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on listening to the dupree 45 i'd be astounded if it isn't the self and same vocalist i just double checked the 2 king ones against the dupree release..

the flip to try me as gareth points out is fantastic indeed..

I'm pretty sure the lead of the chicago gangsters is james mccants, and he was alive throughout the lifetime of the group in the 80s. Also, apparently the chicago gangsters *are* from akron, according to his son posting on this youtube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPAb9g43jvA

So james McCants is not Junior Mccants if Junior McCants died early. If Junior McCants sang lead on the harmonics 45s then the leader changed after he left. But the group is definitely from Akron. And the harmonics remade "let me go" in like 1969, but the King 45 in question is from like 1967. Did he die in 1967 or not? Thanks.

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The plot thickens. Mention of the Dupree 45 has jogged my memory about an ebay listing some years ago. A 45 with J. McCants on the credits: is this the Harmonics 45 you mention Andy? Or is there an earlier Junior McCants solo 45 from Ohio prior to his being recorded by King? Seem to recall the listing stating that this was the same chap as the King recording artist Junior McCants.

Also I wonder if Pat Brady specifically mentioned obtaining a King acetate of "Try Me" from John Anderson to legitimise playing the track from a dub once the actual 45 was sold on. We've all seen pictures of the white demo, from the Kent CD, from the article Tim did in Record Collector abut the rarest soul 45s and now this ebay listing.

Has anyone ever seen the mysterious King acetate?

Edited by garethx
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I like the casual way he says scarce Northern.

I would be jumping up and down a freckin loonatic.

Any one got a sound clip of the other side, interesting sound on the disc compared to the CD or even the single up front voice lacking bass, louder sound and dynamic.

Fantastic Northern soul, quality, scarcity and danceable, which despite the doubting Thomas's makes it a perfect NS record.

By coincidence Boy Needs A Girl came on the old shuffle this am and also sounds fantastic

Quality, cheap and danceable, a perfect Jocko record! Slightly tricky but bunch of wooses if you can't dance to this, may dig it out for Northampton, wouldn't be first time I danced to one of my own records.

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Here's a scan of the Dupree 45 from ohiosoulrecordings.com: shows how the memory plays tricks as I recalled it having a light blue label. At this time the Dupree label had a Cleveland address, as Akron didn't have much in the way of 'black music' labels at the time. Later Dupree recordings have an Akron address. The McCants family seem to be a major driving force behind much Akron soul of the 70s and 80s: through The Harmonics, The Chicago Gangsters and later through the band Ivy and and the solo artist Frederick.

I've never heard the J.McCants & The Harmonics 45, but if Andy says the lead sounds like Junior McCants that's good enough for me, as he had a highly distinctive voice.

post-1080-1223116574_thumb.jpg

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I'm pretty sure the lead of the chicago gangsters is james mccants, and he was alive throughout the lifetime of the group in the 80s. Also, apparently the chicago gangsters *are* from akron, according to his son posting on this youtube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPAb9g43jvA

So james McCants is not Junior Mccants if Junior McCants died early. If Junior McCants sang lead on the harmonics 45s then the leader changed after he left. But the group is definitely from Akron. And the harmonics remade "let me go" in like 1969, but the King 45 in question is from like 1967. Did he die in 1967 or not? Thanks.

bob ,my theories are just that theories on listening to the 3 -45's the similarity is uncanny,also the guy who i got the 45 from some years ago from cleveland actually made a point of mailing me and pointing out it was the sme artist ,never the less i'll go with your hard facts and dates untill it's confimed either way.. certainly would be nice to know the whole story and you're certainly as good as anyone at sourceing info like this !

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Sorry folks......never done that before and didn't realise that I wouldn't get chance to include info in the post.............clip from a live Stafford tape November 1985..........Pat Brady of course.

