You may be familiar with Beau Williams as an accomplished modern soul artist for Capitol Records in the mid 80's. But years before his over-polished Capitol releases, the Houston-based crooner cut a couple of surprisingly funky singles for the legendary Ovide label circa 1970-71 under the alias Bobo Mr. Soul. One was a Honey Cone answer song cleverly titled "Answer To The Want Ads" and the other being the Phillip Mitchell-penned "Hitchhike to Heartbreak Road" (originally cut by Curtis Wiggins) which was re-released by Hi in 1972. That was all most of us heard from Bobo until he resurfaced as Beau Williams on Star Search. But apparently our man recorded two more powerfully funky soul sides and submitted them as a demo to Lionel Whitfield's Whit label but for whatever reason, "I'll Be Home Soon" and "Outside Love" remained on the shelf.
The lost tracks were rediscovered in 2011 by David Haffner and Brian Sears of Magnetic Recordings from the tape archive of TSU jazz director, Howard Harris who came into the possession of this material through his long-standing working relationship with Whitfield. The undeniably funky drumming sadly goes unaccredited but the understated arrangements and production combined with such emotionally-charged lyrics make for something quite special. Truth & Soul Records has just released a limited 500 copy pressing with hand stamped labels which is sure to become a sought-after cult classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment