Remembering Eddie Shuler on his birthday with his funky Goldband & ANLA gems

The Tramp Records comp The Funky Side of Goldband/ANLA Records collects some of Eddie Shuler's rawest productions.  

Here's the scoop...

Goldband Records played a key role in documenting and shaping of musical traditions, tastes, and trends, both regionally and internationally since 1944. The focus of the Goldband catalog is certainly set on Country & Western, Swamp Pop, and Cajun music. However, from the 1960s until the early 1970s Goldband, and it's sub-label ANLA Records, released many high-quality Soul and Rhythm & Blues recordings. Simply put, Shuler had an ear for talent. He always believed in "...;giving a man a chance; otherwise, how would you discover what somebody could do?" That was the guiding philosophy and the secret to the success of Goldband Records.

Born March 27, 1913 in Wrightsboro, Texas, Eddie Shuler moved to Lake Charles in 1942 to work as a dragline operator. He found additional part-time work in a music store, leading him into a career in the music business. He then joined the country, western swing, and Cajun group The Hackberry Ramblers. Having sharpened his musical skills, he left the group to form his own band, The Reveliers.

By the early 1950s, Shuler acquired the Goldband complex in north Lake Charles. It would be a combination record store (Eddie's Music House), television repair shop (Eddie's Quick Service T.V.), and recording studio for over a half-century thereafter. Being the one and only recording studio in town, it did not take long for other artists in the area to migrate in Shuler's direction.

A grassroots operation, Shuler was head of distribution and promotion. He distributed the recordings from the back of his car to record stores and to jukebox operators. Knowing that getting airplay was the key to increasing sales he created multiple labels which assured him better chances with the radio. One of those auxiliary labels was ANLA which featured Soul and R&B artists from South Louisiana and East Texas, including Clifton White, Charles Greene, and the Original Soul Senders. Around the same time, future Zydeco celebrity "Count" Rockin' Sidney joined Goldband for almost a dozen releases. Tramp Records has put together a well-chosen 23-track selection of Shuler's rawest productions, aptly named The Funky Side of Goldband/ANLA Records). 

At the time of Eddie Shuler's passing on July 23, 2005, he was the head of the nation's longest running independent record label, Goldband, which is still based in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Get a copy of the excellent Tramp Records collection The Funky Side of Goldband/ANLA Records (originally released in 2014) via Bandcamp right here. Check the track list below.  

THE FUNKY SIDE OF GOLDBAND / ANLA RECORDS (Tramp Records)

01.Snowboats - Sidewinder 

02.Count Rockin' Sidney - Life Without Love 

03.Claude Shermack - Keep On Keeping On 

04.Count Rockin' Sidney - Dedie Dedie Da

05.Count Rockin' Sidney & Dukes - Do Your Stuff

06.Count Rockin' Sidney & Dukes - Put It On

07.Claude Shermack - Your Gravy Train

08.The Showboats - Too Much

09.Lee Bernard - Turn Around & Go 

10.Count Rockin' Sidney & Dukes - Feel Delicious

11.Lee Bernard - Getting Out Of Town

12.Count Rockin' Sidney - Boogie's Boogie Shack

13.Charles Greene - Double EE Agent

14.Chester Randle - Soul Brother's Testify (Part 1)

15.Count Rockin' Sidney - Back Door Man

16.Clifton White & Royal Knights - The Warm Up

17.Chester Randle - Soul Brother's Testify (Part 2)

18.Count Rockin' Sidney - Bury The Hatchet

19.Freddie Love - Crazy Girl (Parts 1& 2)

20.Chester Randle's Soul Senders - Why Did I Let You Go

21.Soul Shouting Tommy - I'm The Man

22.Chester Randle's Soul Senders - Take A Little Nip

23.Dynamic Adam & Excitements - Forgive Me

Midweek Mixdown: Tobias Kirmayer of Tramp Records

Check out a swingin' set of jazzy jams put together by Tobias Kirmayer for The Jazz Meet podcast right here.

Grab the 14th volume of Tramp's funk singles collection via Bandcamp here.

James Kelly Duhon's modern soul gems on Jude get reissued by Tramp

Tramp is recirculating a pair of James Duhon's post-Ascots recordings "So Far Down" b/w "So Trusting" from the late 70s. 

Here's the scoop...

James Kelly Duhon was a native of Beaumont, Texas, a city about 20 miles from Port Arthur, Texas. In the late 1960s, he was in a Port Arthur group The Ascots who cut the Northern Soul classic "A Few Feet From The Gutter" for Huey P. Meaux's American Playboy label. The Ascots also featured Al Trahan who waxed "Funky Lu" and the better known dancefloor burner "Can I Feel It" for Port Arthur's Spindletop. After the Ascots, Duhon released four 45s including the Jonathan Toubin fave NY Night Train spin "Grave Yard Creep" – a split single with the hard groovin' flip "Color Me Soul" voiced by his Ascots pal Talmadge Armstrong which Huey P. Meaux produced for JetStream – and the sought-after Jude label sides "In School" b/w "Heart Breaker (Child Maker)" from 1974 (which later received national release on Mainstream Records), "Pusher Man" b/w "Drifter" from 1975,  "So Far Down" b/w "Can You Learn To Love Me" from 1978 . When he retired from the road, he settled back in Beaumont, Texas where he died of natural causes in 1998.

Get a copy of Tramp's reissue of James Kelly Duhon's single from their forthcoming compilation "Can You Feel It Vol. 3 - Modern Soul, Disco & Boogie 1976-85" right here. 

Listen to "So Far Down" and "So Trusting" below. 

Peace Chant series returns with more spiritual jazz gems

Tramp Records' excellent Peace Chant Volumes 3 & 4 – due Nov 13 – sidestep the obvious in favour of overlooked corkers. 

Here's the scoop...

Tramp Records continues their pilgrimage to the soulful fringes of spiritual jazz and progressive rock and funk with their 3rd and 4th volumes of their Peace Chant series of "Raw, Deep and Spiritual Jazz" collections and the world could not be more ready. 

As we turn together on this tiny blue ball hanging lonely in space, and as we together face existential threats ranging from climate catastrophe, the rise of brutal authoritarian regimes, the breaking of the industrial storm and the imminent collapse of empire, not to mention the raging COVID-19 crisis and the continuing racial and social struggles across the globe, we are thrust into a society-wide grand awakening that has been in the making for a very long time. Of course, our musical teachers have trod this path before us, and have worked out solutions to these problems, the songs of the Peace Chant series ring out loud and clear as our ancestors' proof of concept. They say history repeats herself, maybe it's because we weren't listening the first time. Thanks to Tramp Records, we have been granted another opportunity. 

Today, the musical and spiritual truths enshrined within the spiritual jazz diaspora seem to be more and more sought-after, and crucial at a time when we as a society seek higher and farther for those bold truths. With each generation, that truth doesn't change, and the artists featured in the series speak those truths along a continuum that ranges from the late-60s up to the present day. 

Both volumes 3 and 4 of the limited-edition vinyl issue of this compilation have been organized on compact disc under the heading of Peace Chant 2, so let's break-down volumes 3 & 4 of the LP issue: 

Peace Chant, Volume 3 features artists who use their medium to welcome the return of the sacred feminine as in Lenny Marcus Trio's "Mother's Day," and speak on afrocentric themes like Roland Hayes with his heartfelt "Africa The Beautiful." Mineral King renders epic orchestral rock while Natural Life takes us even further on a ten-minute epic quest from a progressive fusion head, to searing tabla, into virtuosic guitar jamming and finally dropping into heady fuzz-soaked riffs and free-jazz fusion with their theme song. Rama Dyushambee sings a devotional song about divine source and healing, while Jule Farmer's "Muhammad Ali" stands strong at the crossroads between black spirituality and black power. Black Is provides a vibey lo-fi flute jazz meditation in their Themes and Variation while The Supa Lowery Brothers provide the requisite hard modal freedom funk. 