Am in the process of creating an mp3 of the whole 1.5 hr tape biggrin.gif


Cheers,
Mark R

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Guest TONY ROUNCE

I can tell you that there is not one copy of this 45 in the King vaults (which, along with mastertapes, house a more-or-less complete collection of King 45s and 78s (plus subsidiary labels). All there is, where the 45 should be, is a paper sleeve with the catalogue number on and a dated message, in pencil, that reads "sent to C.S for approval" - presumably Charles Spurling.

When I was last there on a work-related visit, my curiosity got the better of me and I couldn't resist looking. I might have suffered a conscience crisis if I'd found one, as I was alone in the vault. Whether I'd've 'borrowed' it or left it where it was is something I'm perhaps glad I didn't have to decide upon... whistling.gif

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Sorry folks......never done that before and didn't realise that I wouldn't get chance to include info in the post.............clip from a live Stafford tape November 1985..........Pat Brady of course.

Am in the process of creating an mp3 of the whole 1.5 hr tape biggrin.png


Cheers,
Mark R


Any chance of a copy Mark when you've done it thumbsup.gif the record still sounds great to these ears yes.gif
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Sorry folks......never done that before and didn't realise that I wouldn't get chance to include info in the post.............clip from a live Stafford tape November 1985..........Pat Brady of course.

Am in the process of creating an mp3 of the whole 1.5 hr tape biggrin.gif


Cheers,
Mark R


Hi Mark you can go back and edit you must open it up in a grey page and not the green one then in the left hand corner their is an edit button.
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Here's a scan of the Dupree 45 from ohiosoulrecordings.com: shows how the memory plays tricks as I recalled it having a light blue label. At this time the Dupree label had a Cleveland address, as Akron didn't have much in the way of 'black music' labels at the time. Later Dupree recordings have an Akron address. The McCants family seem to be a major driving force behind much Akron soul of the 70s and 80s: through The Harmonics, The Chicago Gangsters and later through the band Ivy and and the solo artist Frederick.

I've never heard the J.McCants & The Harmonics 45, but if Andy says the lead sounds like Junior McCants that's good enough for me, as he had a highly distinctive voice.

the black label dupree press of "let me go" says Akron on the label (it's a different version to the gold plate later version). I will try to record and scan the records so others can compare the voice.

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bob ,my theories are just that theories on listening to the 3 -45's the similarity is uncanny,also the guy who i got the 45 from some years ago from cleveland actually made a point of mailing me and pointing out it was the sme artist ,never the less i'll go with your hard facts and dates untill it's confimed either way.. certainly would be nice to know the whole story and you're certainly as good as anyone at sourceing info like this !

I obviously have incomplete information too as I know nothing about Junior McCants. Where are the stories about him dying coming from, are those defintiely true?

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Bob

Thanks for posting Summer's Love. I'd say that's pretty much certainly Junior McCants on lead. Having said all that it's definitely not him singing lead on the other Harmonics 45s I have or have heard, so my theory is that he was plucked from the group, signed to King, groomed for stardom, got ill and died, and that the Hamonics (probably other family members) carried on making records after his death.

The stories about Junior's death come from Charles Spurling himself if I'm not mistaken. As I said at the beginning of the thread Ady Croasdell will have a more complete recollection of the story as he compiled the track on a Kent CD about seven or eight years ago. The sleevenotes were quite detailed.

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I was just about to add a soundclip of the Dupree 45 (Summer's Love), but I see Bob did one. I sold a copy of this years ago (went quite cheaply at auction). Going by the vocal sound I think there's a good chance it's Junior but who knows for sure?

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Fantastic Northern soul, quality, scarcity and danceable, which despite the doubting Thomas's makes it a perfect NS record.

By coincidence Boy Needs A Girl came on the old shuffle this am and also sounds fantastic

Quality, cheap and danceable, a perfect Jocko record! Slightly tricky but bunch of wooses if you can't dance to this, may dig it out for Northampton, wouldn't be first time I danced to one of my own records.



tis indeed a great choon Jock.......I played it at the last Silk whistling.gif
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Here is the label to the original version of "let me go". I was going to scan my copy but the scan in popsike is of the one I won and just recorded anyways, this is from popsike. I guess the label was originally Akron and then moved?

post-5120-1223137381_thumb.jpg

The earlier 45, "Summer's Love", has a Cleveland address because that would have been the nearest big city with the apparatus to press and distribute R&B records. The other Harmonics 45s on Dupree, Gold Plate and Sock It (later released nationally on Seventy 7) sound much later historically: very much late 60s, early 70s. By this time Akron would have had a small recording industry itself.

