A new day for Candi Stanton – kicking off the 80s with a tighter grooving modern soul sound – and she nails it! Of course, Candi started as a sweet southern soul singer, hit big with her LA single "Young Hearts Run Free", and is here reinventing herself as a sophisticated modern diva. Includes some uptempo material – which she'd cut more of later on for dance labels – but she'seven better on the mellower tracks, especially the spacey "Halfway To Heaven", and the moody "Living Inside Me". Other tracks include "Looking For Love", "It's Real", and a remake of "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the best Candi Staton albums from the 70s – recorded for Warner Brothers, but with strong southern production by Rick Hall and the Fame Studios team. The group includes classic Muscle Shoals players like Spooner Oldham, Roger Hawkins, and Jimmy Johnson – and although the record's a bit slicker than earlier efforts, it's still got a much more honest soul sound than some of Candi's other 70s recordings. Lots of good songwriting, too – and titles include "Here I Am Again", "Clean Up America", "A Little Taste Of Love", "As Long As He Takes Care Of Home", "Six Nights & A Day", and "Can't Stop Being Your Fool". LP, Vinyl record album

A killer bit of female soul by a very short-lived group – one with a great sound that comes out of some real criss-crossing of styles – some deep soul currents, but some hipper modern soul touches at the top! The set was produced by Brad Shapiro, and has a good blend of his modern and southern styles of the mid 70s – similar to his work with Candi Staton – but it also features some impeccable arrangements from David Van DePitte, who gives the record a sweeping, swaying feel that buoys the vocals up on some really soulful backings. Titles include a great version of "How Long", plus the tracks "Mr Mystery", "You Accuse Me", "Rhythm Of Love", "One Woman's Trash", and "I Can't Weigh My Love". CD

A treasure trove of late 60s southern soul from the great Bettye Swann – 22 tunes cut for Capitol between 1968 and 1970 after she jumped from the indie Money Records! Sadly, the move didn't turn Bettye into the major star Capitol no doubt expected to arise – and these fantastic tracks were largely unappreciated at the time. This release marks the very first worthy issue of most of this material, thanks to Honest Jon's – who did a similarly wonderful job rescuing some of the best material ever recorded by Bettye's contemporary Candi Staton! There's an achingly great southern soul feel to these tunes, which range from fragile soul ballads with sweet harmonies to poundingly righteous stompers. The feel is just loose enough, with roomy arrangements that leave plenty of space for Bettye's sweet vocals, but still with the ability to tighten up and pound at the crack of a whip! Masterful lost soul – and a joy to experience with a reverent reissue! Tracks include "Don't You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me?)", "I'm Lonely For You", "Don't Touch Me", "Little Things Mean A Lot", "No Faith No Love", "Ain't That Peculiar", "Tell It Like It Is", "Today I Started Loving You Again" and lots more! CD

We'd put the great Eddie Hinton right up there with Dann Penn and Spooner Oldham for southern soul songwriting genius – and like that pair, Eddie never got as much time in the spotlight as he did in the background – where his genius for a heartfelt tune helped give more than a few artists some great success over the years! This package is a long-overdue look at Hinton's mighty talents with a tune – and it includes a great mix of soul, rock, and pop artists taking on some of his finest work – mostly recordings from that late 60s/early 70s time when Eddie was working at full capacity – and lending his talents to some killer tracks coming out of the Muscle Shoals scene. Most numbers have a deep soul vibe – even the rock ones – and titles include "Cover Me" by Jackie Moore, "Down In Texas" by Oscar Toney Jr, "Every Natural Thing" by Aretha Franklin, "Love Waits For No Man" by Al Johnson, "Lay It On Me" by Gwen McCrae, "Poor Mary Has Drowned" by Brick Wall, "Masquerade" by Don Varner, "A Little Bit Salty" by Bobby Womack, "Sure As Sin" by Candi Staton, "300 Pounds Of Hongry" by Tony Joe White, "Always David" by Sweet Inspirations, "Where's Eddie" by Lulu, "Breakfast In Bed" by Dusty Springfield, "If I Had Let You In" by The Box Tops, "Home For The Summer" by The Hour Glass, "People In Love" by Lou Johnson, and "Where You Come From" by Bonnie Bramlett. CD

An essential collection of rare material by this important female gospel trio of the 50s – a group who's not only known for bringing a style to the music that was ever bit as great as male group gospel of the pre-soul years – but who also are the initial early home to later soul superstar Candi Staton! As you can tell by the cover image, the girls are quite young – at least on many of these recordings – but this isn't kiddie music at all, as there's a deeply soulful style of singing that's very mature, and which instantly sets fire to these messages of spirit – with a vibrant style that usually just features some romping piano in the lead, alongside dynamic vocals. The lineup shifts a bit, but Candi is on most of these recordings – which also saw the light of day on Excello as singles – and the set also features a few tracks from later years, with Shirley Ann Lee on vocals. Titles include "Many Little Angels In The Band", "At The Cross", "Rest Rest Rest", "Too Late", "Sin Is To Blame", "It's All Over Me", "My Faith Is In Thee", "I Looked Down The Line & I Wondered", and "Somebody's Knocking At Your Door". CD

A second volume of underground disco and unstoppable dancefloor soul from NYC in the late 70s and early 80s – M&M Mixes Vol 2, highlighting rare and previously unreleased mixes by John Morales! It features a roster of legendary names, particularly to diggers of deeper disco tracks, but also some soul stars who worked well in that groove – a batch of tunes mixed & engineered by Morales back in the day at M&M Studios and elsewhere. Great numbers by Teddy Pendergrass, Inner Life feat Jocelyn Brown, Candi Staton and Loleatta Holloway! The vinyl version comes in 2 separate parts –both 2LPs and featuring all exclusive extended vinyl versions – each each of which fills a whole side! Part B includes "The More I Get (John's M+M Get It All Mix)" by Teddy Pendergrass, "Young Hearts Run Free (John's M+M Run Run Run Free Mix)" by Candi Staton, "Dreamin (John's M+M Not My Man Extended Mix)" by Loleatta Holloway and "Make It Last Forever (John's M+M Original Forever 12" Mix)" by Inner Life feat Jocelyn Brown. LP, Vinyl record album

Music from Ohio Players, Brick, Rose Royce, Silver Convention, KC & The Sunshine Band, Candi Staton,Wild Cherry, the Spinners, Aretha Franklin & more. CD