method opening on Saturday evening. On Sunday, it is the sounds of the Grateful Dead with So Many Rhodes playing an early