Bman's Blues Report

I just received the newest release, Apollo Saturday Night/Saturday Night At The Uptown , from Real Gone Records and it's a real R&B party. Originally released on Atlantic in 1964, these two original LP's are combined onto a single Cd. Opening Apollo Saturday Night with I Found A Love and Alabama Bound by the Falcons , this is scorching hot and real. Otis Redding takes the stage with Pain In My Heart and These Arms Of Mine and in classic style. His voice is unmistakable and his dynamics with the horns impeccable. Doris Troy swings with Misty and gets a hot groove on Say Yeah . Great sax (King Curtis) backing really pushes this track. Rufus Thomas is down with Rockin' Chair and Walking The Dog gets that funky groove going with trumpets, trombones and sax with a Watusi kick. The Coasters deliver T'Ain't Nothin' To Me with their typically classic humor and Speedo's Back In Town with that hot R&B feel. Ben E King 's set includes Groovin...

Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 27, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s and on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the father of soul singer Carla Thomas and keyboard player Marvell Thomas. A third child, Vaneese, a former French teacher, has a recording studio in upstate New York and sings for television commercials. Born a sharecropper's son in the rural community of Cayce, Mississippi, Thomas moved to Memphis with his family at age 2. His mother was “a church woman.” Thomas made his artistic debut at the age of 6 playing a frog in a school theatrical production. Much later in life, he would impersonate all kinds of animals: screeching cats, funky chickens and penguins, and mournful dogs. By age 10, he was a tap dancer, performing in amateur productions at Memphis' Booker T. Washington High School. He made his professional singing debut at the Elks Club...

I have just listened to the new remastered release of Rufus Thomas "Do the Funky Chicken" release. The recording just got to put a smile on your face. Originally released back in 1970 these recordings are quite entertaining. Put it on and take it for a spin! Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE The Stax reissues will be released on September 13

CONCORD MUSIC GROUP’S STAX REMASTERS SERIES CONTINUES ON SEPTEMBER 13 WITH REISSUES FROM RUFUS THOMAS, THE DRAMATICS, AND SHIRLEY BROWN Rufus Thomas’s Do the Funky Chicken , Shirley Brown’s Woman to Woman , and the Dramatics’ Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get are fortified with bonus tracks LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In 1968, on the heels of the label’s severance from Atlantic Records, Stax Records president Al Bell decided to initiate a massive 28-LP release program that would auger the label’s return to the top. The initiative fostered a new generation of Stax hitmakers including the Dramatics and Shirley Brown. And, it proved an artistically and commercially fertile time for Stax veteran Rufus Thomas. On September 13, 2011, Concord Music Group , as part of its Stax Remasters series , will reissue Rufus Thomas’s Do the Funky Chicken , the Dramatics’ Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get and Shirley Brown’s Wom...