Daddy B. Nice’s Corner 2021 – news and opinion on Southern Soul RnB music and artists
April 20, 2022: News & Notes News Flash!
C. Jones aka “Mr. Willie”, the recording artist referred to as “super-shy” in this month’s “News & Notes” because his “Mr. Willie” song has been unavailable to YouTube listeners, has now posted videos on YouTube. Here are the links:“Mr. Willie”…..“Sexy Lady”……..DBN
April 18, 2022
Southern Soul News & Notes
The University of Illinois Press, the same publisher who brought you “Southern Soul Blues” by David Whiteis, has announced the upcoming publication of Music And Mystique In Muscle Shoals by Christoher M. Reali. Using oral biogaphies from original participants, the tome details the journey taken by record producers like Jerry Wexler and Rick Hall in shaping the sound that brought R&B legends like Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett and rock and roll icons like Paul Simon and The Rolling Stones to this little town in northwestern Alabama, equidistant from Memphis and Nashville…….In other print news, Heiki Suosalo reviews a new book on Atlanta Entertainment History by Libby Anthony in the latest issue of Soul Express…….DJ Sir Rockinghood—bless him—starts off his latest YouTube mix with two—or is it three?—versions of “Get It Mr. Willie,” also known as “Mr. Willie,” or “Screaming Willie,” or “Mr. No-No Willie”, the second most interesting song recently after King George’s “Keep On Rollin'”. The title confusion results from the fact that the song has still not officially been released by its super-shy artist, C. Jones...
Speaking of King George, there’s a rumor going round that Snoop Dogg recently signed a southern soul artist in correlation with his purchase of Death Row Records. Now that we know (or are pretty sure we know) that King George is (or was) a hiphop artist named Yung Holliday, (see Daddy B. Nice’s Mailbag) recording for the Too Short-affiliated record label Ace Visonz (the same label that publishes King George), doesn’t it make you wonder if he might be the artist who caught Snoop’s attention?…..Here’s another scrap of King George trivia. In the prologue to Jeter Jones’ new single and video “No Worries,” King George’s “Friday Night” is playing in the van…..R.I.P.….On a more somber note, Atlanta-based vocalist/drummer/keyboardist Lola Gulley passed away March 30th. Gulley was a former Wilbe recording artist, the organization headed by Grammy award-winning artist William Bell……Carl Haynes was surprised to see my office was in Boulder, Colorado. Haynes, who’s from Denver, owns the only Black-owned commercial station in Jackson, Mississippi, WRTM FM–Smooth Soul 100.5 FM.…….New albums out from Tyree Neal, Tamara McClain, Ricky White, Arthur Young, Unkle Phunk, Mose Stovall, King Fred…..Absent from the scene for a millenial’s “minute,” Sweet Angel returns with a new jazz-tinged single…..Sir Jonathan Burton is becoming the de facto best “cover band” in southern soul. Reference his latest single, a creditable send-up of “My Sidepiece,” and the one before that, “Tennessee Whiskey,” an ironic choice for a cover because it’s a country hit recycling an R&B classic (Etta James “I’d Rather Go Blind”)…..Finally, you know I’m going to keep beating the drum for King George until fans stop asking me about him or someone convinces me he’s not changing the face of southern soul. Remember, fellow artists! A rising tide lifts all boats! Here’s a snippet from Daddy B. Nice’s new King George Artist Guide:
….“Leave & Party” also breaks another barrier—indeed, smashes it to the smithereens. That would be the reluctance of southern soul artists to mention marijuana in their lyrics. I can remember rousing the ire of T.K. Soul two decades ago by mistakenly reporting that he’d used references to pot in his lyrics. (We’ve laughed about it since.) And I don’t blame southern black men for distancing themselves from the subject.
Over the years I’ve often rhapsodized about the pleasures of listening to local radio stations while visiting hamlets throughout the Delta. What I haven’t mentioned is the chagrin of entering a small town and seeing a chain-linked, razor-wire-topped, prison fence smack dab in the middle of the town square where you’d expect to see the courthouse, a scene testifying to the oppressiveness of the Deep South’s incarcerations of young blacks for recreational drug use in particular. And yet, here is King George, as clear as a bell, singing, “Keisha don’t care when I drink and smoke weed.” Later in the tune it’s “a big bag of reefer”. No southern soul artist has been that explicit on record before.
Finally, King George appeals to the white market. How’d he do that? As shown by the countless Tik Tok videos of people of all ethnicities dancing to “Keep On Rollin'”. Whites, Blacks, Asians, Latinos. For a longtime observer, it makes the back of your neck tingle. This could be the beginning of the future for southern soul: the tipping point where the white audience catches on. It’s only a matter of time before the genre crosses over and mutates into a new and vibrant rock and roll, and when that happens, all of the neglected southern soul artists of the last thirty years chronicled in these pages will be talked about as if people had known of them all their lives.
— Daddy B Nice
April 3, 2022
APRIL TOP TEN “SPILLOVER”: Top 40 Southern Soul Singles
An expanded list of the songs vying for “Top Ten Singles” in April 2022.
1. “Too Long”—King George
2. “Leave & Party”—King George
3. “Country Man”—Arthur Young
4. “Party With Friends”—Nelson Curry
5. “Let Me Ride That Pony”—Donnie Ray
6. “Crown Royal (Quiet Storm Version)”—X-Man Parker
7. “No Worries”—Jeter Jones
8. “Jody”—Sheila B. Sexi feat. Jeter Jones
9. “Trail Ride Shawty”—Marcellus The Singer
10. “Flex”—Cupid feat. The 69 Boys
11. “That Candy”—T.K. Soul
12. “Don’t Try Me”—Karen Wolfe
13. “Booze In The Bottle”—J.T. Watkins
14. “Juicy Fruit”—Mr. Nelson
15. “We Going Out Tonight”—Unkle Phunk
16. “Welcome To The Rhomey Party”—Rhomey
17. “Love Like This Again”—Urban Mystic
18. “Backwood Love”—King Russell feat. Jeter Jones
19. “You Can’t Have Your Cake”—Donnie Ray
20. “Pop That Thang”—Nelson Curry
21. “I’m Just The Man For You”—Donnie Ray
22. “Outside”—Roi Chip Anthony feat. Jeter Jones
23. “I Want Her (Southern Soul Woman)”—Uncle Gymini feat. Carl J
24. “You”—Evette Busby
25. “Nasty Man”/”Cootie Coo”—Mr. Frayser
26. “You’re That Kind Of Woman”—Leroy Allen
27. “Kau-Ute”—Till 1
28. “I Like”—Jous Band
29. “Good Enough”/”Thinking ‘Bout Cheating”—Ms. Robbie
30. “Let’s Make Love”—J Craig
31. “Do Wrong”—Sweet Angel
32. “Pack It Up”—Shana D
33. “U’on Know Nann”—Chrissy Luvz feat. Ciddy Boi P
34. “Who Am I”—Samara Lewis
35. “I Need A Sidepiece Too”—Larry Milton
36. “No Money No Honey”—Chocolate Buttermilk Band
37. “Frienemy”—Stephanie McDee
38. “Cold Tea”—Lady Jacquelyn
39. “Pressure Baby”—Melani
40. “Don’t Go Baby”—Darnell Cotton