There’s so many people that crafted and created the legacy of mid 20th Century music that, basically, I keep sustaining my ability to write and pull together such a wealth of material to share with you year after year. It’s one of the joys that I give myself, educating myself even further and then sharing…
Tag: Jerry Butler
Season Of The Bliss: An Almost Top Forty Of Swoonful Tunes
People really fucking love Fall. It’s interesting because I commented a few weeks ago to someone that all of the celebration of beauty of this particular season is also a celebration of death. As September folds into Oct to Nov to December vibrant trees and flowers react to the waning sunlight and shorter days in…
Guys Gone Uptown: 32 Sophisticated Soul Tunes from Stylish Gents
I definitely spend more time in terms of creating mixes that explore the vast contributions that women, particularly Black women, have made to popular music. Every once in a while tho, I feel a bit guilty for ignoring the legacy of the legions of handsome men that worked tirelessly in the studio and stage crafting…
Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff: Brotherly Love In The Recording Booth
Picture it, Philadelphia. 1963. Okay, it’s Leo season, and time for me to round up another pioneering set of songwriters. Given the season of the lion, I had to pay tribute to one member of Royal Soul. But you can’t really go into the spectacle that is the influential career of Kenneth Gamble (born August…
Let Me Tell You About A Gemini Genius From Chicago Named Curtis
Let’s be honest these days, the sign of Gemini gets a real bad wrap. From the person stinking up the oval office and some of his support staff to whatever the hell Kanye West is tripping on, it’s not a kind period of history for the sign of the twins. How can I, a Gemini…
Love-o-matic: Your Mid Century Auditory Personal Lubricant For Horizontal Dancing
Spring in the air, filled with love, there’s magic everywhere. Okay, we’re not all young and in love as Van McCoy wrote, but we all like to be amorous, and there’s no season like the blossoms of Spring, and Venus in Taurus season to get us to want to make like the birds and bees…
Strings And Things Pt.1: 36 Orchestral Soul Gems
I’ve been told by fellow DJs on the soul scene, quite derisively sometimes, that the soul music that I spin is too *sweet.* Not Funky, nitty or gritty, I tend towards pretty melodies, and… frankly, string sections. Violins? Cellos? Upright Bass? Why?!?! As I try to lean back into live DJing in a new town,…
The Weight for ’68: 50 Tunes from The Tumultuous Year 50 previous
When one takes into account how ridiculous the past year has been, it’s hard to put into reference or frame of mind that the world has always been a bit bent out of shape. One of the preferred ways of coping is turning one’s stress about strife to the songs and singers that keep us…
Better Luck Next Time: 40 Hits that happened for someone else
Sometimes, it’s like, with a song, dust yourself off and try again. The perfect moment for a tune to become a success entrenched in the Pop Culture lexicon sometimes isn’t its first time up to bat. Sometimes it takes competition and revision to get things right. With this, I’ve gone a bit overboard, giving you…
Windy City Soul: Breezy Gems From America’s Second City
Although my recent vacation took me through Baltimore and New York City, the sounds of Chicago’s soul music has been on my mind for a few weeks now. I’m a big fan of how once our R&B music was so regional, influenced by the cultures established in cities plus the migrant populations that made each…
