Roburt

4' 2" tall Eddie Taylor had one of the early 45's to be released on Tropical. He played loads of club gigs around Miami throughout the 60's. After his Tropical 45, he signed with Peacock & had good releases with them as well. Swamp Dogg last ran in to him in East Elmhurst New York around 68/69. He was appearing at Arthur's club there as the vocalist for the Red Prysock Band (the club being owned by Arthur Prysock, Red's brother). Swamp recalls that Eddie could sing his ass off and the women were crazy about him (seems that despite his size, he was a true ladies man).

Tampa born Rufus Beacham was nearing the end of his recording career when he cut a 45 for Tropical. Rufus was born in December 1930 and had been around (on the recording scene) since the beginning of the 1950's, initially leading his Tampa Toppers band. Ray Charles cut some tracks fronting Rufus's band (orchestra) and Rufus himself had releases on Chart, Sittin' In With, King (mid 50's) & Scepter (early 60's).

With his group, the Soul Riders, Frank made appearances in Miami clubs ............. For a guy that was around on the scene down there for around 20 years & who had a UK release, little seems to be known about him ...

Though Frank Seay was active on the Miami club / recording scene for around 20 years, I know little about him. He did achieve a UK release in the mid 80's, when Move Records (Edinburgh) picked up a track he put out on his own Sawax label. But it's his late 60's funky soul tracks that are the most collectable .......

Has a full discography listing & label ownership / management / studio info / producer details been compiled for Miami based Tropical Records. Just about all the releases (that I know of) on the label are sought after .............. 3 x Frank Seay & the Soul Riders, (Little) Eddie Taylor, Rufus Beacham, Treetop & the Soul Branches, the Charles Vickers LP, etc. The company also had a subsibuary label; Soul Time. But I only know the Alberta Walker 45 on that inking. The company was owned by a Willard M. Bailey and the likes of Swamp Dogg (Jerry Willliams) & Clarence Reid worked with the artists involved. The label operated out of three addresses that I know of; 4900 & 4950 NW 7th Avenue plus 1099 NW 3rd Avenue. I believe they operated from the mid 60's through to 1985 (at least a record store using the name was still going strong) though the owner met an early death at the hands of local Miami gangsters (drugs & money being the cause of the dispute that resulted in him being mudered I believe).

Casino .. Billboard; 1975 .......... https://books.google.com.cy/books?id=MREEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA63&dq=%22Wigan+Casino%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pzGyUIbTLMXIswajxIDABg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Wigan%20Casino%22&f=false Casino ... Billboard; 1978 ......... Casino Classics really .... https://books.google.com.cy/books?id=hSQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT68&dq=%22Wigan+Casino%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=HjKyUP6MPInxsgbY94CwAg&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ

This one's pretty tricky to find (Charlie Brown) ....not many of these around Greg that wouldn't be by Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown who was lead singer of the Violinaires would it ?? I really like his 'limited release' Jewel 45 (the main pressing of which was organised by Garry Cape here in the UK) ..... ....... Garry said "I remember one time when I was in Shreveport in the late 80s, I visited with Stan and he showed me the masters listing - there were many many more Chicago recordings that he had the rights to. At that time I was a record-dealer and so didn't show too much interest in them (!!) - but I did get the Charlie 'Cole Black' Brown pressed - previously it had only been available on a Jewel demo - I had it released on a slightly lighter coloured Jewel label.... " Garry also commented "very very irritating thing is that they showed me the masters register, and it showed 4 tracks by Charlie Cole Black Brown - but in those days I was more interested in 45s than in masters and as they didn't have the audio readily to hand I never got to hear what the other 2 tracks were - but having been cut at the same session, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if they were pretty good ........ In the years since, I've tried to track them down - but change of ownerships of the masters means it has been a frustrating failure....."

Steady on Bob , I'm an old Yorkshireman & not a pretty sight without full clothing.

Anybody know anything about Nancy that Billy Wells (& his group) worked with at Mercede ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KJwBGChLc0 I'm a bit restricted on what searches I can do myself at the moment as I'm in Cyprus lapping up the sun.

As Bob said, Billy Wells was very involved with Mercede Records (Florida) from late 71 for around 2/3 years. He wrote songs for them, recorded for them & worked with some of their other artists. The label was run by John & Dee Mercede from Ft Lauderdale. John & Dee were related (kids ?) of local property developer Frank Mercede.

Perhaps the label owner was this guy ........ WARREN, OHIO - Lawrence ''Larry'' Capito Sr., 83, died Friday, May 28, 2010, at Windsor Liberty Health Care Center. He was born Nov. 20, 1926, in Warren, the son of Paul and Matilda DeNittis Capito. He retired from the General Motors assembly plant as a dingman after 18 years. Before that, he worked as a cement finisher for Mathews Concrete Co. He was a member of St. Mary Church and enjoyed making wine. He was a Navy veteran of World War II, serving from Dec. 1, 1944, to Dec. 22, 1945. I know Warren is near to Cleveland and not Detroit, but maybe Donald McCants was related to the 'Ohio' McCants (Chicago Gangsters, Rumple-Stilts-Skin, Ivy, Heat Records, etc).

