From the excellent Street Soul Records comes another release to follow-up from the Jerline & Friends CD. The new release is a do-not 7" single taken from the Patrick Henry & The Liberation Band's 1995 album "Come And Get It", and was originally released on CD on Lanor Records in the USA. Street Soul Records have licensed 2 tracks for this particular 7” release namely the A side "Loving U" and the B side "My Love". These, if you are not familiar with the CD, are both excellent. I'm not at all surprised that these tracks have been played heavily on the UK Soul Scene of late, and the label says that the demand for a 45 was inevitable. Not sure about that as I'd rather have the CD than a 45 any day! However, collectors and nostalgics do love these curious things! LOL. The single was released on June 20th 2008 and is very limited to only 500 copies! The songs, as I have already stated, are excellent. "Loving U" is a song that could have been recorded in the mid 70s. The instrumentation is all real, live and crammed with soulfulness. The live drumming and summery guitar hark back to the days of A Taste Of Honey's “I Love You” and even Steve Parks' “Movin' In The Right Direction”. The horns sound almighty fine too, and the melody is straight into the classic soul bag. I class this a fine soul music for a summer's day. The flip-side is "My Love" is equally temperate and contains a bassline-driven groove and allows the horns to punch in all the right places. Both songs have a hint of Carlton J. Smith to them, and I could easily see Carlton attempt these grooves and vice versa! The feel is definitely – dare IO say this – old school in approach and nothing within these grooves give an indication of being released in 1995! Like MOST quality soul of the 90s, this was ignored for whatever street / urban / rap flibbertigibbet was in vogue in London at the time, so it is not 'til now that the songs are getting the airing they deserve. Why does the soul world (or so it proclaims) ignore what is happening right now, quality-wise, and only support it when someone deems it rare or hip? Its beyond me, it really is!
The Vibe Scribe
