All Categories — LPs  

A rare gem from Maceo Parker – the second album cut with his King's Men group in the short time he was away from James Brown in the early 70s! The set was done for the Excello southern soul label, and it's got a bit of a different groove than his work for House Of Fox with the same group – a style that's got a bit more conventional southern production overall, and grooves that run towards soul a bit more than funk – although the whole record is still pretty darn funky overall! Players in the group include Charles Sherrell, Melvin Parker, and Jimmy Nolen – and titles include "Funky Music Machine", "Dreams", "TSU (Aristocrat of Bands)", "Funky Tale To Tell", and "Born to Wander".

A great little set from Archie Shepp – one of his strongest of the 70s, and a real return to the kind of spiritual jamming he was doing at the end of his time with Impulse Records! The album's well-known for it's great track "Song For Mozambique" – a spare and righteous number that features Bunny Fox singing in a sweet spiritual mode, while Charles Greenlee and Shepp recite chants over the jamming grooves of the band. Fox also sings on the mellow and soulful "I Know Bout The Life", and the Shepp group picks up a straight but hard mode on Cal Massey's great track "Lookin For Someone To Love". The extended jammer "Hipnosis" takes up all of side one – and it's a great little groover that builds nicely with a comping rhythm, yet which gives the band some nice room to solo in an exploratory fashion. The cut's written by Grachan Moncur III, and has Charles Greenlee blowing trombone in Grachan's place!

A sweet little set that definitely aims to stake out its own little territory – with a groove that lives up surprisingly well to the title! The music here is way funkier than you might expect – and comes from a time when many popular singers were working in studios staffed by cats who were pretty darn cool – and had a great ear for picking up some of the best musical undercurrents from other scenes – including some of the best soul and funk that was really breaking out in the US at the start of the 70s! As a result, many of these tracks have unexpectedly funky rhythms at the bottom – way different than the kind of backings that you might have heard in country soul records from a few years before – and different too than the redneck rock that was becoming more popular with some of the bigger acts on the charts. You're bound to recognize a few bigger names here – as the set's not just country artists – and as usual, the Light In The Attic crew have done a stunning job of putting the whole thing together. Titles include "LA Memphis Tyler Texas" by Dale Hawkins, "Georgia Mountain Dew" by Johnny Adams, "Light Blue" by Bobby Darin, "I Wanta Make Her Love Me" by Jim Ford, "Hawg Frog" by Gray Fox, "Fire & Brimstone" by Link Wray, "Street People" by Bobby Charles, "Bayou Country" by Gritz, "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" by Johnny Jenkins, and "Studspider" by Tony Joe White.