TRU

“Never Give Up”

Label: Society Hill / EMG
Release Date: 30th June 2023  
Format: Digita

Hailing from the Camden, New Jersey / Philadelphia area, a part of the country that became a breeding ground for great vocal groups such as the O’Jays, Stylistics and Blue Magic, three veteran vocal greats come together to form TRU, a highly versatile group that brings the sweet sound of Philly Soul forward for a new generation. Led by vocalist James “Jimi” Williams, TRU also features vocal great Billy Maynor and newest member, the charismatic Dennis Sproul.

Bobby Harden & The Soulful Saints

“One Night of the Week” /“Feels So Good” 

How do you define a true Soul Man? With difficulty, given that so much is down to a certain mystical mojo. But if anyone knows one when they see him, it would be Stax legend Eddie Floyd, who has spent 60-plus years perfecting the role. When Bobby Harden joined the star-studded Blues Brothers Band in 2012 as one of two singers in support of Floyd, the elder Soul Man immediately recognized similar qualities in his understudy. “He was everything I’d been when I was younger,” said Floyd, who gracefully passed the torch after several tours tag-teaming on stage. “I always tell him. ‘I saw you, my man,’ and I said, ‘That’s it! I can go back to the house and rest!’”

You get the sense it will be many years until Harden makes a similar transition into retirement. The true Soul Man, after all, lives to work, recognizing that success don’t come knocking on the door with a gold-plated invite. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Harden was blessed with a voice to raise roofs, and after a stint in Houston attending college, headed up to New York City to pursue his passion. It wasn’t always easy, but years singing soul classics on the wedding band circuit sharpened that church-trained voice and polished his moves in the process; they also instilled in Bobby the necessary professionalism to not just survive, but thrive on a slow, yet inexorable, rise in reputation.

The Rhythm Roots Allstars Feat: John Arthur Bigham

“Say I Do” / “Island Hustle”

Label: F-Spot Records 
Catalogue Number: FSPT-1027
Release Date: 16th Dec 2022
Format: Vinyl Color: Yellow / Blue / Black 7’

The Rhythm Roots Allstars began in 1998 as the house band for the weekly Rhythm Room at Temple Bar, a popular Los Angeles club that served as the epicenter for underground urban funk, soul, and international music for over a decade. This collective, featuring some of L.A.’s busiest musicians in the scene, is most notable for co-writing and crafting the music for 2017’s Grammy-nominated album “And The Anonymous Nobody” by De La Soul, in addition to recording with artists such as Ghostface Killah, Aloe Blacc, Raheem DeVaughn, Afrodisiac Soundsystem and more. Having backed up and supported numerous artists such as De La Soul, Talib Kweli, Brother Ali, and Barrington Levy, to name a few, it’s been a long time coming for Rhythm Roots Allstars’ first official solo release.

Double O’s Demingo’s

“Color One Tear Black” Parts 1&2

Label: Symphonical Records
Catalogue Number:  SR-012 
Release Date: 26th October 2022
Format: 7’  / Digital  

Double O’s Demingo’s Cincinnati teens Bill Smith & Randy Vandivier would play together during the late 60s in a group called ‘Billy & The Hitch Hikers’ fronted by James Bowens, who through his fascination with James Bond would adopt the nickname ‘Double O’ Hailing from Lincoln Heights, the group would be surrounded by and play with the likes of Bootsy Collins, Charles Spurling who became staples at local King Records.

Ronn Matlock

When I was a singer for Warner/Atlantic/Cotillion Records, I only recorded one album, “Love City,” which produced and co-written by the legendary Michael Stokes, but now I..m more into writing and production… 

Some artists that I have written for that you may know are: Keith Barrow, Shirley Caesar, Eddie Kendrick of the Temptations, Paul Williams of the Temptations, Posse, Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor the Vancouvers, Millie Scott, Conquest, and many others have recorded tunes of mine. I also had the pleasure of producing sessions featuring the famed Motown Funk Brothers rhythm section… Done sessions at some of Detroit’s most legendary recording studios, including The Sound Suite, United Sound, Pac 3; Super Disc, Cloudborn,Motown Studio A and The Pit. I’ve been very lucky in my associations… My first professional writing collaboration was done at Motown with a guitarist named Ricky Matthews, who later changed his name to the more memorable Rick James.

Transport


‘Disco Fantasy Land’

Label: Albina Music Trust
Catalog: AMT-004
Release Date: 23rd April 2021
Format: LP

“It’s a place where people go, again and again. The name of the place is Disco Fantasy Land.”

These lyrics introduce the title track of this previously unreleased Transport album from 1978. Featuring members of The Gangsters, Ural Thomas’ 1960s band, and Nu Shooz, this group has been under the radar since its inception, only recently rediscovered by Albina Music Trust.

Slickaphonic LP

Label: Albina Music Trust
Release Date: January 22nd, 2020
Catalog: AMT-003
Genre: Soul/Jazz/Funk from 1975 (previously unreleased)
Format: Vinyl Only

Next up from Albina Music Trust is a previously unreleased reel-to-reel session by Slickaphonic, a nine-piece powerhouse in Portland’s lost funk scene. Recorded in 1975 at Recording Associates by engineer Bob Stoutenberg (The Wipers, Baba Yaga, Mel Brown), this carefully restored collection places the listener in the thick of a watertight disco-funk session done the Albina way.