Big Mama Thornton - Jail

Rough and ready blues from Big Mama Willie Mae. I'm not the biggest blues fan but anyone who can make the blues sound as soulful as Big Mama, deserves a posting on here. Oh, she originally recorded "Hound Dog" which some unknown then went on to cover and make a few bucks from ;-)

1. Little Red Rooster
2. Ball 'N' Chain
3. Jail
4. Hound Dog
5. Rock Me Baby
6. Sheriff O.E. & Me
7. Oh Happy Day

Recorded at Monroe State Prison, Monroe, Washington and Oregon State Reformatory, Eugene, Oregon.

http://rapidshare.com/files/105310993/Big_Mama_Thornton_-_Jail.rar

Benny Johnson - Visions of Paradise

A sublime bit of indie soul from the early 70s -- the one and only album by vocalist Benny Johnson, recorded with some totally great backings from funk legend Julius Brockington and his United Chair combo! For the session, Brockington chose a warm, organ-drenched sound that's a fair bit like some of the best work coming out of Hi Records at the same time -- although without as much of a southern soul approach overall. Johnson's vocals have a beautifully crackling sort of quality -- one that's honest and human, but still smooth enough to fit the mode of the music here -- a bit like Al Green, but a little more east coast overall. The set's got some excellent mellow soul numbers that are worth the price of admission alone -- tracks that slide out beautifully with a really gentle sound, and bubble up with a tremendous amount of soul. But there's also some fuller, more upbeat tunes too -- groovers that have made the album a favorite overseas for years!

Visions of paradise
Absolutley, positivly, baby
Baby i love you
Stop me
Give it up
Second to none
Wont you stay
Its your baby
Please come back
I just got to know
http://rapidshare.com/files/105271382/Benny_Johnson_-_Visions_of_Paradise.rar

Maceo And All The Kings Men - Doing Their Own Thing

The first record by Maceo & the JBs after their parting with James Brown in the early 70s, put out on obscure Southern label House of the Fox. James used his influence to kill the release at radio, and the album did nothing, despite its heavy list of players and 9 grooved out tracks.

Maceo 7:44
Got to Get 'Cha 2:46
Southwhick 3:22
Funky Women 5:37
Untitled (Doing Their Own Thing) 2:08
Shake It Baby 4:51
Better Half 6:13
Don't Waste This World Away 3:15
I Remember Mr. Banks 5:22
http://rapidshare.com/files/105263232/Maceo_And_All_The_Kings_Men_-_Doing_Their_Own_Thing.rar

Amnesty - Free Your Mind - The 700 West Sessions

Fans of the exquisite, often never-before-released funk championed by Stones Throw’s reissue wing Now-Again Records are no stranger to Amnesty. Based in Indianapolis in the early 1970s, the group released only two obscure 45s in their recording career. Birthed from the same scene as the Ebony Rhythm Band (Soul Heart Transplant – NWG 5011), Amnesty had a poltical edge similar to L.A. Carnival (Would Like To Pose A Question – NWG 5009) and the hardest brass section since The Kashmere Stage Band (Texas Thunder Soul – NWG 5023). Only one Amnesty song has ever been released on CD: "Free Your Mind" appeared on the most widely distributed Now-Again album to date – Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities 1968-1974, Vol. 1.
This previously unreleased anthology comes from the same sessions as "Free Your Mind." In 1973, Amnesty recorded five hard, vocal funk numbers alongside some ballads and a handful of demos based around nothing more than guitar accompaniment. Only two songs were ever released. While Amnesty’s ting, difficult-to-categorize prog funk/soul/rock could potentially reach far beyond Indianpolis’s bounds, the band never found a label to take them to the next level.
Obviously influenced by, but by no means simply imitators of, the sound of early Parliament and Funkadelic, Amnesty also responds to the grooves of Earth Wind & Fire and Sly & The Family Stone in their own way. Finally made available 33 years after they were recorded, these songs present a funk style arranged with dangerous complexity and performed with precision – arguably the most unique funk to originate from Naptown, and some of the best music of its kind.

