Soul4real Vinyl & CDs

Review: These two unreleased tracks from Geater Davis deliver raw, hard-hitting Southern soul with his some nice gritty vocals, sharp guitar work and powerful horns all making them perfect for anyone who loves a bit of blues-tinged soul. Geater was born Vernon Davis in East Texas in 1946 and learned guitar from T-Bone Walker before then working as a sideman and breaking through with 'Sweet Woman's Love' in 1970. He charted again in 1972 with' Your Heart Is So Cold' on Seventy 7 Records, and though disco's rise curtailed touring opportunities, he kept performing across the South. Sadly, just as he was preparing for a comeback, he died of heart failure at age 38, but these gems remain.

Review: Sam Diss has a buttery voice that immediately melts the heart. His tunes on the likes of Outta Sight and Kent Dance and albums on Pure Pleasure always sell out. This 7" single was written by the man himself and is one of his many majestic cuts from a career that started in the late 60s and found him recording for the next 30 odd years. An original will be hard to find and probably too costly if you do so grab this limited edition 7" and prepare to get smoochy as soon as you drop the needle on the record.

Review: Electric guitarist and singer Barbara Lynn was an undisputed legend of Memphis funk, blues and soul. Her paean for desirability, 'Unloved Unwanted Me', was a full-on lamentation of the human condition in album form. While the album was originally shelved for a time in 1968, it later found a way out of production hell and managed to rock the worlds of all listeners around, despite its distinct lack of guitar compared to Lynn's other albums.

Review: One of two new Soul4Real 45s releases, Candi Staton's 'I Can't Stop Being Your Fool' is a candid expression of heartsickness and toxic attachment. The Alabaman southern soul laid these two recordings bare at least 20 years into her towering career, in which time Staton had embarked on a new career leg at Warner Bros. Never paired before, 'I Can't Stop...' and 'You Bet Your Sweet, Sweet Love' share in similar themes, confounding the listener in projective throes of uncertainty, over such topics as whether the thrill of love might be worth it despite fraught or downright abusive downturns; Staton's lyrics are tired, grief-stricken and persevering, though the background instrumentation is always jolly, suggesting either an eerie facade, or a romanticised, brunt-borne happiness.