[engl] Barbara Brown never had an LP release during her lifetime. Here is an approximation of what one might have sounded like. Like so many soul acts, Barbara Brown’s career was defined by a slow and sometimes interrupted stream of singles. Often alongside the Browns – her sisters Roberta, Betty and Maurice – she had releases on a variety of labels which, together with the previously unissued tracks featured on her Kent CD, and further discoveries made since, amount to a body of work as illustrious as any of her Memphis-based peers. Barbara’s first 45s were released on the Wil-Mo and Stax labels in 1963/4, while her final recordings appeared on Gene Lucchesi’s Sounds Of Memphis imprint in 1971/2. The tracks contained here were all recorded between 1966 and 1968 for Lucchesi’s XL label, although most were leased out to other companies and the rest were not issued at the time. Never a studio man, Lucchesi left the recording side of things to his partners Stan Kesler, who was responsible for putting together the band, and producer Charles Chalmers, famed for his saxophone work on some of Aretha Franklin’s hits. ‘Plenty Of Room’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Have To Wait’ were issued on Cadet, ‘Can’t Find No Happiness’ and ‘A Great Big Thing’ on Atco, ‘Things Have Gone To Pieces’ and ‘There’s A Look On Your Face’ on Tower, and ‘You Don’t Love Me’ and ‘If I Can’t Run To You I’ll Crawl’ were belatedly released as the inaugural single on Sounds Of Memphis in 1971. The remaining tracks – ‘Play Thing’, ‘I’m Gonna Start A War’, ‘Man Around The House’, ‘Got To Be Somebody’ and ‘It Hurts Me So Much (To Be Able To Look And To Know I Can’t Touch)’ – all premiered on the CD “Can’t Find Happiness”, issued here on Kent in 2007. Following her final Sounds Of Memphis releases, Barbara retired from music to bring up her family. This LP, in rounding up her 1960s recordings for Gene Lucchesi, confirms the fact that she was one of the greatest singers to have recorded in Memphis during that decade. DEAN RUDLAND

[engl] A stylish vinyl collection of Maxine’s finest Wand recordings, including a trio of 60s soul stompers discovered in the tape vaults in the 80s. Maxine Brown has been popular in the black music world since 1960. ‘All In My Mind’, her hit debut, is cited as one of the first soul records but it was not until she moved to the Wand label in 1963 that her career really took off. Maxine’s golden period included her signature hit ‘Oh No, Not My Baby’ and beautiful ballads such as ‘It’s Gonna Be Alright’ and ‘Gotta Find A Way’. These are loved in the UK but it was her less familiar, uptempo Wand releases that turned her from an admired artist to a soul goddess on the Northern Soul scene. The hard-to-find ‘One In A Million’ and ‘Let Me Give You My Lovin’’ were played at rare soul dances for many years, attaining classic status on the scene, despite not selling enough to chart in the USA at the time of release. Interestingly, when her run of solo R&B hits dried up Maxine continued to reach the pop charts with ‘One Step At A Time’ and ‘If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody’, illustrating that she had picked up a sizeable white audience. By the 1980s the depth of her catalogue was being appreciated and ‘Yesterday’s Kisses’, ‘Since I Found You’, ‘Little Girl Lost’ and the Van McCoy-penned beauty ‘I Wonder What My Baby’s Doing Tonight’ all gained DJ plays. Her music appealed to the mod revivalists as much as the Northern dancers. Then, at just the right moment, Kent Records raided the Scepter-Wand vaults for previously unissued tracks, including the glorious dancers ‘It’s Torture’, ‘I Want A Guarantee’ and the Otis Redding-produced stomper ‘Baby Cakes’, all of which were first issued in 1985 by Kent on vinyl. The recent upsurge of interest in Kent LPs gives us the opportunity to make them available to vinyl lovers once more. Maxine is still performing and her reputation as an all-time great continues to grow. ADY CROASDELL

