Search - Various Artists :: Poncello Records Story

Blue Label Digs Deep Into The R&B/Soul Vaults

06/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Similar to their listing for the Bullet And Sur-Speed Records Story CD from the same distributor, Amazon indicates above that all tracks are by one artist - in this case Arthur K. Adams. They are not - here is the correct listing:



1) The Same Thing - Arthur K. Adams; 2) Tend to Your Business - Arthur K. Adams; 3) My All Is You - Levert Allison; 4) Please Send Me Someone to Love - Levert Allison; 5) Let Me Down Easy - Earl Gaines; 6) You Are My Sunshine - Earl Gaines & Lucille Johns; 7) Everybody Loves a Lover - Alpha Zoe; 8) Be My Baby - The Chellows; 9) Hide 'Nor Hair - Herbert Hunter; 10) I've Gotta Sit Down (And Get a Hold of Myself) - Herbert Hunter; 11) Diddlin' and Daddlin' - Herbert Hunter; 12) Make Me Know - Herbert Hunter; 13) Happy Go Lucky - Herbert Hunter; 14) Worry - Tim Jarrett; 15) I Ain't Nothing But a Fool - Tim Jarrett; 16) Midway - Ted Jarrett; 17) Everyone Loves Me But You - Janis Parks; 18) What You Bet J - Ricky Rezell; 19) Little Willie Joe - Ricky Rezell; 20) You Don't Want My Love - Thomas Henry; 21) Popa Nickel - The Tempo Rhythms; 22) Catch a Donkey - The Tempo Rhythms; 23) Brick Wall - The Tempo Rhythms; 24) We're Having a Party - Gene Allison



As with the Bullet/Sur-Speed volume, which presents some of the same artists as does this label, also based in Tennessee, none of the tracks managed to climb into any national charts such as the R&B and Billboard Pop Hot 100 listings, although several were big local hits. For the most part the artists will be unknown to the casual fan of R&B/Soul, but for historians and those devoted to the genres this, as with the Bullet/Sur-Speed volume, is a little gold mine. The sound is adequate (but maybe not entirely to the liking of audiophiles).



Most sides were released originally on the Poncello label or its subsidiares Valdot, and Spar, founded by songwriter/producer Ted Jarrett starting in 1960, with probably the most familiar name among the artists being Earl Gaines, a one-time gospel singer who does have three hit singles to his credit, although none are included here. The first came in 1955 on the Excello label when he was the vocalist with Louis Brooks & His Hi-Toppers and their It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day) reached # 2 R&B. It then took a full 11 years before he scored again in 1966 with The Best Of Luck To You (# 28 R&B/# 133 Hot 100 "bubble under" on HBR.



Another 7 long years after that, Hymn No. 5 reached # 36 R&B in September, 1973. Born on August 19, 1935 in Mt. Nebo, not far from Decatur, Alabama, Gaines also sang and played drums in the 1960s with Bill Doggett's combo and cut solo discs for a wide array of labels, among them Athens, Hollywood, Champion, DeLuxe (some oh his best are there), King, Seventy-Seven, Ace, and Sound Stage 7 (at times billed as Earl Gains). After leaving the industry and reportedly working for some time as a truck driver, he re-surfaced in 1989 with the acclaimed album House Party for Meltone Records, followed in 1995 with I Believe In Your Love. The sides here and on those other labels may not have charted for him, but that likely had more to do with a lack of promotional capabilities on the part of the companies concerned than anything else.



Another who began singing gospel was Christmas Day baby Arthur K. Adams (born sometime in the 1930s in Medon, Tennessee) who, in the 1950s worked backup for Gene Allison (whose brother Levert is featured in this and the Bullet/Sur-Speed volume), and in early 1959, up to the first months of the British Invasion in 1964, worked out of Dallas where he appeared with such luminaries from time to time as Chuck Berry, Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Buddy Guy and Lowell Fulson. He too cut discs for a variety of labels, among them Jamie, Duchess, Valdot (also owned by Jarrett) along the way adding the "K" to his name which really stood for nothing. In 1964 he landed with Vee-Jay, but that legendary label was already beginning to wind down operations, and then Modern where he cut the acclaimed (but unsuccessful) single Let's Get Together with Edna Wright (later the lead vocalist with Honey Cone) as Arthur & Mary.



He was also in demand as back-up on recording sessions in L.A. by such varied artists as Henry Mancini, Sonny Charles & The Checkmates (e.g., on their 1959 hit Black Pearl). Lou Rawls, The Jackson 5, Nancy Wilson, Kim Weston and Sonny Bono. These are the kind of details you get in the liner notes for these and the other artists represented, written by Fred James. An inexpensive little jewel."