Category Archives: Kent Records

Way back in 1982 a callow northern youth would visit Ted Carroll’s Rock On record stall on Golborne Road in West London. He used to buy the 60s soul singles that the old vinyl merchant had plundered from warehouses and old shop stock on his travels. This interest in a music that was not particularly cherished in London at that time led to Ted asking this son of Market Harborough to stick together 15 singles from Los Angeles’ Kent and Modern labels and come up with an LP. That would satisfy all those pesky young mods who pestered Ted for some “soul like what all the original mods used to lissen to”. Pinching the title from a popular Popcorn single of the time, the soul brother, we’ll call him Horace, came up with “For Dancers Only” a selection of Northern Soul stompers, girl group floaters, male vocal harmonies and low down Rhythm & Blues.

Atlanta – Hotbed Of 70s Soul

Label: Kent Records
Catalogue Number: CDKEND 518
Release Date: 29rd March 2024  
Format: CD

The GRC Records set-up in Atlanta produced a wealth of great soul music. Because of the sudden curtailment of the company, due to owner Michael Thevis’ incarceration, so much of it never saw a release.

The tapes were preserved though and with many tracks being issued. This latest batch of tape discoveries is of shockingly high quality. Sam Dees’ presence is a major cause of this.

Standouts include Miss Louistine’s original version of ‘Con Me’ – surely a contender to be a Deep Soul Treasure, had Dave Godin heard it. Her take on Dees’ ‘Extra Extra’ is possibly the opposite emotion – sheer joy at finding her lover; equally well expressed. ‘Paperman’ is a classic mid 70s Dees’ composition, well sung by Wes Lewis with his group Alpaca Phase III. Dees collaborated with another major GRC talent, Joe Hinton, for the funkier ‘Shouldn’t I Be Given The Right To Be Wrong’. Hinton co-penned two songs with backing singer Louvain Demps who left her job with Motown’s backing girls the Andantes to move to Atlanta with Hinton. Their ‘Grant Me One More Day’ is a beautiful track and ‘Depend On Me’ is another worthy find.

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New Kent Records 45’s

The Mayberry Movement
“I Can See Him Making Love To You” / “What Did I Do Wrong”

Label: Kent Records
Catalogue Number: CITY 090 
Release Date: 24th November 2023 
Format: 7’

This pairing was slated to be Event 218 in late 1974, but as no copies have emerged, it can be assumed that the single was pulled. It is hard to know why, but judging by its rarity the Anderson Brothers GSF release of ‘I Can See Him Loving You’ was a commercial failure – perhaps Event didn’t want to suffer a similar fate. This reading of producer Ray Dahrouge’s song is more soulful and vital than the Anderson Brothers which was huge on the Northern Soul scene, but without this take for competition at the time. Maybe the steamy finale to the Mayberry’s version was a bit too much for radio play, but surely the brilliance of the ballad A side would have compensated for that. Their loss; our gain.

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Joe Graham / John Edwards 

‘Higher Than High’ / ‘It’s Got To Be The Real Thing For Me This Time’

Label: Kent-City Records
Catalogue Number: CITY 087
Release Date: 25th August 2023 
Format: 7’

The recent find of four Joe Graham recordings in the GRC/Aware tapes has shown there was much more to Joe’s talents than the southern soul of his 60s Chant recordings and the synthesiser, electro pop he recorded for various Atlanta labels in the 80s. ‘Higher Than High’ is a soulful disco number featuring a relentless beat. The track already has a strong following, thanks to advance plays in Europe and the UK from DJ Dave Thorley. This track, along with three other numbers, were recorded around 1976 for the GRC stable – just as the company was floundering so badly that the songs were left as unmixed multi-track tapes.  Now mixed the demand for this one will be high.

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Shrine – The Rarest Soul Label Vol.2 Andy Rix 2000

The story of Shrine Records, from its creation to demise, was told in Volume One. As promised Volume Two will look at those who contributed to the creation of the Shrine sound and the songs that have captured the attention of 60s Soul fans all over the world.

The story of Shrine Records, from its creation to demise, was told in Volume One. As promised Volume Two will look at those who contributed to the creation of the Shrine sound and the songs that have captured the attention of 60s Soul fans all over the world.

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SHRINE NORTHERN – The 60s Rarest Dance Label Various Artists

Kent Records

Label:  Kent Records
Catalogue Number: KENT 526
Release Date: 28th April 2023  
Format: LP

Ace Records is proud to announce the purchase of the Shrine label and Eddie Singleton’s independent productions.
To celebrate we have compiled an album of the very best dance recordings the label made in 1965 and 1966, primarily in Washington DC.
The business’s failure made this music incredibly hard to find for record collectors and Shrine is rightly known as the rarest soul label.

It is much more than that though. The music was made by some one of the original founders of Motown, Raynoma Liles Gordy and her Motown-schooled cousin Mike Ossman, New York music business luminaries Eddie Singleton and Harry Bass and the up-and-coming talents of Washington’s Keni St Lewis and Maxx Kidd. The acts included the hugely respected Ray Pollard and fellow New Yorker J.D. Bryant, talented and established Washington and Baltimore acts Eddie Daye & The Four Bars, Bobby Reed and the Enjoyables. Importantly, they discovered and developed the local talent of the area in the shape of the Cautions, Les Chansonettes, the Prophets and Shirley Edwards.

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This Is Flying Dutchman 1969-1975

Label: BGP 
Catalogue Number:CDBGPD 314
Release Date: 31st March 2023  
Format: CD / LP

Bob Thiele is one of the great producers. For his work with John Coltrane alone, where he gave free reign to the saxophone great’s wildest musical visions including ‘A Love Supreme’, ignoring the usual cost consciousness of a major label, he deserves to be lauded. In addition to this his 8 years at Impulse saw him recording seminal works by scores of musicians including late blooming masterpieces by Ellington and Hodges, and a whole wave of ‘new thing’ jazzers such as Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. He didn’t stop there and when he launched his own label Flying Dutchman in 1969, he continued to innovate and record music that reflected its times, but that also resonates down through the ages.

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Kent Records Jan /Feb 2023

Release Date: 27.01.23
To celebrate Kent’s 40th birthday (admittedly a month late due to pressing times), we are releasing our first ever box set of singles. This is due to getting access to the Loma vaults and finding some previously unheard soul gems to augment the best of the soul dance tracks from the esteemed imprint.
Starting with THEE discovery of the soulful ‘20s we present L A soul group the Marvellos whose ‘It’s Your Love That I Need’ – written by the great Willie Hutch – a Motownesque dancer whose arrangements and melodies are so stunning we also issued the backing track as an instrumental B side to it.

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Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any…BETTER

Warren Raye & The Infernal Blues Machine “It’s The Feeling I Get” / “I Can’t Turn You Down”

Label:  Kent Select City Records 
Catalogue Number: CITY 086
Release Date: End of January 2023 
Format: 7’

Yet again a new 100 Club Anniversary 45 has been instantly acclaimed and has become highly sort-after on release. Warren Raye’s ‘It’s The Feeling I Get’ is now available on a commercial pressing and this superb Crossover number will be one of the biggest sellers of the year. 

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Southern And Deep Soul From Louisiana

Label: Kent Catalog: – CDKEND 501 – Release Date: 28th May 2021 – Format: CD

South-West Louisiana is rightly famous for its homegrown music, Cajun, and its black Creole cousin, Zydeco. There is a romanticism to the area with its exotically named towns and a feeling that it has been cut off from the world. Yet, however much it may seem removed from America, it is still a part of it. Since the birth of the car, Route 90 and then the Interstate 10 have connected New Orleans, Louisiana and Houston, Texas, running straight through the region, opening it up to the world. The local industry that grew up to record the indigenous music was perfectly placed to document local versions of country, blues, funk, soul and pop, as musicians and live bands came through to play in the most important towns.

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Various Artists (Vietnam Soul)

Label: Kent – Catalog: CDKEND 474 – Release Date: 28th May 2021 – Format: CD

This month sees the release of the last in Kent’s trilogy spotlighting black America’s involvement in the Vietnam war. It’s been a long wait but we feel that the 23 tracks here more than uphold the high standard of its predecessors – “A Soldier’s Sad Story” (CDKEND 226) and “Does Anybody Know I’m Here” (CDKEND 245).

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Little Ann

Detroit’s Secret Soul
Catalog: CDKENT495

Release Date: December 2020

In the last two decades, Little Ann’s music has gone from being almost unheard to celebrated widely across the world. Initially known only as a footnote for having one side of a Ric-Tic single in 1968, the discovery of her acetate of ‘What Should I Do’ at Wigan Casino in the late 70s led to her name becoming important to rare soul fans.

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