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Hi good friends, thanks for taking a read of our newsletter. We hope we find you well out there. This past Tuesday was St. Valentine’s Day, which had me listening to lots of love songs in preparation for Worldy, the radio show I do. Next up is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, and that has me in a New Orleans mood as I pick out potential tracks to play on next week’s show. You can bet I’ll be including something by Lee Dorsey, who I have mentioned previously in these pages, and you can also bet that there will be multiple tracks selected that have the Allen Toussaint magic sprinkled on them. Besides Dorsey, Toussaint was also behind hits by Irma Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans. We recently received a few reissue copies of one of her records here at the store, and it’s that album, titled In Between Tears, that I would like to pick out for you this week.
Originally released in 1973 on the Fungus label, but recorded a couple of years previously with Jerry Williams, Jr.—aka Swamp Dogg—for his Canyon label. That label only lasted a short while, and its financial collapse caused the delay in the album being released. Fungus was another Swamp Dogg label, though. Irma Thomas signed to Canyon in 1970 after moving to Los Angeles the previous year to escape the devastation caused by Hurricane Camille that hit the Gulf Coast. She recorded a couple of singles in Macon, Georgia that saw release on Canyon and then was taken to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record In Between Tears. The resulting album, which features Duane Allman on some tracks, is a Southern Soul beauty that shows a much more mature and deeper soul sound more in tune with the times and work by other artists ploughing the deep soul field. Not that Irma didn’t tackle adult topics in her 1960s work, far from it, just take a listen to Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) for proof of that. Like every person who hears that song, I love it. The A-side is Time Is On My Side, which The Rolling Stones covered. Anyone Knows was championed by the late great Dave Godin, the man who coined the terms Northern Soul and Deep Soul. The series of compilations that Ace Records released on their Kent Soul label called Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures are thoroughly recommended, and the Irma Thomas track was a highlight of volume one, and has subsequently been heard in movies and TV, most notably on the show Black Mirror. The original mono single is the version to hear as it has a different vocal take, which adds even more intensity. Take a listen here and have a rabbit hole dive into her other songs and look out for her performing on American Bandstand and being interviewed by Dick Clark afterwards. I had the pleasure of meeting Dick Clark years ago and he signed a copy of Life magazine that I happened to be carrying that had a photo of him from Bandstand in it. Such a nice guy, and a music lover from head to toe.
Lovers of great soul music have always held Irma Thomas in high regard. Her 60s recordings for the Minit and Imperial labels are essential listening. Most of those 45s can be tracked down, but several like the Time Is On my Side single are going to be expensive. What have always been hard to find and expensive are her two albums for Imperial from 1964 and 1966. Those you rarely see. Less so was the In Between Tears album, but in recent years with an increased interest in the work of Jerry Williams/Swamp Dogg, that record became scarce and pricey. Luckily for those who want a copy there have been reissues. Charly R&B, Alive Records, BASF in Japan and now Trading Places based in Europe have all pressed versions. You can click here to view details of the pressing we have currently.
I’m still looking for her three singles that came out on Chess Records that were cut with producer Rick Hall. They aren’t too expensive, and I always hope to find them in the wild as opposed to buying on Discogs, but I may have to one of these days soon. Something that I do have is a grey area compilation that gathers up some key material. I have two versions of this that have different track listings, but both are cool. One is on Bandy Records and the other on Change/Mississippi Records. Those you can still pick up, although the price is creeping up a little bit. Obviously, on the digital front you have more options. Stateside did a nice CD collection a few years back of her Minit/Imperial years and there is another collection of the Chess recordings that were cut at Muscle Shoals. All essential stuff, so dig in and enjoy.
Here’s a link to listen to In Between Tears.
Have a great Mardi Gras next week, enjoy your beignets or pancakes and listen to some Irma Thomas along with some of the other fabulous artists from New Orleans. Until next time, Cheers - Dom