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The earlier 45, "Summer's Love", has a Cleveland address because that would have been the nearest big city with the apparatus to press and distribute R&B records. The other Harmonics 45s on Dupree, Gold Plate and Sock It (later released nationally on Seventy 7) sound much later historically: very much late 60s, early 70s. By this time Akron would have had a small recording industry itself.

I always thought that this dupree was earlier but I guess I'm probably wrong given that summer's love has an earlier number and Dante has it listed later also. Did you listen to this version of "let me go"? It's different than the gold plate

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Re the 'King' acetate that Pat Brady had: are their many King acetates / test pressings of any King release?

I know King were a true independant, in the fact that they had their own pressing facilities, so did they bother with more than the odd TP/Acetate prior to pressing 45s up?

Demos of King singles by James Brown seem to be pretty thin on the ground as well - did they just press issues as they expected him to have hits?

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Re the 'King' acetate that Pat Brady had: are their many King acetates / test pressings of any King release?

I know King were a true independant, in the fact that they had their own pressing facilities, so did they bother with more than the odd TP/Acetate prior to pressing 45s up?

Demos of King singles by James Brown seem to be pretty thin on the ground as well - did they just press issues as they expected him to have hits?

true you don't see too many demo's of brown's own releases,far as acetates go on king i got a small handfull of 10" with 4 tracks on each one is vicki anderson , roberta dubois is another am sure there's a big funk one ,can't bleeding remember artist it came out twice anyways once as a 3 track 7" and as a 2 track 7" vinyl but the metal one i got is slightly different will have to find it .also got the odd test presses but for the huge output the label had you're right don't see too many,assume they're in the archive..

the more i listen to the dupree thing am sure it's same guy !

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The earlier 45, "Summer's Love", has a Cleveland address because that would have been the nearest big city with the apparatus to press and distribute R&B records. The other Harmonics 45s on Dupree, Gold Plate and Sock It (later released nationally on Seventy 7) sound much later historically: very much late 60s, early 70s. By this time Akron would have had a small recording industry itself.

The Harmonics "Let Me Go" 45 pressing (Rite) dates from January 1969, give or take a couple weeks. The number on the label , 11369, decodes to January 13, 1969. The "Summer's Love" 45 dates from August 1st, 1969. That is the date in the business log book (Musicol, in Columbus) that pressed the 45. "Summer's Love" recorded in the dead of summer!

Both Dupree 45s were almost certainly recorded (determined not only by observation but in sound) at Akron Recording in Akron. Dupree was a house label for the studio, so anyone could stick whatever other info, like addresses, they wanted on the label. Ermal publishing was the Akron Recording publishing company, named after the original engineer Ernie Malick. The date numbering I 'decoded' above was used on several other 45s. The Cleveland address relates to the person(s) involved with the groups managment/booking, not a recording operation. Akron Recording would lease time to producers who would in turn use their label names. Other 'labels' that were recorded at Akron were Eastwood and Westwood. Some of you might recognize the Westwood name from the Soul Tornado's (sic), Nora Lee, and the Blue Soul 45s, although not all the records with that label name were recorded at Akron, as the producers who used the label names did records there and other studios. There's even two different Westwood label series, as the original Westwood producer lent the label name to a different producer.

Akron had recording activity going back to the 1950s. In the mid 1960s there were a couple local labels, one of them being Rubbertown, who released a bunch of mediocre (IMO) soul 45s by the Elevations, Cashmeres, etc. Rubbertown co-sponsored a couple talent shows (concentrating on African-Americans) with a record deal to the winner. Going back a few years, one of my good Akron area record dealers was the son-in-law of a guy who financed both the Rubbertown and Top Hit (Ohio Players, Silky Vincent) labels. There was also a Tiretown label.

