Happy Birthday Leroy Hodges of Hi Rhythm!

Raising a glass to bassist extraordinaire Leroy Hodges on his birthday with a couple of performances and recordings. Cheers Flick!

Happy Birthday Howard Grimes!

Remembering amazing Memphis drummer Howard Grimes with an interview and a few classic tunes cut for Hi, Stax and more.  

R.I.P. drummer Howard Grimes, 1941-2022

Sadly, legendary Hi Rhythm drummer Howard Grimes passed away on Saturday at the age of 80. He'll be greatly missed. 

Get a copy of the Howard Grimes memoir Timekeeper: My Life In Rhythm right here. 

LINKS

Memphis Commercial Appeal Howard Grimes dies: Hi Rhythm drummer provided the backbeat for Al Green, Ann Peebles, more 

R.I.P. soul singer/songwriter Darryl Carter

Darryl Carter (center with Otis Clay and Howard Grimes) wrote numerous songs for Bobby Womack, Wilson Pickett, Syl Johnson, O.V. Wright and others.

LINKS
Check out Red Kelly's blog The B Side for a discussion of Darryl Carter's discography

Don Bryant & The Masqueraders join The Bo-Keys for new album covering jukebox faves

The Bo-Keys new album Heartaches By The Number is out on Electrophonic Records April 29th.

Here's the press release...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Bo-Keys, a contemporary soul group that signifies both tradition and innovation, celebrates the release of a third studio album, Heartaches By The Number, on Electraphonic Records via Omnivore Recordings on April 29th. Heartaches By The Number is an exploration of the intersection of country, folk and soul, combining stunning originals with inspired interpretations of jukebox classics from Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Swamp Dogg, Charlie Rich, and Ray Price.

Recorded entirely on analog tape at Electraphonic Recording in Memphis, the set perfectly captures the classic country-meets-soul feeling birthed within the musical triangle of Memphis/Nashville/Muscle Shoals. The core group comprises legendary Al Green drummer Howard Grimes, keyboardist Archie “Hubbie” Turner, horn players Marc Franklin and Art Edmaiston of the Gregg Allman Band, bassist/producer Scott Bomar, saxophonist Kirk Smothers, organist Al Gamble, and guitarist Joe Restivo. On this country-soul journey, special guests including celebrated Hi Records artist Don Bryant, Hi Records and American Studios vocal group the Masqueraders, and roots singer-songwriter and guitarist John Paul Keith join The Bo-Keys in the studio. Front-and-center is Bo-Keys lead vocalist Percy Wiggins, who comes by the groove honestly—in the 1960s, he cut sides for RCA and ATCO alongside future Band of Gypsies musicians Billy Cox and Larry Lee at Bradley’s Barn, Nashville’s eminent recording studio.

Heartaches By The Number is a genre-bending release that sounds like the jukebox roster at a honky-tonk bar or Mississippi juke joint. Merle Haggard’s “The Longer You Wait” is reinterpreted with propulsive horns and a searing organ riff, while the band inserts grit and funk into their interpretation of the Swamp Dogg-penned “Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got),” first cut as a soul single by Freddie North before country hit-makers such as Johnny Paycheck, George Strait, and George Jones added twang and swagger to the iconic dive-bar lament.

Heartaches By The Number builds on The Bo-Keys’ past catalog and adds a new dimension to the group’s potential by metaphorically traveling beyond the Memphis city limits to explore an often-overlooked subgenre of music popularized by Arthur Alexander, Swamp Dogg, Solomon Burke, and Bettye LaVette. The release will also bring new audiences to The Bo-Keys—fans of Adele, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, and the Alabama Shakes will find music that speaks to them on this album. Watch the Heartaches By The Number release trailer below. 

Whether or not you recognize the name, you’ve seen or heard The Bo-Keys: That’s The Bo-Keys setting the mood in TV episodes of Scandal and Scorpion; on the big screen playing the original score for the Oscar-winning film Hustle & Flow and backing Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac in Soul Men; and performing on Cyndi Lauper’s Grammy-nominated Memphis Blues album. Since 1998, The Bo-Keys have kept the spirit of classic Memphis music alive while simultaneously penning a vital new chapter for the sound and style that are etched into the very fiber of American consciousness.

