Daddy B. Nice’s Corner 2020 – news and opinion on Southern Soul RnB music and artists
February 14, 2021
“Stir It Like Coffee” X 2, DBN on the New Generation (Chart In Progress),
“So You Think You Know Your Southern Soul 2020?” Quiz (Great lyrics from 2020)
News & Notes
While two “Nose Wide Open” songs—one by Benito/Lady Q and the other by Magic Juan (just joking, Magic One)—continue to circulate through the southern soul clubs and deejay world, another pair of songs with titles in common have appeared. Mz. Conniehas released “Stir It Like Coffee” on a new debut album of the same name, while even more recently-arrived artist Sojo (who had a top-25 song of 2020 with Kinnie Ken) has a totally different new tune also called “Stir It Like A Coffee”. Nelson Curry guests on Mz. Connie’s single, as he did on Peaches Jones’ original of the tune back in 2014. “Only the names have changed,” as they used to say on one of those old detective series.
Listen to Mz. Connie singing “Stir It Like Coffee” on YouTube.
Listen to Sojo singing “Stir It Like Coffee” on YouTube.
The Top 100 Countdown: The New Generation, your Daddy B. Nice’s latest ranking of the top Southern Soul artists, continues apace. I started the first-ever charting of southern soul performers in the early 00’s and the second charting in the early teens. A quick look at the second chart, 21st Century Southern Soul, will make apparent how outdated it has become in just a decade.
When I started the new chart, The Top 100 Countdown: The New Generation (Chart in Progress),some viewers suggested I was going about it the wrong way, starting at the top (#1 artist Pokey Bear) rather than at the bottom (#100). But it was the very outdatedness of the prior chart that necessitated starting at the top.
Since each recording artist on the “Countdown” also requires a completely new, Daddy B. Nice-written artist guide, with a new profile, biography, discography, top songs, caricature, etc., it would have been two or three years before I even got to the top five artists (now already done). And writing artist guides does give me a chance to go into a performer’s catalog with a book-writer’s depth and overview as opposed to the journalistic buzz of the monthly top-ten singles and commentary.
The suspense is still there. I certainly experience it along with heightened emotion and the burden of responsibility each month as I ponder over the ninety-some artists whom I’m NOT putting into the next top slot, and who are no doubt asking, “When is he going to get to me?”
One thing I will make clear. This is a chart of the “new generation,” the recording artists who deserve recognition for being relevant today, not in the past. Super-stars like Bobby Rush and Lenny Williams, whose major work is behind them and who already have extensive artist guides on Daddy B. Nice’s two previous charts, will not appear on the new chart. And that is not meant to minimize or make light of their powerful contributions to the southern soul canon.
What is more important at this point in time is to recognize all the deserving musicians making it happen right now, yet lacking any chart presence and publicity for their endeavors. To them I say: watch closely. Around fifty artists from the old chart are scheduled to depart, opening up around fifty spots on the new chart. There will also be serious movement upward for the deserving artists from the last chart (see Pokey new #1, see Tucka new #3), and…some remaining artists will drift down. Isn’t that enough suspense for everyone?
Quiz: So You Think You Know Your Southern Soul 2020? (Great Lyrics from 2020)
2020 was a banner year for lyrics. I thought it would be fun to illustrate that by featuring some of the best couplets by southern soul composers from the year just passed in the form of a quiz.
The answers are posted at the end of this article, but don’t look until you absolutely have to!
1. “My grandma used to say/Love is a misunderstanding/Between two fools.”
2. “That girl like to disappear on the weekend/But Monday she’ll be calling again.”
3. “‘Cause I need me a day/To drown in my sorrow/Get up in the morning/And start fresh tomorrow.”
4. “Now all he can do for you/Is lay on his back/But most of the time/He ain’t even good at that.”
5. “When I first met you/You wouldn’t give me the time of day/You said I was a player/And you didn’t have time to play.”
6. “She looked up at him/And turned around at me/Held up two fingers/And she said, ‘Peace’.”
7. “I was gonna be one of the world’s greatest entertainers/And you were going to be my queen.”
8. “People’s talking about my age/They say I need to be somewhere/Locking myself away/I come to show them/What it’s all about.”
9. “She wanted you to settle down/And be a one-woman man/But I wasn’t playing/She better understand.”
10. “You know back in the day/I had to live in Boston Massachusetts/And them northern girls used to play me for a sucker/They used to call me a country bumpkin.”
—Daddy B. Nice
“So You Think You Know Your Southern Soul” Quiz Answers: 1-“Staying In Love Ain’t Easy” by Wendell B, 2-“Funky Forty” by Arthur Young, 3-“Pour Me A Drank” by Narvel Echols, 4-“Let That Hurt Go” by Avail Hollywood, 5-“Nose Wide Open” by Benito & Lady Q, 6-“Cheating With The DJ” by Mr. David, 7-“That’s Life” by T.K. Soul, 8-“Rock With You” by R.T. Taylor, 9-“I Put It On Him” by Dee Dee Simon , 10-“Southern Soul Woman” by Cadillac Man.
February 1, 2021
FEBRUARY TOP TEN “SPILLOVER”: The Top 40 Southern Soul Singles
An expanded list of the songs vying for “Top Ten Singles” in February 2021.
1. “Love You Down”—JD feat.Jeter Jones
2. “It’s About To Go Down”—Jeter Jones feat. Billy Cook
3. “All Because Of Me”—Stevie J. Blues
4. “Headz Or Tailz: The Crawfish Song”—Hump Dog feat. Nebu
5. “Come See About Me”—Jaye Hammer
6. “On My Way To Memphis”—Omar Cunningham
7. “My Weakness”—Baby Drew feat. Sir Charles Jones & Nina Stacks
8. “Lay With Me Tonight”—DeShay feat. Volton Wright
9. “What I Like”—Mississippi Hummin’ Boy feat. Omar Cunningham, Sir Charles Jones & K. Monique
10. “Time To Let Go”—Vick Allen
11. “Move On”—J-Wonn
12. “Facebook Friend”—Big Fred
13. “Closer To You (Lord)”—Fredrick Brinson
14. “If They Only Knew”—Rosalyn Candy
15. “Crawfish”—Cupid feat. MC World & Nebu
16. “Facebook Beef”—Lady Trucker
17. “Two Can Play That Game”—Stephanie McDee
18. “I’m In A Hole In The Wall Mood Tonight”—Jaye Hammer
19. “Girls Night Out”—Ms. Kida
20. “Big Girls”—Stevie J. Blues
21. “Good Ol Country Girl”—Omar Cunningham
22. Slow”—J-Wonn
23. “Back In The Day Cafe”—Andre’ Lee
24. “I Think I’m In Love”—Highway Heavy feat. Coldrank
25. “All Night Long”—King South
26. “Slide-Inn”—C-Wright
27. “Magic Cat”—Sojo
28. “Flex”—Cupid
29. “2 Legs, 2 Thighs”—Mississippi Hummin’ Boy
30. “She Took Her Teeth Out”—AC
31. “We’re Ready To Party”—T.K. Soul & Sir Charles Jones
32. “Dance”—Lady Soul
33. “Ain’t Yo Fool”—Candice Goodie
34. “Walk The Talk”—Kae Divine
35. “Curtain Drop 3”—Chris Ardoin
36. “15 Minutes”—Highway Heavy feat. Dave Mack
37. “Come And Get It”—C-Wright
38. “Sprinkle My Love”—Sir Jonothan Burton
39. “Before We Make Love”—Carl Sims
40. “That Thang”—Princess Baker