BLACK RUBY

Barbara Jean Stackhouse was born in Hollandale Mississippi, the 12th March 1947.

Recording as Ruby Stackhouse she released in 1965 through Kellmac records her first single:

"Please Tell Me/Wishing".

Changed her Name in Ruby Andrews she left Kellmac and released through the chicago based label Zodiac owned by Ric Williams two years later the single:

"Let's Get a Grove Goin On"

The third single "Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over)/I Just Don't Believe It" reached number 9 in the R&B charts and number 51 in the pop charts in 1967.

Successful follow ups on Zodiac and Ruby released between 1967 and 1973 16 singles and one album.

"You Made A Believer (Out Of Me)/Where Have You Gone" is my favourite one of the lot.

number 18 in the R&B charts and number 96 in the pop charts.

Another gem is "Help Yourself (lover)" with sweet vocal harmonies on the chorus.

During these hard years of her career she was a night club dancer.
Finally in 1971 Ruby released his first full lenght album named "BLACK RUBY",  def one of the great "black rock" record ever made, two years before the famous Betty Davis debut.

All song were written by Fred Bridges, Robert Eaton and Richard Knight.

 

 

BARBARA & GWEN LIVSEY

Barbara & Gwen were sisters and their surname was Livsey, but Barbara may be best known as Barbara Blake thanks to her success as Barbara & The Uniques. 

Barbara, who was born in Atlanta, GA on 27 May 1946 started out as a member of the Du-ettes in her adopted home in Chicago singing girl group pop/soul for the Leaner Brothers' various labels. At the end of the 60s Gwen joined her sister for this super one-off release for Gerald Sims and Leo Westbrook. "Right On" is hard Windy City soul of the finest kind. 

 DISCOGRAPHY BY BOSKO ASANOVIC: 

The Du-Ettes (Members Barbara Livsey (Born 27-May-1946 In Atlanta, Georgia) And Mary-Francis Hayes)  

Mecca 2422 - Donny Ugly / Wild (Instrumental) – 1959
M-Pac! 7201 - Mister Steel / I'm Yours – 1963
M-Pac! 7209 - Move On Down The Line / Have You Seen (My Baby) – 1963
M-Pac! 7214 - I'm Gonna Love You / The Cool Bird - 1964
One-Derful! 4827 - Lonely Days / Please Forgive Me - 1965
Mar-V-Lus 6003 - Every Beat Of My Heart / Sugar Daddy - 1965
Lost-Nite 1003 - Lonely Days / Please Forgive Me – 1965

Barbara & Gwen (Members Barbara Livsey And Gwen Livsey)

New Chicago Sound 6970 - Just The Two Of Us / I Love My Man - 1969 ~ 1970

Barbara & The Uniques (Members Barbara Livsey, Gwen Livsey And Doris Lindsey)

New Chicago Sound 69710 - There It Goes Again / What's The Use – 1970
Arden 3001 - There It Goes Again / What's The Use – 1970
Arden 3002 - I'll Never Let You Go / You're Gonna Make Me Cheat On You – 1970
Arden 3005 - You Make Me Feel So Young Again / Take Me As I Am (Don't Try To Change Me) – 1970
Abbott 37006 - He's Gone / Take Me As I Am (Don't Try To Change Me) - 1972
20th Century Fox 2089 - It's Not That Easy / Prize Possession – 1974

Barbara Blake & The Uniques

20th Century Fox 2129 - Teach Me / Everlasting Thrill – 1974
20th Century Fox Tc-2210 - I Need Your Love So Bad (Stereo) / I Need Your Love So Bad (Mono) – 1975
20th Century Fox 2210 - I Need Your Love So Bad / Let Me Down Easy - 1975

BOYD RIVERS

Boyd Rivers was born December 25, 1934 in Madison County, Mississippi.

He was brought up in the church by his mother and was influenced by regional musicians such as Clyde Maxwell and  his uncle, the gospel legend, Reverend Cleophus Robinson.

Rivers started out on two nails and a wire on awall, and played blues guitar as early as 13, but switched into sprituals around the age of 16.

When he was 29 he married Ruth May who was a non professional singer from the local gospel choir.

He moved to Canton, Mississippi where in 1978 was filmed by Alan Lomax,  John Bishop and Worth Long  in a stunning performance. He played :

"You Got To Take Sick And Die"

"Come Out The Wilderness"

"Fire In My Bones"

"Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up"

"Heard The Angels Singing"

"Soon One Morning"

"I Done Die Time One Time (Ain't Gone Die No More)"

Axel Kunster and Siegfried Christmann recorded Rivers recorded later Rivers in the same year for the L&R records series "living country blues" and he appears on "Living Country Blues vol. 11".

Alan Thomposn dedicated in his book "Woke Up This Morning"  a chapter tohim.

Boyd Rivers died in Jackson, Mississippi on Novenmber 22, 1993.

Here is a CRAZY version of "You Got To Take Sick And Die" live from the 1979 Mississippi Delta Blues Festival.

JANET HELMS

Nobody knows about Janet Helms.
No tracks of her on the net.
The Washing D.C. label "Stone Groove" also known as "Jaston Record Corporation" released in 1972 a stunning 45  "sad sad lover/I love, love you baby" both written by Lloyd Smith.

After  two years the same label released a full album called "Ship On".
Arranged and conducted by Fernando Gumbs, Roger Hogan and Lloyd Smith.

