The Willie Parker Story - New Century Soul 12th Anniversary

Manchester Embraces a Son Of The Windy City At Long Last!

By  Dave Moore 

Once again New Century Soul is about to warm the cockles of Manchester’s winter hearts!  Another fantastic year is to be rounded off once again in style!  This time with the first ever appearance in UK of one of Chicago’s iconic voices… 

The voice that would grind out some of Chicago’s great urban bluesy soul songs on the Leaner Brother’s iconic M-Pac! logo was brought into the world on 3 January 1944, in the local hospital in the small township of MaGee in Simpson County, Mississippi. A rural community roughly 30 miles South of Jackson. Magee  was something of a one horse town during those war years with its best known feature probably being the Sanatorium located just North East of its town border.  It was into this environment Willie Newsome was born.  The son of Frank Newsome a local farmer and his wife, Luovena Mae Carr Newsome, Willie was raised a few miles away in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which was situated on what is the main thoroughfare North out of New Orleans the I-59. Hattiesburg was home to the Newsome family for the decade after Willie was born and he attended the Third Ward Elementary School until, at age 10, when he, his mother, his brother and Grandmother left his father behind and moved Northwards to Joliet in Illinois. Young Willie was already singing whilst at the local elementary school and remembers that he always sang, “I always sang, even as a young child, it just seemed a natural thing for me to do”. 

The Newsome’s family’s Northern trek saw them settle in Joliet, Illinois a bustling township almost 30 miles South West of Chicago, where Willie was enrolled at the Forest Park Grade School on California Avenue.  

“I always sang, even as a young child, it just seemed a natural thing for me to do”. 

By aged 11 he was performing at school functions and was a regular at his local church where he sang the gospel songs on the day until his Mother was approached by a local adult singing group who wanted Willie to join them in their performances. With his Mother’s permission the 11 year old Willie Newsome became a member of the Chariot Wheels Gospel Singers which put him on the road to a singing career.  The group sang at local churches and Gospel get-togethers at which Willie became something of a central figure for the group, whilst honing his vocal skills. Influenced by the likes of Sam Cooke who was making a name for himself in the secular music world after initially making his name as a member of Gospel group, The Soul Stirrers and enthralled by the singers emanating from his small transistor radio, Willie began a love affair with Rhythm and Blues  and looked to broaden his singing parameters.

The Newsomes lived on Fairview Avenue in the North East district of the city and over the years Willie embraced six sisters as siblings and was now enrolled at Joliet Township High School. As was the norm he sang on the street corners with his neighbourhood friends and across the road from Willie’s house lived, Mr Junior Adams, the owner of a local nightclub hostelry called The Rock Inn.  When Mr Adams showed an interest in hiring the young singer to perform in his club, a local youth worker Lawrence Parker, who ran a local youth center in the area  became Willie’s first manager.  With Willie still at the tender age of 15, his manager took on the mantle of Uncle, gave Willie his surname claiming he was a nephew and that was Willie’s ‘in’ to the local club circuit. Willie Parker was now a fully-fledged, professional singing act. Musicians that backed acts at the Rock Inn at this time around 1958, were a band known as The Lorenzo Smith Band who were led by Chicago based saxophonist Lorenzo Smith. The name of Lorenzo Smith can be found on numerous 45s of the era ranging from the Windy City all the way as far South as New Orleans and it was whilst fronting this band that Willie took his first foray into a recording studio.

That studio session that Willie relates took place at the legendary Chess Studio 2120 South Michigan Ave delivered the first 45 to bear Willie’s name, albeit with his Parker ‘donated’ surname. Lorenzo Smith – “(Too Much) Firewater” b/w Little Willie Parker – “Looking In From The Outside” Marvel 2700, paired up a raucus Native Indian inspired instrumental that today would have the PC world in uproar whilst the flip is Willie leading a group harmonious shuffler against a clean sounding guitar and drum combo.  (1) The 45 was produced by Harry Glenn who also released it a little later on his own Glenn label.

