Philadelphia soul will always be remembered for the hits of the 1970’s; a lush, string-driven, hit-making sound that was probably more responsible for the birth of disco than any other style of music. However, in […]
Category: Wax Wonders
Wax Wonders: Los Angeles, Part One
In terms of epicenters of great soul music, Los Angeles rarely enters the discussion. And while the city in the smog and sun didn’t produce the volume of influential work that Detroit-Chicago-Memphis churned out, there […]
Wax Wonders :: The Bob Seger System & The Last Heard
“East Side Story” (1966) isn’t Bob Seger’s debut record (that honor goes to the bizarre pro-war ” Ballad Of The Yellow Beret” – an opinion he soon reversed via a record we’ll hear in a bit), but it is a […]
Wax Wonders :: Detroit Soul, Part 1
The amount of superb soul records (from the obscure to the massive hits) that were waxed in Detroit is a near bottomless well of greatness. Following the lead of Berry Gordy’s Motown empire, dozens of […]
Wax Wonders :: Blue Eyed Soul (Part 1)
By the 1960s, soul music began to influence musicians far beyond its African American roots, here in the States and, notably, across the pond. What started in the 1950s as a watered down, Pat Boone-ification […]
Wax Wonders :: Chicago Blues Finds Its Soul
Chicago style blues is a sound rooted in the deep South. Many bluesmen moved north to escape Jim Crow and to make a living working in the steel mills of Chicago and northwest Indiana; the […]
Wax Wonders: The Soul Of NOLA, Part 1
With its complex and rich history, New Orleans has long served as a hotbed of rhythm and blues, with the city’s musicians often adding an air of sophistication (i.e. jazz influence) to the music. This […]
Wax Wonders :: Chicago Soul, Part One
When soul music aficionados get together and start talking music, the inevitable question of preference between ‘Detroit vs Memphis’ almost always seems to arise, to which my response is ‘YES, both please! But don’t forget […]