"This Is Lowrider Soul 1962-1970" by VARIOUS ARTISTS - Featuring Brenton Wood, Barbara Mason, The Webs, The Charmels, The Ambassadors, The Whispers, Bobbi Row & The Englishmen, The Esquires, The Lovelles, Lee Williams & The Cymbals, William Bell, Aesop's Fables, Bobby Burn and more (February 2019 UK Ace/Kent Soul CD Compilation of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Oh How It Hurts..."

Sometimes terminology goes against you and I would argue that the description Lowrider is something of a case in point here. 

Fifties Vocal Groups and their falsetto crooning Doo Wop morphed into Sixties Soul and R&B – or Harmony Soul as it often called - one of the genre's many branches by the time that eventful decade itself morphed into the Seventies and all that came with it (Philly, Jazz Fusion, Rare Grooves, Disco etc). 

And that's what you essentially get here - only its entitled 'Lowrider Soul' – named after American cars and their hipster drivers cruising around Southern California in their cools-mobiles looking for a Night Club or Radio Station that championed the musical playlist they liked – heavy on the smooch – smooth on the Soul. In fact if I were to rename this compilation I'd call it 'Slide On By: Harmony Vocal Groups That Put The Smooth In Soulful 6ts Ballads' - or some such convoluted sets of words! 

What you have here is Slow Soul and a lot of it - swooning and swaying ballads sung by perplexed-looking blue-eyed guys and mascara-bleeding gals fronting Harmony Vocal Groups, both laying the blame at the other's door as they give us tale after tale of hurting, heartache, misery and woe (and that's just the break-up - the aftermath is a whole different level). I know some listeners find this kind of 24-cut Sixties-playlist boring after only Track 10 (the same pace after the same pace), but I am so down with it. These mini melodramas are authentically beautiful – the very definition of Deep Soul to me. 

Throw in careful selection of actual warmth vs. rarities in the songs - quality liner notes that genuinely illuminate - and crisp Audio that is so sweet throughout – and you get one of the loveliest listens I’ve had the pleasure of shuffling through in a long time (not something the Lowrider artwork screams out at you). Time for details - to the shattered dreams, secondhand happiness and kerbside crawlers of Californian Soul...

UK released Friday, 8 February 2019 - "This Is Lowrider Soul: 1962-1970" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 482 (Barcode 029777092920) is a 24-Track CD Compilation of Remasters that plays out as follows (65:31 minutes):

1. Take A Step - AESOP'S FABLES (October 1967, US 45-single on Atco 45-6523, A-side)

2. Why'd You Put Me On - BOBBI ROW & THE ENGLISHMEN (August 1965, US 45-single on Money 116, B-side of "Facts Of Life")

3. I Wanna Chance - THE VOWS (June 1962, US 45-single on Markay 103, B-side to "Have You Heard")

4. Where Were You - BRENTON WOOD (February 1969, US 45-single on Double Shot 137, B-side of "A Change Is Gonna Come")

5. Second Hand Happiness - JIMMY CONWELL (December 1966, Mirwood 5530, A-side)

6. 'Til You Come Back To Me - LEE WILLIAMS & THE CYMBALS (December 1968, US 45-single on Carnival CAR-540, A-side)

7. Oh How It Hurts - BARBARA MASON (October 1967, US 45-single on Arctic 137, A-side) 

8. I Really Love You - THE AMBASSDORS (December 1968, US 45-single Arctic 147, A-side)

9. As I Sit Here - THE WHISPERS (July 1965, US 45-single on Dore 740, A-side)

10. One More Chance - THE FOUR TEES (August 1970, US 45-single on Kent K 4530, A-side)

11. No Doubt About it - THE ESQUIRES (October 1968, US 45-single on Wand 1193, B-side of "You've Got The Power")

12. It's Not That Easy - REUBEN BELL with THE CASANOVAS (December 1967, US 45-single on Murco 1035, A-side)

13. It's So Hard To Break A Habit - THE WEBS (January 1968, US 45-single on Popside 4595, B-side of "Give In")

14. Pretending Dear - THE LOVELLES (April 1969, Atco 45-6670, B-side of "I'm Comin' Today")

15. Find Me - THE ATTRACTIONS (1966, US 45-single on Renfro 117, A-side) 

16. Shattered Dreams - THE ENDEAVORS (May 1970, US 45-single on Stop ST 372, B-side of "I Know You Don't Want Me") 

17. Be Kind To Love - THE INTERPRETERS (June 1967, US 45-single on A-Bet 9425, A-side)

18. When You're Poor (2019, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Golden State Recorders 1966/1967 recording)

