Rick Powell 'The Funky Drummer Of Cincinnati' Little Flint

[Derek Pearson]

For those that like the background information of those little 7" records we so avidly collect.

Stumbled across this blog post  https://homeofthehits.blogspot.co.uk  purely by chance whilst reading other articles on the web and luckily it co-incided with me just having looked up the Little Flint release "Pain" on Beast Records.

Derek

Rick “Bam” Powell  ‘The Funky Drummer of Cincinnati’

By Randy McNutt

Singer-drummer Rick “Bam” Powell has soaked up plenty of soul in his long career in music, most notably while working in two river towns that have contributed heavily to America's roots-rock and soul--Cincinnati and Muscle Shoals, where he worked as a sideman. Add to this the experience of forty years as an active musician, and you'll have the story of one of the few remaining authentic soul-rockers who is still out there singing his songs.

"I'm a singing drummer,” Rick Powell says with a laugh, “and there’s no category for me. Guitarists get most of the attention. How many drummers do you see out there singing the songs?”

He has a good point, and a minor problem. People don't usually associate vocalists with being drummers. But Powell doesn't mind so long as he's singing. He grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, and began playing drums as a kid. “A guy up the road had all the records, the 45s by the Beach Boys and other groups, and I fell in love with harmony and all those old sounds,” Powell says. That influence can be heard today in the harmony he places on his recordings. By the time he was in high school in the early 1970s, he was playing and singing in a garage band called The Chamberly Kids. Singer Wayne Perry discovered the band, and joined it. Powell ended up in the studio working on a blue-eyed soul record as the drummer and second lead vocalist.

On Perry’s independent sessions in suburban Cincinnati, Powell became the drummer and co-lead vocalist with Perry on “Gonna Have a Good Time,” which was released under the name Little Flint. It was a studio band assembled by Perry and his production group. Little Flint recorded only one single, but it gave the young Powell a chance to record with some veteran musicians. The experience was invaluable, and made him long for more.....

https://homeofthehits.blogspot.co.uk/

[Ljblanken]

I grew up in Cincinnati and saw these bands back when I was in high school (the Raisins, Ricky Nye's various groups, etc). Cincinnati always had a great mixed race R&B scene - it sits right on the Mason/Dixon line, and was a draw for both hillbillies and black folks to try their hand at King Records. Used to go to bars and see bands like Big Ed Thompson and the All Stars and H-Bomb Ferguson belting out this kind of music all the time.

Last time I visited Cincinnati I found this plaque for H-Bomb...