1. Can I Help You?
2. Love Fades
3. Mister President
4. Free Your Mind
5. We Have Love
6. Lord Help Me
7. Three Cheers For My Baby
8. Trouble Will Remain
9. We've Come A Long Way
10. Liberty
http://rapidshare.com/files/105120892/Amnesty_-_Free_Your_Mind_-_The_700_West_Sessions.rar

Bobby Womack - Roads Of Life

A great album from Bobby -- different than his earlier albums for United Artists, but in a good way -- one that revives his whole career, and takes his sound into a whole new direction! The album's got a smooth soul finish with some touches of synth funk -- produced by Bobby and Patrick Moten, who would later work together on the masterful Poet LP -- and the contrast between the more modern arrangements and Bobby's raspy soul vocals works wonderfully! The mellow tracks are really great -- with a tight, lightly funky sound bubbling under Bobby's wonderful vocals.

1. Roads Of Life
2. How Could You Break My Heart
3. Honey Dripper Boogie
4. Roots In Me
5. What Are You Doin'
6. Give It Up
7. Mr. DJ Don't Stop The Music
8. I Honestly Love You
http://rapidshare.com/files/105107011/Bobby_Womack_-_Roads_Of_Life.rar

VA - Cooley High (1975)

The 1975 nostalgia picture Cooley High has aged well enough--inspiring the concept of Boyz II Men's debut album (which included a hit cover of the theme song, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday") and recently growing in stature as a classic of the era's black cinema--to prompt this rerelease of its soundtrack album. Former Spinner G.C. Cameron's version of "Goodbye," guitarist Luther Allison's "Luther's Blues," and a handful of snippets from Freddie Perren's score are included, but the real meat of the disc lies in its selection of mid-'60s Motown classics. And among unsurprising choices by the Supremes, Temptations, and Four Tops, are two songs that connect most clearly to the film's themes of youthful abandon and innocence: the full giddy six-and-a-half minutes of Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips" and the fragile vow of the Miracles' "(You Can) Depend on Me."

1. Baby Love - Diana Ross & The Supremes
2. Fingertips - Stevie Wonder
3. I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) - Four Tops
4. Stop! In The Name Of Love - Diana Ross & The Supremes
5. Luther's Blues - Luther Allison
6. Dancing In The Street - Martha & The Vandellas
7. Beechwood 45789 - The Marvelettes
8. OOO Baby Baby - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
9. (You Can) Depend On Me - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
10. Cleo's Mood - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
11. Money (That's What I Want) - Barrett Strong
12. You Beat Me To The Punch - Mary Wells
13. 2 Pigs And A Hog - Freddie Perren
14. My Girl - The Temptations
15. Sweet First Love - Freddie Perren
16. Three AM...I Love You Mama - Freddie Perren
17. (I'm A) Road Runner - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
18. Mickey's Monkey - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
19. Haulin' - Freddie Perren
20. Cold Blooded - Freddie Perren
21. It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday - G.C. Cameron
22. Reach Out I'll Be There - Four Tops
http://rapidshare.com/files/105089573/VA_-_Cooley_High__1975_.rar

The Commodores - 14 Greatest Hits

01. Machine Gun
02. Slippery When Wet
03. Sweet Love
04. Fancy Dancer
05. Easy
06. Brick House
07. Too Hot Ta Trot
08. Three Times a Lady
09. X-Rated Movie
10. Sail On
11. Still
12. Wonderland
13. Old-Fashioned Love
14. Lady (You Bring Me Up)
http://rapidshare.com/files/104835842/The_Commodores_-_14_Greatest_Hits.rar

Lizz Wright - The Orchard

Jazz vocalist Lizz Wright decided it was time to return to her roots. For her new CD, she tried to capture the simplicity of the blues and gospel music she heard growing up in the rural town of Hahira, Ga. The daughter of a minister, she sang in church there with her two siblings. "I come from a place where we don't use a lot of words," Ms. Wright says. "It's really about emoting."

