Monthly Archives: June 2021

Jimmy Ruffin

North Broad Street (NBS) #5 is two previously unissued tracks brought to you from two reels NBS where very lucky to receive from Cali with 4 wonderful tracks.

NBS are on their 4th sell out release. Their mantra is simply good soul music, which undersells their product to date, which has been nothing short of sensational soul music. Their previous release, the first going under the banner of Detroit Soul Renaissance releases is gaining worldwide acclaim, bringing exposure to Cynthia Girty and Arenita Walker who until now had been unsung heroes to all but the most knowledgeable soul fans, their lineage only relatively recently been exposed by some of the best soul sleuths out there, a great example of these crazy collectors.

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The Originals

‘Young train” / “Young Ideas” (MD Records)

Released in 1973 on a Motown Promotional only release to support the Mayoral election campaign of Coleman Young. The Originals consisted of C.P.Spencer, F.Gorman, W.Gaines and H.Dixon were known as Motown’s best kept secret and never really had the success they should have. In the third of the series, we move to 1973 Detroit. But to really appreciate the story of this release we first need to step back to 1969 when Richard Austin ran for Mayor of Detroit. This was a turning point for the city although Richard Austin was defeated at the general election it was becoming clear that the populace of Detroit wanted change.

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