Peace Chant, Volume 4 opens with a gorgeous and lush Wurlitzer-oriented big band piece that among its many treasures also features the 17-year-old visionary-saxophonist-to-be, Steve Coleman in his alleged first recording! The contributions of Brother Yusuf Salim and Bus Brown, figures who should be very familiar to Tramp Records aficionados, are consecrated here with a live recording of "Freedom" from one of Brother Yu's last public performances. The oral history in the introduction of this ultra-rare 'field' recording is priceless in its own right. One of the two European contributions to the comp, "Attitude," by Organic Pulse 'onesemble', reads like a double entendre, the word "attitude" meaning simultaneously one's disposition or state of mind, and also one's orientation relative to the horizon. The Peace Chant series continues to touch all the sacred meridians: more devotional music with James Scales & All Stars' "Ser-Vi-Tude," trance music of non-dominant traditions with Donn Preston Group's "Ghana-Cha!," a modal and blue organ trio offering from Tommy Jones, and closing with a rich and righteous ballad, "Quernemoen," from the Wayne Powell Octet. 

Peace Chant is the center of the mandala, representing the nucleus of the post-bop, modal jazz, avant-garde, transcendental, spiritual, ethnic, and freedom music universe without necessarily suggesting anything immediately identifiable as any of the above. This is the soundtrack to the raising of human consciousness and the salvation of society's very soul. 

We give thanks to Tramp Records for leading our thirsty hearts to this rich fountain. – Joel Ricci 

You can pre-order Peace Chant Vol. 3 & Vol. 4 on vinyl right here. Shipping starts November 13th. 

Listen to a few tunes followed by the track listing for both volumes below. 

PEACE CHANT Volume 3

01. Lenny Marcus Trio - Mother's Day

02. Roland Hayes - Africa The Beautiful

03. Black Is - Themes and Variations

04. Mineral King - In Search Of The Lost Magic Marker

05. The Hippest Set - Catechism For D

06. Supa Lowery Brothers - Furlive

07. Jule Farmer - Muhammad Ali

08. Rama Dyushambee - Heal It!

09. Natural Life - Natural Life

PEACE CHANT Volume 4

01. The Niambi Big Band - Brass Winds

02. Brother Yu Sextet - Freedom

03. Morton And The Uptights - Montego

04. Organic Pulse Ensemble - Attitude

05. James Scales & All Stars - Ser-Vi-Tude

06. Donn Preston Group - Ghana-Cha!

07. Lonnell Dantzler - Bo-Ghana

08. Tommy Jones - Egg Nog

09. Bohannon Trio - Untitled No. 1

10. Wayne Powell Octet - Quernemoen

Lucky Brown & The S.G.'s preview Mesquite Suite LP

Tramp Records is readying 505 numbered copies of Mesquite Suite for release in late September. Have a listen.

Tramp Records funks up Christmas right

What? A cool Christmas album, completely free of the corny old standards we all know and loathe? Unlikely as it may seem, someone finally came up with a collection you can spin this holiday season at home or in your local club without embarrassment.
Yep, that's right, club DJ and record hound Jan Kohlmeyer pitched Tramp Records' supremo Tobias Kirmayer on the idea for precisely such a Christmas album last year. After auditioning over 50 rare funk, soul and jazz tracks, they knocked the pile down to the top 13 uncomped Xmas thrillers for the resulting Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party album – were talkin' primo groovers from classy belters such as Count Sidney, Lee Rogers, Rose Graham and Vernon Garrett.
For other labels, that would've been job done but not those Tramp hombres. In keeping with the spirit of the season, they decided to press up a special limited 500 copy vinyl edition and package it in a snazzy gatefold sleeve depicting scans of all the original 45s. Nice. For those without a turntable, there's also  digital download and CD versions available. Here's a sampling...
 
Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party
   Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party