The info I cite was all obtained by interviews with the Akron Recording principals - Ernie Malick and original Westwood producer Bill Palmer, as well as members of the groups who recorded there.

- George

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The Harmonics "Let Me Go" 45 pressing (Rite) dates from January 1969, give or take a couple weeks. The number on the label , 11369, decodes to January 13, 1969. The "Summer's Love" 45 dates from August 1st, 1969. That is the date in the business log book (Musicol, in Columbus) that pressed the 45. "Summer's Love" recorded in the dead of summer!

Both Dupree 45s were almost certainly recorded (determined not only by observation but in sound) at Akron Recording in Akron. Dupree was a house label for the studio, so anyone could stick whatever other info, like addresses, they wanted on the label. Ermal publishing was the Akron Recording publishing company, named after the original engineer Ernie Malick. The date numbering I 'decoded' above was used on several other 45s. The Cleveland address relates to the person(s) involved with the groups managment/booking, not a recording operation. Akron Recording would lease time to producers who would in turn use their label names. Other 'labels' that were recorded at Akron were Eastwood and Westwood. Some of you might recognize the Westwood name from the Soul Tornado's (sic), Nora Lee, and the Blue Soul 45s, although not all the records with that label name were recorded at Akron, as the producers who used the label names did records there and other studios. There's even two different Westwood label series, as the original Westwood producer lent the label name to a different producer.

Akron had recording activity going back to the 1950s. In the mid 1960s there were a couple local labels, one of them being Rubbertown, who released a bunch of mediocre (IMO) soul 45s by the Elevations, Cashmeres, etc. Rubbertown co-sponsored a couple talent shows (concentrating on African-Americans) with a record deal to the winner. Going back a few years, one of my good Akron area record dealers was the son-in-law of a guy who financed both the Rubbertown and Top Hit (Ohio Players, Silky Vincent) labels. There was also a Tiretown label.

The info I cite was all obtained by interviews with the Akron Recording principals - Ernie Malick and original Westwood producer Bill Palmer, as well as members of the groups who recorded there.

- George

Thanks for this fascinating information George: an interesting insight into the Ohio music business of the 1960s. Do you think there could be a case for speculating that the first Dupree recording (J.McCants / Harmonics) was recorded several years earlier than the release date of August 1st 1969? The vocalist on this certainly sounds very similar indeed to the King artist under discussion, but he's assumed to have died in 1967 as mentioned above.

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Thanks for this fascinating information George: an interesting insight into the Ohio music business of the 1960s. Do you think there could be a case for speculating that the first Dupree recording (J.McCants / Harmonics) was recorded several years earlier than the release date of August 1st 1969? The vocalist on this certainly sounds very similar indeed to the King artist under discussion, but he's assumed to have died in 1967 as mentioned above.

You're welcome. I'll be glad to try and answer any questions about Ohio music and recording artists. I don't know much about the urban soul acts yet but I have a lot of knowledge on the white bands (soul and rock) and recording industry. I don't know anything about the King artist relative to the Harmonics. I can probably find someone involved with the Akron group without a lot of trouble and ask them, but I don't expect an answer soon. I lived in Akron many years ago and remember a few people in the Harmonics/Gangsters extended family. It would have been possible for the songs to have been recorded earlier as Akron Recording was around long before 1967, but the musical style does sound of 1969.

BTW, the label address on the black label Dupree 45 was the address of Akron Recording.

One more thing - Someone(s) have mentioned a 45 by the Harmonics on Way Out (Cleveland label). Does anyone actually have this record? It's the only 'documented' WO 45 I don't own or have had my hands on.

- George

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You're welcome. I'll be glad to try and answer any questions about Ohio music and recording artists. I don't know much about the urban soul acts yet but I have a lot of knowledge on the white bands (soul and rock) and recording industry. I don't know anything about the King artist relative to the Harmonics. I can probably find someone involved with the Akron group without a lot of trouble and ask them, but I don't expect an answer soon. I lived in Akron many years ago and remember a few people in the Harmonics/Gangsters extended family. It would have been possible for the songs to have been recorded earlier as Akron Recording was around long before 1967, but the musical style does sound of 1969.