On leaving High School, it was time for Willie Newsome to earn a living and singing, as much as he loved it, wasn’t cutting the mustard in the financial stakes, so he took a job pressing clothes at a local laundry in order to keep the wolf from the door. Pressing clothes by day and singing by night, Willie’s next contribution to Americas recording industry came when he was contracted to the Leaner Brothers’ M-Pac subsidiary.  (2) I say contracted but on asking Willie about this particular time in his life he wasn’t sure whether he actually signed a contract and couldn’t recall how he ended up with George Leaners set up and certainly never received any payment from these sessions.  Whilst undertaking the recording sessions that would produce Willie Parker – “I've Got To Fight It b/w Let's Start A Thing Now – M-Pac 7233, the uptempo, hard driving dancer, so loved by fans of that rnb styled Northern Soul,  Willie married his childhood sweetheart Patricia Ann, who he would subsequently have 2 children with, Frankie Jr and Charla Newsome.   With the new found responsibilities of a family to take care of Willie found a job at the local Caterpillar Earth Moving Equipment Plant in his adopted home town of Joliet but still kept the dream alive of being a recording star, continuing to record under the stewardship of Eddie Silvers, one of the Leaner Brothers ’ preferred  songwriters and production guy. (3) 

The subsequent 45s released from these sessions include the fantastic Eddie Silvers arranged and produced  1967 release of the double sider, Willie Parker – “Salute To Lovers b/w  Don't Hurt The One You Love” – M-Pac 7235, which has seen the flip undergo something of a revival in Northern Soul rooms looking for something not too overplayed.  That particular side was rereleased  a couple of months later with a different B Side as Willie Parker –“ Don't Hurt The One You Love b/w The Town I Live In” – M-Pac 7237, which incidentally was the final release on the imprint but before that the label slipped out yet another uptempo bouncer, this time minus Eddie Silver’s input (who may well have seen the writing on the wall for the logo),  that combines Willie’s rough edged Gospel tinged vocals with a crashing machine gun like back beat and a couple of deft string arrangements. I know… it sounds like it wouldn’t work… but it does! Crash, bang, whallop and hey presto! A soulful rnb dancer at it’s very best!   Willie Parker – “I Live The Life I Love b/w You Got Your Finger In My Eye” M-Pac  7236. The flip is a real example of where the label (and the majority of its output), sat within the soulful output of the Windy City. Heavily influenced by the city’s blues heritage, Willie grinds out a real testifying performance -sounding like he’s gargled gravel on what is effectively a love song delivered against the tell-tale simple guitar riffs that was the signature of so many of the One-Der-Ful, M-Pac! Mar-V-Lus recordings.  

Late that year (1967) saw the Leaner Brothers take stock of their label set ups and within the next 12 months had ceased recording. (albeit there was lots of material still in the can).  I guess with Motown so ingrained into the teenage pop psyche and Stax dominating the more grittier elements of the record buying public’s disposable income that they felt it wasn’t flying as they hoped it would. This of course left Willie as something of an undiscovered jewel really, as just as he was gaining a fan base, the company folded.  

America’s recording industry wasn’t quite ready to give up on Willie yet however and a meeting with Chicago based drummer Alan Williams led to a further sojourn into the studio in 1969. Williams was something of a colourful character who had developed a couple of alter egos over the years calling himself forest the Emperor, (under which guise he recorded a number of Calyso flavoured 45s and then buy the time he hooked up with Willie Zona Sago, the record producer ad owner of Sagport Records having taken up record producing in order to add that arrow to his musical quiver.   

Reverting to his own surname and changing his first name to Frankie, the release of Frankie Newsome and the Soul Invaders – “My Lucky Day b/w Part 2” – Sagport 202, was a song penned by Williams himself on which Willie extols the  fact that he’s gonna live for today.  Quite a funky track, with a female backing lolling above a bongo and guitar driven uptempo beat,  Willie’s vocal brings it all together in a fashion based on his gravelly gospel influenced style.  Willie undertook a ten day tour to promote the single and Williams aka Zona Sago sold the master to George Purcell who must have spotted some potential and reissued the 45 on his own GWP label (#515)   