Jesse Boyce “The Musician” ............ Jesse Boyce is a phenomenal musician and North Carolina native, whose musical odyssey began with classical vocal training in his elementary and high school years, has studied classical piano, organ, electric bass, guitar, and drums at Sterling High in Greenville, South Carolina. …......... lifted from …..... https://www.nashville...file/JesseBoyce ........... He's also on Facebook Spartanburg, South Carolina is at the centre of the Tex(tile) town area of the Carolinas (being at the very north end of Sth Carolina State). It's the next town along from Greenville (where Jesse got his musical education). ... so I'd guess it's a fair bet that Jesse was in the early versions of the Tex Town Review (& maybe in the Dynamic Showmen as well).

Will this one do ?? It looks a bit weird but I guess that's more down to the graphic artist that Jerry Butler employed than anything else ........

. I never dance to anything that's not OVO ........ Norman Soultrousers at Kings Hall Niter.

In 1981, Moses Dillard & Jesse Boyce were producing C M Lord for Montage (her LP tracks were big plays for Mr. Searling back in the 80's), In 71, Jesse Boyce was still down in Miami working with a guy out of Jesse (Lee) Ferguson's group ............ ........ Jesse has a long & distinguished CV ....... He was a top session musician at various studios -- he was at Papa Don's Pensacola (Florida) studio from 1968-1970. A member of the Fame Gang studio band at Fame in Muscle Shoals in 1973 ... and one of the top rated (& utilised) session musicians working in Nashville studios from 1972 to 1985. In addition to all that (& the stuff I listed above), from 1973 to 76 he was leader of Bottom & Co (he still has a web site if anyone's interested in learning more).

By June / July 68 Moses was definitely down in Florida with Papa Don .... after having been in Muscle Shoals some months before that ... Moses must have started cutting his own tracks with Jesse Boyce (Joshua Dillard) around September 67 ... where were those cut (MS I think) ....

But where did they record in 67 ?? I'm sure 67 was when Moses had teamed up with Otis Redding and was down in Muscle Shoals working on Arthur Conley tracks. It was at Fame that Moses teamed up with Fame studio musician Jesse Boyce (aka Joshua Dillard). By 68, Moses had teamed up with Papa Don & was down in Florida.

Perhaps the Dynamic Showmen date from before Moses D was working in the Muscle Shoals / Fame studios .......... .. .. where's a Fame expert when you need one ?!?!?!

Well the Fame studio guys were Spooners Crowd ("2 in the Morning") and so I guess those guys could easly have made up the numbers in the Dynamic Showmen as well. Didn't Moses D work with Papa Don Schroader as well back then .......... which musicians did Papa Don use on his studio sesssions ?

Us Dony lads used to go up to Leeds on a Saturday to buy clothes in the mid 60's (Cecil Gee's & the like I seem to recall). When we got finished shopping for clothes & records early, we would sometimes go to the Saturday afternoon session at the Spinning Disc (it was in an old Victorian arcade I seem to remember) Didn't Jimmy Saville DJ at the place earlier in the 60's. The wife recently talked to her older brother about Saville. He told her that in the very early 60's some lads from Hull would go to Leeds for the Saturday night & end up having to stop there all night (in clubs till the early hours & then hanging about for an early train home to Hull on the Sunday). Saville DJed at some places they went . As they were all young (16-ish), a bouncer they got talking to, told em to keep well clear of Saville. So by all accounts he was 'up to his tricks' as early as that.

They pre dated his Moses & Joshua recordings ( around 1964). About that time he was employed on sessions as a studio musician in Muscle Shoals (Fame, etc.). Wasn't he really James Moore who was responsible for the Sons of Moses stuff a bit later on. I'd guess the Ace / Kent guys who have been working on the Fame reissues should know more about him & maybe about the 'Dynamic Showmen' (might they have been some Shoals recording studio guys ?).

Moses & Joshua's big US & UK 45 back in Nov 67 .....

More on what Moses was up to in 1970 (he relocated from SC to Atlanta for a time to work with Rod Kinder ) ...............

Moses back in the 60's was part of Moses & Joshua Dillard who had big soul 45's on Amy / Mala / Bell. In 1972 he had a duet out on Shout with Martha Starr. Also in the 70's he led the Tex-Town Review in Sth Carolina that included Peabo Bryson in their line-up. Next came Moses Dillard & LoveJoy on 1-2-3 Records (1975). In 78 he was Bill Brandon's manager & supervised his Piedmont tracks ("Streets Got My Lady" etc.). In 79 he was hooked up with Prelude, working with Jesse Boyce (Saturday Night Band. Constellation Orchestra, Lorraine Johnson). After that he got more into the admin side of things and helped run the Nashville Music Assocs Black Music Committee for a while. In the 80's he was running his own Dillard Music Pub (based in Nashville) plus recording & performing with Jesse Boyce.

Yep, you must be right ......................