Last Soul Company (1999) (Ward/Moore/Floyd/Mitchell/Rush)

Product Summary Label: Malaco UPC: 00048201003024 Release Date: 3/16/1999 Buy.com Sku: 60091988 Item#: MPYYNK Format:  CD Song Listing Disc 2 Song Title Sample 1. We Can Love - King Floyd/Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 2. Misty Blue - Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 3. Travel On - The Jackson Southernaires ~ Various Artists 4. E Ni Me Ni Mi Ni Mo - Elliot Small ~ Various Artists 5. Somebody Touched Me - Eddie Floyd ~ Various Artists 6. Funny How Time Slips Away - Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 7. We Should Really Be In Love - Dorothy Moore/Eddie Floyd ~ Various Artists 8. Dark Skin Woman - Billy Cee ~ Various Artists 9. Flying Too High - Natural High ~ Various Artists 10. Trouble Blues - McKinley Mitchell ~ Various Artists 11. I Believe You - Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 12. You Don't Love Me No More - Willie Cobbs ~ Various Artists 13. I Wanna Be Your C.B. - Joe Shamwell ~ Various Artists 14. With Pen In Hand - Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 15. End Of The Rainbow, The - McKinley Mitchell ~ Various Artists 16. Fallin' In Love With You - Nolan Struck ~ Various Artists 17. I'm Gonna Hate Myself - The Fiestas ~ Various Artists 18. Take This Job And Shove It - Ona Watson ~ Various Artists 19. Whole World Is Dancin', The - Natural High ~ Various Artists Disc 3 Song Title Sample 1. Dance, Sing Along - Freedom ~ Various Artists 2. Groove Me - Fern Kinney ~ Various Artists 3. Get Up And Dance - Freedom ~ Various Artists 4. Together We Are Beautiful - Fern Kinney ~ Various Artists 5. Sweet Life - Fern Kinney/Frederick Knight ~ Various Artists 6. Please Don't Make Me Do Something Bad To You - Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists 7. Seeing You Again - Ruby Wilson ~ Various Artists 8. Down Home Blues - Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists 9. Cheating In The Next Room - Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists 10. Groovin' - Power ~ Various Artists 11. Don't Be Lonely - Sho Nuff ~ Various Artists 12. Bad Risk - Latimore ~ Various Artists 13. Lady In The Street, A - Denise LaSalle ~ Various Artists 14. Let's Share - G.C. Cameron ~ Various Artists 15. Someone Else Is Steppin' In - Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists 16. Get A Little, Give A Little - Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists 17. Right Place, Right Time - Denise LaSalle/Latimore ~ Various Artists 18. Shade Tree Mechanic - Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists 19. Your Husband Is Cheating On Us - Denise LaSalle ~ Various Artists Disc 4 Song Title Sample 1. Blues Is Alright, The - Little Milton ~ Various Artists 2. Lady, My Whole Whole World Is You - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 3. This Is Your Night - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 4. My Tu Tu - Denise LaSalle ~ Various Artists 5. Part Time Lover - Formula V ~ Various Artists 6. I Get Off On You - The Rose Brothers ~ Various Artists 7. Members Only - Bobby "Blue" Bland ~ Various Artists 8. Rock Me - Mosley & Johnson ~ Various Artists 9. Wall To Wall - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 10. Sunshine Lady - Latimore ~ Various Artists 11. Annie Mae's Cafe - Little Milton ~ Various Artists 12. Cheatin' Is A Risky Business - Little Milton ~ Various Artists 13. Get Your Money Where You Spend Your Time - Bobby "Blue" Bland ~ Various Artists 14. Room 244 - Little Milton ~ Various Artists 15. Everything's Out In The Open - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 16. All You'll Ever Need - Latimore ~ Various Artists 17. I Found A Love - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists Disc 5 Song Title Sample 1. You Gotta Hurt Before You Heal - Bobby "Blue" Bland ~ Various Artists 2. Ain't Nothin' Like The Lovin' We Got - Shirley Brown/Bobby Womack ~ Various Artists 3. Still Crazy - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 4. Midnight Run - Bobby "Blue" Bland ~ Various Artists 5. Wet Match - Denise LaSalle ~ Various Artists 6. Take Off Your Shoes - Bobby "Blue" Bland ~ Various Artists 7. If You'll Give Me Your Heart - Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 8. I Need A Good Woman Bad - Latimore ~ Various Artists 9. Working Is The Curse Of The Drinking Classes - Mike Griffin ~ Various Artists 10. I'll Always Love You - The Beat Daddys ~ Various Artists 11. Stay Close To Home - Dorothy Moore ~ Various Artists 12. There's A Stranger In My House - Bobby "Blue" Bland ~ Various Artists 13. Poonanny Be Still - Poonanny ~ Various Artists 14. Please Don't Let Our Good Thing End - Dorothy Moore/Z.Z. Hill ~ Various Artists Disc 6 Song Title Sample 1. Here's Your Mop Mr. Johnson - Keri Leigh ~ Various Artists 2. Don't Let The Devil Ride - James Peterson ~ Various Artists 3. Cold This Winter - Ernie Johnson ~ Various Artists 4. You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man - Shirley Brown ~ Various Artists 5. One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Bobby Rush ~ Various Artists 6. Good Love - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 7. Your Man Is Home Tonight - Artie White ~ Various Artists 8. Last Two Dollars - Johnnie Taylor ~ Various Artists 9. Got My Whiskey - Mel Walters ~ Various Artists 10. I Been Having An Affair - Tonya ~ Various Artists 11. Let Me Please You - Tyrone Davis ~ Various Artists 12. Who Is Betty? - Shirley Brown ~ Various Artists 13. Don't Make Me Creep - Stan Mosley ~ Various Artists 14. Tenderness - Kristine ~ Various Artists 15. Two Lumps Of Sugar - Carl Sims ~ Various Artists 16. Big Boned Woman - Little Milton ~ Various Artists   Album Notes and Credits Notes & Personnel Info THE LAST SOUL COMPANY is a 6-CD box set commemorating Malaco Records' 30th Anniversary, including booklet and a 45,000-word essay by Rob Bowman. THE LAST SOUL COMPANY was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. Compilation producers: Tommy Couch, Wolf Stephenson, Rob Bowman. Digitally remastered by Jerry Masters and Kent Bruce. When Malaco Records started out in the late 1960s, the label that small Southern R&B companies looked up to was Stax. The Jackson, MS-based Malaco, like the Memphis-based Stax, focused mainly on deep-fried Southern soul in the beginning -- only in 1968 and 1969, Malaco was a struggling young operation that was fighting to stay afloat. But ironically, Malaco would still be in business long after Stax's 1975 demise, and it would continue to favor classic soul long after most labels had moved away from it. When other black-oriented independents were putting out urban contemporary, rap and house music in the 1980s and 1990s, Malaco was the place you went to hear soulsters like Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle and Latimore and soul-minded bluesmen like Little Milton and Bobby "Blue" Bland. In 1999, Malaco celebrated its 30 years in business with The Last Soul Company, a six-CD box set that spans 1968-1998 and ranges from the decent to the superb. It's miraculous that the company survived long enough to have a 30th anniversary -- small R&B labels have come and gone over the years, and Malaco itself almost went under at various times. This collection contains all of the hits that defined Malaco, including King Floyd's "Groove Me" in 1970, Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" in 1971, Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue" in 1976 and Z.Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues" in 1982. Over the years, Malaco Records and the Malaco studio dabbled in disco (one of this collection's most famous tunes is Anita Ward's 1979 disco smash "Ring My Bell"), funk and urban contemporary, but essentially, Malaco has remained a soul label with an interest in blues and gospel. Half the fun of hearing a collection like this one is discovering some obscure gems -- on The Last Soul Company, such gems include Jewell Bass' seductive "Let Your Love Rain Down on Me," Power's remake of the Rascals' "Groovin'," and male singer Ona Watson's soul makeover of Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It." Obviously, a six-CD set is too much for the casual listener, but for the seasoned R&B fanatic, The Last Soul Company is a fascinating listen. ~ Alex Henderson Young Mississippi entrepreneurs Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson started the Malaco label in the late '60s, and over the decades they amassed an impressive catalog of soul, blues, and gospel, including stellar recordings by unknowns as well as by highly respected artists. THE LAST SOUL COMPANY is an attempt to sum up what Couch and Stephenson have done for the roots music of America's southern region. The breadth of material included on this label retrospective, spanning three decades of music, is nearly as impressive for its diversity as for its high quality. The collection moves from the stark, uncompromising blues of Mississippi Fred McDowell to the salacious, funky R&B of King Floyd to the string-laden soul balladry of G.C. Cameron. Malaco never got stuck in the past, so we also get the synth-driven R&B of Formula V and a Z.Z. Hill cut with a drum track that sounds suspiciously electronic, but it's all part of the soulful, idiosyncratic mise-en-scene that is Malaco Records.   Technical Info Release Date : 03/23/1999 Original Release Date : 1999 Catalog ID : 30 Label : Malaco Number of Discs : 6 Studio/Live : Studio Mono/Stereo : Stereo SPAR Code : n/a UPC : 00048201003024   Professional Reviews Vibe (4/99, p.186) - "...the last real source for home-style blues and soul....Malaco's influence echoes through the gold-and-platinum-gilded hallways of southern hip hop..."