[engl] Having been brought up as much on albums as singles, it is a natural progression for Kent to make a 12-inch version of our “Masterpieces Of Modern Soul” CD series. The modern soul fan is used to wielding vinyl 12-inchers and our latest Kent LP is aimed squarely at them. Act 1’s fantastic ‘It’s The Same Old Story’, one of the most melodious songs of the era, is lifted from their Spring album. The same label also gives us Millie Jackson’s raunchy ‘If That Don’t Turn You On’ from her “For Men Only” LP, suitably edited for DJs’ convenience. The Mayberry Movement were on sister label Event and we have included their smooth and addictive ‘Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right’, a turn of the century tape discovery. On the pricey side, we feature Eddie Billups’ anthem ‘Shake Off That Dream’ – all together now, sing along. Scarce is more the word for Gail Anderson’s Doré release ‘Just A Little Ugly’, which is anything but, while stable-mates the Natural Resources have the recently discovered tape find ‘If There Were No You’, which would have graced the Blackpool Mecca if it had been known about a few decades earlier. We dip our toes into 1980s water with tracks from seminal Detroit producer Dave Hamilton, whose later recordings are proving to be as highly admired as his work from the golden era of 60s soul. Nightchill’s ‘I Don’t Play Games’ sounds like a hit, while the slightly earlier ‘I’ve Never Felt This Way Before’ by New Experience is more anguished. The Hesitations’ New York GWP recording ‘Go Away’ is as polished and professional as we have grown accustomed to from that high-achieving group. More top-class harmony comes from Street People with ‘Your Momma Had A Baby’, a previously unissued track from their first recording session, while Darondo provides another gem of California soul from his own unique perspective. After reissuing Herman Davis’ highly collectable ‘Gotta Be Loved’ on our “Masterpieces Vol 4” CD we discovered the brilliant Part 2, which was abandoned before the Venus V 45 was pressed. Now it rounds off an LP that will grace the overburdened shelves of modern soul-lovin’ Kent fans and fit neatly into those big boxes the DJs lug about.

[engl] Our “Northern Soul’s Classiest Rarities” CDs have showcased high quality 60s and early 70s records beloved of collectors and dancers. The series has proved much appreciated by the soul cognoscenti, making this new vinyl edition a necessity. Tracks such as Marva Holiday’s ‘It’s Written All Over My Face’ and Darrow Fletcher’s Detroit-produced ‘What Good Am I Without You’ were played at the famous Northern Soul venues of yesteryear but got lost in the waves of 70s discoveries. They have improved with age. Later discoveries are just plain elusive or horrifically expensive. Salt & Pepper, a multiracial group of US GIs stationed in Bangkok, pressed the 250-500 run of ‘A Man Of My Word’ in Thailand in 1970 – an extremely scarce record that took many years to find before becoming a rare soul standard. The Antellects’ ‘Love Slave’ was played by 100 Club DJ Shifty in the 90s and very few copies have found their way into the hands of collectors. Karmello Brooks’ jazz-infused ‘Tell Me, Baby’ now fetches a similar multi-thousand pound price tag (although when I sold two for £40 in the 90s it hadn’t quite taken off – dagnabbit!). Other prized items include Ty Karim’s ‘You Just Don’t Know’, Eddie Whitehead’s soulful floater ‘Just Your Fool’ and the poppy stomper ‘Losing Control’ from Mary Saxton, a white teenager with a voice like Tina Turner. The Imaginations’ more sedate ‘Strange Neighborhood’ beat ballad, like the Eddie Whitehead record, hails from Cincinnati. Pat Powdrill’s ‘Do It’ proceeds at a furious pace but the great melody makes it an indispensable listen, even if the dancers’ legs can’t keep up. The Houston Outlaws’ ‘Ain’t No Telling’ has a bittersweet melody which creates a perfect setting for the group’s fine vocals, while on Troy Dodds’ ‘Try My Love’ it’s the haunting atmosphere that dominates, with his brooding voice abetted by a superb female backing group. Like Dodds, Jeanette Jones was from the Bay Area and cut an LP’s worth of material for Golden State Recorders. From that acetate-only album, ‘Cut Loose’, was played at the 100 Club nighters in the late 90s and was issued on a now-deleted Kent Select 45 in 2007. More recently we acquired the Fidels’ version of the Puffs’ Doré sleeper ‘I Only Cry Once A Day Now’ – a historic recording from the revered group. ADY CROASDELL