The 28-year-old Ms. Wright has earned praise for her versions of song standards like "A Taste of Honey" and Neil Young's "Old Man," which highlighted her warm contralto voice in understated jazz and R&B arrangements. Her first two albums, "Salt" (2003) and "Dreaming Wide Awake" (2005), were hits on Billboard's contemporary jazz chart. The tunes on those albums were predominantly by other writers. On "The Orchard," Ms. Wright wanted to make a more personal statement, co-writing eight of the new album's 12 tracks.

The album has a looser feel than Ms. Wright's previous releases. Like "Dreaming Wide Awake," it was produced by Craig Street, who has worked with Cassandra Wilson and k.d. lang. Other musicians on "The Orchard" include Toshi Reagon, who co-wrote many of the songs, and guitarist and longtime Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell. The songs range from the slow-building, moody "Coming Home," which kicks off the compilation, to a rapturous folk waltz, "Song for Mia."

In addition to the new material, Ms. Wright includes several songs that were made famous by others, though Ms. Wright puts her own stamp on them. For example, she sings Led Zeppelin's "Thank You," a song she first heard when Ms. Reagon played it for her on an acoustic guitar. Ms. Wright also sings Ike Turner's "I Idolize You," which she discovered in a documentary featuring Ike and Tina Turner. Ms. Turner's performance brought to mind Ms. Wright's hometown years. "Her voice was really ferocious, the way some women used to sing in church, with a lot of grit, a lot of power," says Ms. Wright, who adds that she wanted to emulate that style in her own way.
Ms. Wright worked on "The Orchard" for about two years, spending the first in Georgia visiting her grandparents, "taking in a lot of information, looking at my home and just collecting feelings," she says. She took photographs of the area and made a slide show that she shared with her record company, Verve, to give executives a sense of how she wanted her album to evoke her hometown. Ms. Wright says that since she has become known for singing standards, it is now time for her own point of view. "If I'm going to interpret everybody else's story," she says, "I should make sure I'm in touch with my own."
"Jazz vocalist Lizz Wright decided it was time to return to her roots. For her new CD, she tried to capture the simplicity of the blues and gospel music she heard growing up in the rural town of Hahira, Ga. The daughter of a minister, she sang in church there with her two siblings. "I come from a place where we don't use a lot of words," Ms. Wright says. 'It's really about emoting.'"

1. Coming Home 4:45
2. My Heart 4:00
3. I Idolize You 4:54
4. Hey Mann 5:22
5. Another Angel 3:42
6. When I Fall 3:55
7. Leave Me Standing Alone 5:04
8. Speak Your Heart 3:46
9. This Is 4:09
10. Song For Mia 4:52
11. Thank You 4:45
12. Strange 3:32
http://rapidshare.com/files/104868474/Lizz_Wright_-_The_Orchard.rar

Salmonella Dub - Calming Of The Drunken Monkey

The first album post-Tiki Taane stepping up to the mic, showing the shift in sound away from the horn laden instrumentals of the early material.
1 Conspiracy Dub
2 Golden Locks
3 Primus
4 Col's Fish
5 Cycle
6 Drunken Monkey
7 Finklestein
8 Fence
9 Loletta
10 Jerky Dub
11 They're Among Us (Pitch Black Remix)
12 Palava (Live At The Powerstation 31/5/97)
13 Suicidal Patterns (Rotor Mix)
http://rapidshare.com/files/104820883/Salmonella_Dub_-_Calming_Of_The_Drunken_Monkey.rar

Selassie I Rockers - 30 Pieces Of Dub

30 Pieces Of Dub
Africano Dub
Gone Dub
No Dub Like Dis Ya Dub
Night Ravers Dub
Jack The Ripper
Englishman Dub
Wicked Man Dub
Mad Man Dub
Fisher Man Dub
Three Times A Dub
Prophecy Dub
http://rapidshare.com/files/104749540/Selassie_I_Rockers_-_30_Pieces_Of_Dub.rar