“Where many revivalists pale compared to the originals, The Bo-Keys would have fit right in next to legendary Memphis musical crews The Bar-Kays and Booker T. & The M.G.s,” raves the Associated Press, while The New Yorker notes that a recent Manhattan appearance was “one of last year’s tightest, funkiest, happiest shows.” Although the band hasn’t released a studio album since 2011’s Got To Get Back!, The Bo-Keys have stayed busy, performing on John Németh’s Blues Music Award-winning Memphis Grease album (for Best Soul Blues), and placing music in the film Grudge Match and on TV.

Heartaches By The Number was produced by Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated Scott Bomar, The Bo-Keys’ bassist (who also produced Memphis Grease). His other career highlights include working as assistant engineer on Al Green’s 2003 Grammy-nominated comeback I Can’t Stop and its follow-up, Everything’s OK; producing the Grammy-nominated Anthony Hamilton track “Soul Music”; and producing and engineering Lauper’s Memphis Blues, which topped the Billboard blues chart for 13 weeks. In 2005, Bomar composed the score for Hustle & Flow, followed by serving as executive music producer and composer on Black Snake Moan. He won an Emmy for Best Original Music for the documentary I Am A Man: From Memphis, A Lesson In Life and most recently scored the film Mississippi Grind, which features Ryan Reynolds and debuted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

For more info on The Bo-Keys check their site: http://www.thebokeys.com



Heartaches By The Number (Electrophonic Records)
1.Heartaches By The Number feat. Don Bryant
2.Set Me Free
3.I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
4.The Longer You Wait
5.I Threw It All Away
6.Learned My Lesson In Love
7.Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got) feat. The Masqueraders
8.I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For
9.Wasted Days And Wasted Nights
10. Last Date

RIP Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, 1946-2014

Sadly, guitarist/songwriter Teenie Hodges has passed at the age of 68 after a long battle with emphysema.

Fat Possum reissues Syl Johnson's Total Explosion album

Syl Johnson "I Only Have Love" from Total Explosion

Bo-Keys enlist soul greats for Got To Get Back!

One thing I've never understood about the soul revival game is why record collector geeks with studio access and their own labels consistently choose to work with relatively mediocre singers when exceptionally great performers who've had respectable recording careers in the 60s and 70s are left to watch nature programs at home with the sound turned off. country is a guilty pleasure that they wouldn't want their friends to know about.
Whether it's due to their ignorance, laziness or just the simple economics of not wanting to pay for real vocal talent when a competent singer who lives in the neighborhood will suffice, the whole sad situation has been more than a bit perplexing. That's why it was so very heartening to learn that Memphis-based producer/composer/bandleader Scott Bomar (Hustle & Flow) had enlisted genuine deep soul heavyweights Otis Clay, William Bell and Percy Wiggins to add some belting power to his new Bo-Keys album Got To Get Back! (Electraphonic Records) set for release June 21.

                                                                                            Otis Clay

if you're trying to make authentic sounding soul recordings, why not call in some hombres who've racked up years of studio experience making memorable soul records. That's exactly what Bomar did by bolstering his band hit-making session vets like guitarist Charles "Skip" Pitts (who created the unforgettable wah-wah guitar intro to Isaac Hayes' Theme from Shaft), Pac-Keys and Black Rock keyboardist Archie "Hubbie" Turner, Bar-Kays trumpeter Ben Cauley (sole survivor of the plane crash that claimed the life of Otis Redding) and powerhouse Hi Rhythm drummer Howard Grimes.
So when Bomar wanted to add vocals to the Bo-Keys second album, he employed the same strategy and rang up the best singers available. I'm not talking about above-average wedding singers who can do a version of Midnight Hour that sounds remarkably like Wilson Pickett. Nope. He went for charismatic song stylists who've developed their craft over decades in front of unruly paying audiences. Clay, Bell and Wiggins each answered the call and turned what could've easily been a naff retro-soul nostalgia trip into something extraordinary and timeless. Although the Chicago-based Clay has long been associated with the Chi-town sound and Peachtree and Wilbe label boss Bell is now more connected with the Atlanta scene, they both have strong ties to Memphis as does lifelong resident Wiggins – it's where their careers were launched after all. Check out the mini-documentary below. 

The Making of Got To Get Back!

The Bo-Keys "Got to Get Back !" Mini Doc from Electraphonic Recording on Vimeo.