Rounder Records: From The Vaults of Ric & Ron Records: Rare and Unreleased Recordings 1958 - 1962 - Review

I've been listening to the new Rounder Records Box Set, From the Vaults of Ric & Ron Records: Rare and Unreleased Recordings 1958 - 1962. This set includes demo recordings of Eddie Bo's Every Dog Has His Day, and Al Johnson's Carnival Time. The distribution of this package is limited to 1,500 copies worldwide. Some of my favorites on the recording are Eddie Bo's Nothing With Out You and a Demo of Every Dog Got His Day, an Audition Tape of Johnny Adams singing Walking the Floor, Paul Marvin playing Goofer and a particularly strong Demo of Barbara Lynn singing I Found My Good Thing. This is a must have for collectors of the New Orleans R&B.
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Rounder to release historic New Orleans R&B from Ric & Ron labels

ROUNDER TO RELEASE RARE RECORDINGS

OF PIVOTAL NEW ORLEANS R&B

Complete digital release of Ric and Ron record labels,

plus box set of ultra-rare material on ten 45 RPM records

BURLINGTON, Mass. — Rounder Records has released the complete catalog of the pivotal New Orleans R&B labels, Ric Records and Ron Records. All 140 songs released by the labels on 45 RPM singles, by artists such as Johnny Adams, Eddie Bo, Al Johnson and Irma Thomas, will be released on seven 20-song digital albums.

In addition, in conjunction with the Numero Group and Ace Records, Rounder will release a box set of ten 45 RPM records of almost all newly discovered material, including the audition recording by Johnny Adams for his first recording, "I Won’t Cry."

Between 1958 and 1962, the Ric and Ron labels captured the sound of a unique period in New Orleans music, when the first era of classic R&B was waning, and before the sounds of funk and soul music became the city’s new signature. In these recordings, you can hear incipient funk in Eddie Bo, and the sanctified sensibility of soul music in everything Johnny Adams sang. It was, in every sense, its own era, when shuffling second-line parade beats laid the foundation for a new and uniquely New Orleans groove, and musicians broke free of the strictures of standard jump blues and 6/8 ballads.

The box set, From the Vaults of Ric & Ron Records: Rare and Unreleased Recordings 1958-1962, affords us an incisive window into the workings of these small but significant record labels, with, among other treasures, demo recordings of Eddie Bo's “Every Dog Has Its Day” and Al Johnson’s “Carnival Time.” In the finished recordings, also included, there is a high level of musicianship and craft, with arrangements by Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack and guitarist Edgar Blanchard. The sound of the records, often made in Cosimo Matassa’s legendary studio, is superb, especially with these new transfers made from the original tapes. And hearing this music on these new records is just the way they were intended to be heard, one song at a time at 45 RPM.

The songs on the box set, which is limited to a worldwide edition of 1,500, will not be available digitally for the time being. They include:

Johnny Adams: “I Won’t Cry” (audition),* “Who Are You” (audition),* “My Baby Done Closed the Door” (demo),* “No Way Out for Me,”* Walking the Floor Over You”*

Edgar Blanchard & The Gondoliers: “Blues Cha Cha,”* “Bopsody in Blue”*

Eddie Bo: “Nothing With Out You,”* “Satisfied With Your Love,”* “Every Dog Has Its Day,” “Every Dog Has Its Day” (demo),* “Ain’t You Ashamed,”* “I'll Do Anything for You”*

Al Johnson: “Carnival Time, Carnival Time” (demo),* “Lena, Let Come What May”(demo)*

Barbara Lynn: “Found My Good Thing,”* “Question of Love”*

Paul Marvin: “Hurry Up” (alternate take),* “Goofer”*

*previously unreleased

The complete Ric and Ron recordings are available at all digital stores.

The box set is distributed in the U.S. by the Numero Group, and in the U.K. by Ace Records.

NEW ORLEANS SPIRIT CAPTURED ON THE MEET ME AT MARDI GRAS COMPILATION, DUE OUT JANUARY 10, 2012 ON ROUNDER RECORDS

NEW ORLEANS SPIRIT CAPTURED ON THE

MEET ME AT MARDI GRAS COMPILATION,

DUE OUT JANUARY 10, 2012 ON ROUNDER RECORDS

 

Album, just in time for February festivities, features Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, Professor Longhair, the Wild Magnolias, Larry Williams, Joe Liggins, Marcia Ball, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys and more

 

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — There’s a chill in the air, and the sounds of the season are everywhere. Christmas, you ask? No, you’re in New Orleans, and it’s Carnival time — Meet Me at Mardi Gras. From every radio, bandstand, bar and coffee shop, the songs associated with Mardi Gras (especially perennial favorites such as Al Johnson’s “Carnival Time” and the ReBirth Brass Band anthem “Do Whatcha Wanna”) announce the month of parades and balls that will culminate with the nation’s biggest citywide party.

 

The 12-song set Meet Me at Mardi Gras, to be released on January 10, 2012, presents many of the best Mardi Gras songs on Rounder Records (a division of Concord Music Group), which, for decades, has been the pre-eminent label recording the music of New Orleans.

 

Also included are two classic songs from the Specialty catalog (Rounder’s sister label in the Concord Music Group). The album was compiled by Rounder’s Grammy-winning VP of A&R, Scott Billington.

 

Meet Me at Mardi Gras will serve as a suitable soundtrack for any Mardi Gras party. The Soul Rebels strike a funky note with “Say Na Hey,” a brand new song written by Leo Nocentelli, the guitarist for the crucial New Orleans funk band The Meters. In contrast, several of these songs reach back more than 50 years. Pianist Joe Liggins was not from New Orleans, but his “Goin’ Back to New Orleans” has become a standard, covered by both Dr. John and Deacon John. Larry Williams’s “Jockamo a.k.a. Iko-Iko” is a rocking version of the traditional Mardi Gras Indian chant.

 

Speaking of which, Bo Dollis of the Wild Magnolias (these tribes are African Americans who mask as outrageously plumed “Indians” on Mardi Gras and on Saint Joseph’s Day) takes the lead vocal on Professor Longhair’s timeless “Tipitina.” The Professor himself is featured on a 1960s version of his anthem “Go to the Mardi Gras” with its signature New Orleans parade beat.

 

While Cajun music originates in the French-speaking parishes south and west of New Orleans, you’ll often hear it in the Crescent City. “Mardi Gras Mambo,” originally recorded by Art Neville’s early band, The Hawkettes, is performed here by Cajun rocker Zachary Richard, while Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys play the minor-key “La Danse de Mardi Gras,” which you’ll hear at every Cajun dance at this time of year, for Cajuns have their own Mardi Gras.

 

For reasons not entirely known (but probably not difficult to decipher!), Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham’s “Meet Me With Your Back Drawers On” has become a New Orleans standard, especially as performed by vocalist Chuck Carbo, a veteran of the vocal group The Spiders. Rounding out this set are pianist/singer Marcia Ball, with her song based on a Zulu character — the Big Shot with his bowler hat and big cigar — and the New Orleans Nightcrawlers, who offer a funky twist on the melody of “Li’l Liza Jane,” long a brass band staple.

 

In the week before Mardi Gras, the evening parades are family affairs, filled with the aroma of barbeque and the sound of laughter. Chair-topped stepladders are set up along the streets as perches for children to be better positioned to catch the beads thrown from each float. Spectators shout out to kids and cousins in the high-stepping high school marching bands. And you can bet that the music on this album will be emanating from someone’s front porch, beckoning all to the party.

 

Track list:

 

1. The Soul Rebels —  “Say Na Hey”

2. Joe Liggins & the Honeydrippers  — “Goin’ Back to New Orleans” 

3. Zachary Richard — “Mardi Gras Mambo”

4. New Orleans Nightcrawlers  — “Funky Liza”

5. Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys  — “La Danse de Mardi Gras”

6. Larry Williams — “Jockamo a.k.a. Iko-Iko”

7. Al Johnson — “Carnival Time”

8. Marcia Ball — “Big Shot” 

9. Professor Longhair  “Go to the Mardi Gras”

10. ReBirth Brass Band —  “Do Whatcha Wanna, Part 3”

11. Bo Dollis & the Wild Magnolias  — “Tipitina” –

12. Chuck Carbo  — “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On”