BTW, the label address on the black label Dupree 45 was the address of Akron Recording.

One more thing - Someone(s) have mentioned a 45 by the Harmonics on Way Out (Cleveland label). Does anyone actually have this record? It's the only 'documented' WO 45 I don't own or have had my hands on.

- George

I have the harmonics way out 45, it's not very good, both sides are funk, I think there's not even vocals on it but I would have to pull it out to confirm.

do you have the elevations - a change it gonna come / no doubt about it on rubbertown? I have all the rubbertown records except for that one, I know it's probably not very good but I'm wondering if it's any good at all?

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I have the harmonics way out 45, it's not very good, both sides are funk, I think there's not even vocals on it but I would have to pull it out to confirm.

do you have the elevations - a change it gonna come / no doubt about it on rubbertown? I have all the rubbertown records except for that one, I know it's probably not very good but I'm wondering if it's any good at all?

Yeah - No Doubt is not bad, actually, Chicago style shuffler. Flip is a snoozer take on the Sam Cooke song. Unfortunately it has the same awful 'stereo' sound as Philly Dog. Pretty sure they were cut at the same session. The group were students at Akron South High School. Be glad to swap MP3s of the Harmonics. Do you even think it's the same Harmonics? Instro funk was not their sound. The label on my Elevations 45 is pretty tatty looking (vinyl is clean). Just take their other 45 and photoshop the titles and it would look better!

- George

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Yeah - No Doubt is not bad, actually, Chicago style shuffler. Flip is a snoozer take on the Sam Cooke song. Unfortunately it has the same awful 'stereo' sound as Philly Dog. Pretty sure they were cut at the same session. The group were students at Akron South High School. Be glad to swap MP3s of the Harmonics. Do you even think it's the same Harmonics? Instro funk was not their sound. The label on my Elevations 45 is pretty tatty looking (vinyl is clean). Just take their other 45 and photoshop the titles and it would look better!

- George

the way out 45 credits j mccants. i am recording it for you now, I will pm you.

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Guest TONY ROUNCE

Re the 'King' acetate that Pat Brady had: are their many King acetates / test pressings of any King release?

I know King were a true independant, in the fact that they had their own pressing facilities, so did they bother with more than the odd TP/Acetate prior to pressing 45s up?

Demos of King singles by James Brown seem to be pretty thin on the ground as well - did they just press issues as they expected him to have hits?

Many JB hit 45's did go 'straight to stock' from TP - probably because most of them were "Part 1 & 2", I'd guess, so there was no chance of a DJ deciding he liked the flipside better and playing that instead of what JB and King wanted to be the hit.

There's also the fact that James issued singles on pretty much a monthly basis between about 1967 and 1972, give or take, and sometimes more frequently than that. Given that , even then, radio stations generally got serviced in advance of a record's release, they would have been getting a new promo just as sales on as the latest release were getting underway, and it would have all gotten a bit confusing. There probably wasn't time to press promos and get them to DJs, with such a quick turnaround of releases.

I do remember spotting demos of some of JB's 1966 releases while I was nosing around in the archive...

I would imagine that King pressed maybe no more that a handful of TPs, if that. 6 to 12 has always been an 'unofficial industry norm', and even though, as you say, they did have their own pressing facilities they would have been no different from any other indie when it came to not wasting money!