19. Never Gonna Let Him Know - DEBBIE TAYLOR (March 1969, US 45-single on GWP Records GWP 501, A-side)

20. As Long As I've Got You - THE CHARMELS (December 1967, US 45-single on Volt 45-155, A-side)

21. Don't Forget About Me Baby - JEFF DALE (January 1965, US 45-single on Atco 45-6332, A-side)

22. I'm A Lonely Man - BOBBY BURN (1968/1971, US 45-single on Chant CH-522, A-side)

23. Crying All My Myself - WILLIAM BELL (July 1965, US 45-single on Stax S-174, A-side)

24. I'm Just Passing Time - MELVIN HICKS & THE VERSATILES (2019, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 1972 Brass Parrot recording)

All Tracks in MONO except 7 and 8 which are STEREO

Tracks 18 and 24 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Compiled and Annotated by SEAN HAMPSEY (with some further notes on 'The Southern Soul Spinners' Group, Southern California and the Chicano music scene by Ruben Molina) - the 24-page booklet is the usual feast of rare 45-labels, trade adverts, local newspaper reviews, publicity photos, acetates and white labels (a typically classy Kent Soul reissue). There are full-page adverts given over to the lovely Barbara Mason and her "Oh How It Hurts" on Arctic distributed by Jamie/Guyden, The Whispers advertise for a band member (yes that Whispers who had huge hits in the 80s on Solar) and The Charmels look happy in colour in a garden on the rear page (lovely stuff and full of track-by-track info). 

Long-standing Audio-Engineer for Ace and Kent Soul NICK ROBBINS does the predominately Mono Remasters (two are in Stereo) and these things sound really lovely. Take The Webs much sought-after B-side "It's So Hard To Break A Habit" - amazing Production values that have been sampled before, but I bet those lifts haven't sounded as good as they do here. These are chest hugging hip-swishing smoochers and the clear audio really adds to that – swirling around your living room like vocal honey. To the playlist...

It's noticeable from the list above how many of these gems are B-sides - probably because the dancer was on the Plug Side with the Smooch on the flip. "Lowrider Soul..." opens well with a bunch of white boys getting blue-eyed Soulful with their superb "Take A Step" - the obscure Aesop's Fables being an Atco Records act you don't hear about every day of the week. A sort of 'hold you tight' cross between The Rascals and The Association - their "Take A Step" sets the scene nicely. It's followed by another sought-after shuffler from the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race named Bobbi Row & The Englishmen - "Why'd You Put Me On" making me want to pull those emotional oars like a goodun. The first of a few audio wows comes with the 1962 recording of "I Wanna Chance" by The Vows - the almost operatic voice of Helen Simpson soaring on this lovely song (James Moore involved too). 

Forever associated (and rightly so) with the brilliant "Gimme Little Sign" - Brenton Wood gets to show he's so much more than that bopper by going all Smokey Robinson cool on "Where Were You" - the B-side of a Sam Cooke cover he did in 1969 on Double Shot Records - a 45 that bubbled under the R&B charts at No. 131. Jimmy Conwell and Lee Williams more than justify the huge amounts people are prepared to pay for their "Second Hand Happiness" and "'Til You Come Back To Me" - but for me Barbara Mason just exudes class on her "Oh How It Hurts" - hoping that tomorrow she'll have the strength to find someone new.

Jimmy Bishop and Kenny Gamble gave the original "I Really Love You" to Dee Dee Sharp in 1965 on Cameo – but the lowrider club community digs the medium-slow ballad version by The Ambassadors. You could imagine its stop-start melodrama beats slaughtering an audience in a live environment – here it just make you want to sway with your gal on the kitchen-diner floor. The Otis Taylor cover of "One More Chance" by The Four Tees is lovely too – our heroes pleading that you don’t come around here no more and really this heartless moll should give our truly repentant malfeasant a second go-round. And on it goes – sweetheart after sweetheart – tunes that have been sampled – or The Lovelles single that actually feature Duane Allman on guitar – or the strings and vocals majesty of The Attractions on an impossibly lusted after 45 on Renfro, a label few have ever seen let alone heard.

Lowrider Soul, Harmony Vocal Soul, Smooth Ballads – even Deep Soul. Call it what you want, but call it. 

Another CD winner from Kent Soul – a heartbeat spinner and wallet muleskinner – way to go guys...