Frankie Newsome – “Last Bus From Tupelo b/w Coming On Strong, Staying Strong” – Sagport 204 delivered a deep soul masterclass on the top side with a song penned by Williams and Jim Porter, a Chicago based record  producer who would go on to record the Wrecking Crew for Erect Records in the early 80s for Erect Records.  Another fine performance from Willie greeted the listener on the flip but this time on another Williams penned song that was equally as funky the earlier track on the label. A great slice of uptempo urban soul that was beginning to infuse the black record buying public at the outset of the seventies put Willie in amongst the emerging black talent that was finding it’s place with their ‘message in the music’ mantra.  A change of label, albeit still associated with Alan Williams delivered a local semi hit with Frankie Newsome – Don’t Mess With My Lovemaker b/w Same Part 2 – Savern 103 is a similar Williams authored song, with once again an early 70s urban sound relying heavily on a funky chanking guitar that takes centre stage alongside Willie’s vocal with Part 2 delivering more of the same.  Once again Williams managed to get the 45 placed with a larger label, this time with New York’s Wand logo and it appeared as Wand #11227.   

Willie Newsome had now like many before him been trying to establish himself as a recording artist for  15 years and the next few years were quite on the recording front, although he continued singing to audiences in the clubs and lounges around Chicago whilst working his job at the Caterpillar plant in Joliet. In 1974, Willie returned to the recording studio once again, this time under the production skills of veteran Chicago maestro Johnny Moore. The resulting release a sing penned and produced by Moore,   Frankie Newsome - We’re On Our Way b/w Same - Warner Brothers 8056 saw willie take a completely new musical direction. Having left the raw sound of his Chicago’s Leaner Brothers days firmly in the locker he delivers a sweet shuffling outing that had become so en vogue in the mid 70s.  Various Modern soul DJs have picked up on the 45 in the past and it has certainly seen plays in clubs of that soulful persuasion but without becoming the monster it deserves to be.

Willie’s recording career may have come to an end in the mid 70s but his singing continued in the clubs in and around his home town and in the Windy City. His church based singing still continues to this day and he is a member of his local church choir at the Mount Zion Baptist Church where the choir performs under the name of The Voices Of Zion under the direction of Pastor Gregory G Latimore. 

Willkies first marriage came to an end after 13 years but he remarried a few years later believe it or not to a girl with the same name as his first wife Patricia Ann and he fathered another two children Shannon and Tamiika as well as another son Brian. On November 28th, the Newsomes will get the opportunity to see their father sing it an appreciative and knowledgeable audience at the New Century Soul 11^th Anniversary Allnighter at the Radcliffe Civic Hall.

In recent times those intrepid soul detectives at Secret Stash have unearthed a number of unreleased tracks on Willie and one of those tracks will not only be part of his set on this special occasion but will also be available for the very first time on a commemorative 45! 

For the first time a UK audience of fans will hear Willies voice LIVE! On stage with a full backing band just the way it should be!  

If I were you I’d pop along to the NSC website at www.newcenturysoul.co.uk   and grab a ticket for this unique event.  History in the making once again in Manchester! See you there……  Dave

Dave Moore

July 2015

Notes and References:

1.       Lorenzo Smith played on a number of 45s by the likes of JB Lenoir and Earl Hooker as well as leading a number of bands during the late 50s and early 60s. he moved to Little Rock Arkansas and became something of a local celebrity as he and his wife operated Center Stage Music and were members of the city’s Arts Council. He passed away in April 2014 aged 66. 

2.       The Leaner Brothers (George and Eddie), were a pair of black sibling entrepreneurs who started out in the record business by working in their ex brother in laws retail store called The Groove Record Shop at 47^th and South Parkway in the mid 1940s. (When the Leaners sister, Bernice, divorced her husband she received the store as part of the settlement).  By March 1950, the brothers had worked at a number of record distributors in the city and set up on their own by establishing United Record Distributors, subsequently builing up a solid reputation in the record business.  Bouyed by the success of Chess, VeeJay and a slew of lesser known but emerging independent record labels, in 1962 they established their own label named OneDerFul,  eventually creating MarVLus and Mpac as sister logosas well asa number of lesser known labels. The Leaner operated labels would become synonymous throughout the sixties with their artists producing a hard driving, urban sound encompassing a more guttural sound of soul than its rivals like Motown.     

3.       Eddie Silvers was a renowned songwriter, arranger and producer who was one of the creative, driving forces of the Leaner Brothers’ stable of labels. Mr Silvers name is peppered amongst the Leaner Brothers’ logos but maybe one snippet that has passed by many fans is that he also wrote what has now been recognised as The Jackson Five’s first recording which was undertaken in Chicago as the recent discovery of the master tape has revealed.