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The springers,Don Gardner etc were sold to Tim although not all at the same time,it occured over a period of 18months.

well done bri quite right it was at goldthorpe ,i certainly brokered the deal infact to brownys annoyance .. i kept the records for a while .. the rub was the don gardner -cheating kind was the dearest in the bunch at 1800 (at the time the most payed for a record on our scene,there was springers and the junior mccants was 1500 if me memory serves me right,sure there was summat else aswell.the previous week i'd sold browny spares of aspirations-peaches ,the rare mix on younger brothers and masquaders which thgere was probably only 3-4 copies known at the time of the last 2 titles .. this was the era browny was trying to own every soul record !

has anyone ever seen the acetate ? am a bit dubious about it, hanson never showed it me when i was buying a lot of stuff of him.. who knows..

hope this helps.

no smudge youve got that wrong there. dont know where you get the 18 months from. seeing is

believing. the 4th disc was a shrine 45. I think it was the cairos but.............

dave

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Nigel Parker never owned the record,if fact according to Gary when he first played this at the cellar Bar in Stamford Nigel got the right hump and sat in his car outside for about 2 hrs lol.

Probably he was p*ssed off because he'd known for an age what it was, but couldn't find one to confirm

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I trust I can add something of interest to this thread

I first contacted Charles Spurling prior to the release of the first Kent King CD.

My hope was to find Junior McCants and maybe a copy of the 45. Charles told me about the circumstances surrounding Junior's death which explained why the record was so rare. At the time we tried to trace members of Junior's family but had no luck.

In subsequent conversations that both Ady and I had with Charles he was able to recall many things that were used to provide detail for the sleeve notes. He also sent over a promo shot of himself that was used on the cover of Vol 2.

Charles recalled that he did once have the 45 but it had long disappeared and he thought one of his kids had got it along with most of his other 45s. He had nothing left.

In recent conversations he has shared the following......

He always knew him as Junior but seems to think his real name was James but couldn't be sure.

He wasn't aware of him making any other recordings apart from the 4 tracks at King. He wasn't aware of any other members of the McCants family being recording artists

He couldn't tell me how many demo copies King used to press. Charles never cut a version of 'Try me' even as a guide vocal. King didn't really approve of studio time being used to cut songwriter demo's so Charles would go over to Junior's house and teach him the songs on his guitat. When Junior had mastered the track they went straight into the studio to cut it.

In the intervening period Charles was contacted by Junior's younger brother who was trying to locate a coipy of 'Try me' ... we could therefore reasonably assume that the McCants family didn't own a copy themselves.

Charles did get his copy from the King library and I just wonder if this is the copy that recently surfaced on e-bay ... maybe we'll never know

He told me that he still misses Junior and felt they would have had a great future together in the industry had he not died

I hope that helps with some of the questions raised

Regards

Andy

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I trust I can add something of interest to this thread

I first contacted Charles Spurling prior to the release of the first Kent King CD.

My hope was to find Junior McCants and maybe a copy of the 45. Charles told me about the circumstances surrounding Junior's death which explained why the record was so rare. At the time we tried to trace members of Junior's family but had no luck.

In subsequent conversations that both Ady and I had with Charles he was able to recall many things that were used to provide detail for the sleeve notes. He also sent over a promo shot of himself that was used on the cover of Vol 2.

Charles recalled that he did once have the 45 but it had long disappeared and he thought one of his kids had got it along with most of his other 45s. He had nothing left.

In recent conversations he has shared the following......

He always knew him as Junior but seems to think his real name was James but couldn't be sure.

He wasn't aware of him making any other recordings apart from the 4 tracks at King. He wasn't aware of any other members of the McCants family being recording artists

He couldn't tell me how many demo copies King used to press. Charles never cut a version of 'Try me' even as a guide vocal. King didn't really approve of studio time being used to cut songwriter demo's so Charles would go over to Junior's house and teach him the songs on his guitat. When Junior had mastered the track they went straight into the studio to cut it.

In the intervening period Charles was contacted by Junior's younger brother who was trying to locate a coipy of 'Try me' ... we could therefore reasonably assume that the McCants family didn't own a copy themselves.

Charles did get his copy from the King library and I just wonder if this is the copy that recently surfaced on e-bay ... maybe we'll never know

He told me that he still misses Junior and felt they would have had a great future together in the industry had he not died

I hope that helps with some of the questions raised

Regards

Andy

==

good to see you on here Andy - great info there mate

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