  
Side 1:

• Ship On (3:14)
• Surer Than Yesterday (3:43)
• Ode To Freddie Harris (3:53)
• I Love You Baby (2:42)
• Can’t Get Over You (4:07)

 Side 2:

• Our Sweet Refrain (3:19)
• Sad Man (2:55)
• Bird Song (3:10) Click here to listen
• The Sweetest Life’s The Life Of A Lover (2:49) Click here to listen
• Time Rolls On (3:42)

Here's the title track "Ship On":

REV. WILLIE MORGANFIELD

Preaching and singing have been closely connected for Reverend Willie Morganfield. The pastor of Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Clarksdale, since 1975. Morganfield started out as a singer. He performed with a number of gospel groups included the New Orleans Chosen Five and The Kings Of Harmony. Eventually he became known as a soloist and released several hit recordings in the 50's and the 60's.
Since accepting the call to the ministry in the 1960s Morganfield has made preaching his priority.
His experience as a musician still comes through in the rhythms and verbal phrasing that he uses in his sermons. Morganfield has gained a national reputation for his preaching skills. 

I have this beautiful copy of his "While I can" released through Paula Records in 1967.

Record was produced by Don Logan and arranged by Sammy Steven There is a bluesy with a strong "early BB king" influence: "Lord I Need Thee (As I Can)"

 

ANDREW WARTSS & GOSPEL STORYTELLERS

Andrew Wartts was an aspiring songwriter from Greenville, MS who grew up singing in church choirs, moved to St Louis, Missouri, worked for the police department and sang in the Southern Wonders gospel group between 1961 and 1967. In 1983, while living in Bloomington, Illinois (a next-door neighbour and good friend of the late Donny Hathaway) Wartts formed the Gospel Storytellers, hoping to interest other artists in his heavily scriptural compositions.

"I wanted to do something different with gospel music and still make people feel good about life,"
 says Wartts. 

"The truth is that all of the songs on that album were written for the express purpose of getting some major group to record them. I wanted to be a songwriter. However, no-one was interested. I mean we sent those songs out to so many people and couldn't get anyone to record a single one. Now, as life goes, shortly after we recorded the album I was approached by a representative for a major Rhythm and Blues star who is now deceased. But he was a big star. Everyone knows his name. He was interested in doing a gospel album. He liked what he heard and wanted me to write the material for him. I began to think that maybe the songs were pretty good."

Stunning songs. Wartts holds hard to a then-outmoded JB's/Curtom sound, with funky drums, soft, wailing organ, golden harmonies and Oliver Sain guitarist Earl Wright laying down a minor-key chicken-scratch soul groove. Wartts burrows into the far corners of the Bible (the 37th psalm; 25th verse; Luke, Chapter 16; John 14; the third chapter in the book of Acts), his sweet harmonies making these dusty, forbidding words sound like the mesmerizing entreaties of Curtis Mayfield. A silvery, euphoric sound, that is also effortlessy funky, it comes close to convincing you that the way of the Lord is a joyous one, not merely the mean choice between being a sinner or a winner.

WHO AM I

My name is Luca.

I'm a true and real lover of soul music, especially the one that is felt from the heart.

I set up this blog to share "obscure" pearls discovered through the years somewhere around.

more about me

MARION BLACK

One of the turning points in the career of William Roger "Bill" Moss came in 1964, when he left everything and  moved to Columbus, Ohio which was to be his home for the next 41 years.

Having been divorced, Moss married Ruth, who was to be his wife for the rest of his life.

Bill and Ruth Moss were to own and operate a restaurant, Nassau Daddy's Pit Barbecue, which specialized in barbecue items. Moss recorded a few songs musically, including the 1969 song 'Sock it to 'em, soul brother'. In 1970, Moss founded his own record label, Capsoul, which was designed to be the Columbus alternative to Detroit's Motown. Unlike Motown, Capsoul had just a few minor hits over several years before going out of business.

During his audience with local talents he discovered Marion Black with his self-penned song "Who Knows".

"Most of my time was down South, on the East Coast," Black remembered during an interview at his Near East Side home. In fact, Black said he could only remember publicly performing his music once in Columbus.

The road was another story. Black toured for months on the back of "Go On Fool," a gospel-infused slow-drift that peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard R&B chart. After a dispute over royalties with Capsoul founder Bill Moss, Black left Capsoul for Prix Records and never scored another hit.

Even when he sold his song "Off the Critical List" to Chess Records in 1974, the label folded shortly after. Eventually Black gave up on music and stuck with waiting tables at the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue, where he worked for 25 years before retiring in 1995.

Then, suddenly and surprisingly, this decade has brought Black more attention than ever. First, Columbus native RJD2 sampled Black's "Who Knows" on his acclaimed 2002 album Deadringer.

 Then Numero's Capsoul reissue rocketed the song into the pop-culture consciousness. "Who Knows," the neglected B-side to "Go On Fool," has appeared on TV shows "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

"I thought it was dead in the water a long time ago," Black said. "I never had an idea that it would do what it's doing."

 

The royalties keep rolling in. Black said he's made more money from his music this year than all his other years combined. That's small consolation in the face of his faltering health and the death of his wife last year, but even a little bit of good news can go a long way towards curing the blues.

In 2012 I recorded my own version of "Who Knows".
 


 WHO KNOWS by Luca