We Got A Sweet Thing Going On - Soul Junction Review

Soul Junction has proved itself as one of the leading labels for independent Soul and Funk Music. Releasing material either extremely rare & obscure or unreleased with some current work from some of Soul Music’s upcoming and leading talent also seeing a release.

2014 alone has seen releases form the Trey-J’s (a re-release of their 70”s Tee Gem outing), unreleased 70”s soul from Elbowed Out, Richard Brooks, UK musician, producer & artist Elliot McCauley & Preston Shannon seeing out the 45 releases for the year. LP wise we had at the back end of 2013 the brilliant unreleased 70”s LP from The Coalitions “Colour Me Blue”, CD”s saw an excellent release from Anthony Toombs and a various artists compilation featuring many of Soul Junctions releases entitled “Extra Rich In Soul”.

Seeing out 2014 we have another CD featuring various artists entitled “We Got A sweet Thing Going On” . The release gives a nod to the doo wop era with a compilation featuring group soul and harmonies although not all the inclusions are group efforts with the odd duet and solo outing.

The CD kicks off with Frank, Sylvester and Arthur, better known as The Hopkins Brothers. The 45 on the tiny Magnetik label, it is currently one of the most Indemand 45”s on the Rare Soul Scene commanding a price of around £3000 plus with just a handful of known copies in the hands of collectors/DJ”s. Shake Sheri, the 45”s actual flip is the side stirring the feet of dancers across Europe with DJ’s such as Mark “Butch” Dobson and Andy Dyson championing it. The official top side, Kiss Of Fire, a nice sweet soul recording is also included.

Milwaukee trio The Candi Bars (Celeste Campbell, David Bursey & James “JB” Young, they became a foursome for a brief period with the addition of Robert Wardell) have been an favourite on the Rare Soul Scene for sometime with “I Believe In You”, a nice crossover styled dancer. The flip, a down tempo sweet soul collector’s item You’re The One is the second track to feature on the CD.

The Mansion feature with “Stop, Let Your Heart Be Your Guide” and “The Girl Next Door”. The band was prisoners at the Green Bay Reformatory at Allouez, Wisconsin. Formed by Charles Barkley who was serving 30 years for attempting to shoot the police and 10 years for evading arrest after a high-speed chase. The 30 years was quashed upon retrial and so he just had the ten to serve. The prison group attracted the attention of the Warden’s wife who got them slots on local TV. They were then allowed to perform outside the prison where they came to the attention of Al Dunlap and through him the group recorded their solitary release for the tiny label owned by Bill Gibbs. The 45 has remained extremely scarce and is a highly sought after sweet soul collectors item, a worthy inclusion to this compilation.

Elbowed Out, a mixed race group out of Seattle who’s aim was to get you up and out of your seat, and then to begin to move your feat, have featured on Soul Junction with two 45”s featuring some great unreleased 70”s soul. They feature on this compilation with just one track, again unreleased, a delightful sweet soul ballad featuring the lead vocals of Denis Wilcox entitled “In The Book Of Guiness”.

Clayton Hooker, Terry Forsythe and Nate & Walter Jones were studying at the Highland park High School, Michigan when they came to the attention of Mr John Maxey who happened to have a brother called Ivy Jo Hunter. Together they owned the Probe 1 Productions Recording Studio in Detroit and the youngster suitably impressed enough to be offered a session in the studio. The result was two group soul recordings that saw a release studios subsidiary label Red Line, two fine group soul recordings entitled “We’ve Come A Long Way” and “Inspiration Of My Life”.

Natural Impulse have seen two releases on Soul Junction 45’s, two unreleased sides featured on the groups second 45 for the label, “We’re Gonna Make It Through” and “Make It Or Break It”. But it is the label’s second outing and the one that saw a limited 300 copy release in the 70’s on their own label that is featured here. “She Went Away” is highly sought after by collectors and indemand on the Rare and Modern Soul scenes.

Another artists who recorded for Maxey and Hunter’s Probe 1 Productions is Curt Darin with “Two On A Cloud” b/w “Grown Up Fairy Tale”. The release gained national exposure via Buddah and the Detroit produced “Two On A Cloud” is simply wonderful mid pacer and is quite rightly causing a stir once again with popular plays on UK radio shows.

Jesse James, the West Coat version and not Philly has treated us to some gorgeous unreleased and alternative takes of his music through Soul Junction and he features just the once here with the wonderful down tempo ballad “I Don’t Want A Divided Love”, not sure of the year and neither was Jesse but it reminds me for some reason of “Believe In Me Baby” which was released on three labels to my knowledge, Sheran, Hit and 20^th Century. One of the true Rare Soul greats in my opinion.

The Trey J’s as previously mentioned feature with both sides of their Tee Gem release. The Indemand dancer “I Found It All in You” and the sweet soul ballad which in part gives this compilation it’s title “We Got A Thing Going On”.

Oliver Cheatham features with one side of his previously unreleased Soul Junction outing “Good Guy’s Don’t Always Win”, a fabulous ballad that quite rightly received plenty of attention the past year.

The Coalitions round of the compilation with “Colour Me Blue”, the title track of the recently discovered 70’s LP that was issued via Soul Junction at the back end of 2013. A perfect example of some sweet soul harmonies to round off an excellent compilation.

The CD was compiled by Dave Welding and comes with extensive liner notes with plenty of information about the artists which makes great reading whilst listening.

1. The Hopkins Bros - "Shake Cheri"

2. Candi-Bars - "You're The One"

3. The Mansion - "Stop, Let Your Heart Be Your Guide"

4. Elbowed-Out - "In The Book Of Guiness"

5. Citation - "We've Come A Long Way"

6. Natural Impulse - "She Went Away"

7. Curt Darin - "Two On A Cloud"

8. Jesse James - "I Don't Want A Divided Love"

9. The Hopkins Bros - "Kiss Of Fire"

10. They Trey J's - "We Got A Thing Going On"

11. The Mansion - "The Girl Next Door"

12. Candi-Bars - "I Believe In You"

13. Citation - "Inspiration Of My Life"

14. The Trey J's - "I Found It All In You"

15. Oliver Cheatham - "Good Guys Don't Make Good Lovers"

16. The Coalitions - "Colour Me Blue"

Listen to Sample clips

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/uploads/select_1417854762__sjcd5009_-_we_got_a_sweet_thing_going_on_promo.mp3

Buy direct from Soul Junction…

http://www.souljunctionrecords.co.uk/buydirect.html

Or from most good stockists, Soul Brother, Crazy Beat, Soulmusic.co.uk.