Light in the Attic Records

“I knew from the beginning that you were the one for me,” are the first words heard on “Stone Crush on You,” the opening and title track of the new collection Stone Crush: Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987, out April 3rd from Light in the Attic Records. The opening track, a more than 5-minute-long funky dance groove by C.W. Sykes, a.k.a. “The Singing Dentist,” makes for the ideal introduction to the collection. Its protracted groove sets the mood for Stone Crush, a collection of songs united by their status as once-overlooked passion projects, many of them extended dance grooves.

Courtesy Benjamin Jimerson Phillips

Captain Fantastic

And how passionate were these performers? Well, Sykes certainly earned his nickname. When the “Singing Dentist” wasn’t crooning over slide guitars and percussive riffs, he used to trade dental work for studio time.

Compiled by Memphis collectors and DJs Daniel Mathis and Chad Weekley, Stone Crush takes as its focus the soul and funk songs produced in the Bluff City after the closure of Stax. Though the biggest name in town had disappeared, Memphis had no shortage of musicians, smaller recording studios, and dreamers willing to spend their time and money chasing a hit.

A quick flip through the full-color booklet that accompanies the collection reveals some familiar Bluff City recording spots. Some tracks were recorded or mixed at Ardent. The collection sports extensive liner notes by Memphis-based Grammy Award-winning writer and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Gordon (author of the fantastic collection Memphis Rent Party), and artist interviews and bios from Memphis curator, writer, and sometimes Flyer contributor Andria Lisle. To further cement the Memphis look, the cover art and booklet paintings are by the late Memphis muralist and sign painter James “Brick” Brigance.

Courtesy Bobby Manuel

Libra

The songs that make up Stone Crush make the definitive soundtrack to cutting class to soak up the sun in Overton Park or spending Saturday night skating backwards under the lights of SkateLand. They’re fun, funky, and dotted with connections to the Memphis music scene. “Slice of Heaven” offers a slice of pure, dreamy, good-vibrations funk by Cato Walker, whose father’s gig as B.B. King’s driver got him an in. “Convict Me,” by The Bar-Kays’ former costume maker, Libra, is slinky and sexy, with a bassline that begs listeners to move their bodies.

To be fair, though, most of the songs on Stone Crush are made to get listeners grooving. Frankie Alexander’s “No Seat Dancin'” could just as easily have been the title track for the collection. When Alexander sings, “We gotta keep on dancing, girl … Get up from your seat. Get up on your feet,” he may as well be delivering a mantra. “(I’m) Choosing You” by Magic Morris, with its choppy guitar, big bass riffs, and synth accents, clocks in at more than 6 minutes and 58 seconds long. It’s an extended jam, fine-tuned to be an irresistible call to the dance floor.

Sir Henry Ivy’s “He Left You Standing There” begins with piano and a tight drum beat, lending it a closer link to the traditional Memphis sound. “You Mean Everything to Me” by Sweet Pearl may boast the most Stax-inflected soul delivery on the compilation. On the stranger side of the spectrum, “The Doctor” by L.A. starts with a bass riff and is followed up with almost new wave keyboards.

Coming just in time for spring, Stone Crush offers a deep dive into the post-Stax world of Memphis soul. And though these songs may not be as familiar to listeners, they offer a way into a world that is just as passionate, fun, and danceable.

The new collection Stone Crush: Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987 will be released by Light in the Attic Records on Friday, April 3rd. The collection will be available in two-LP + 7″, two-LP, CD, and digital formats.

Random Review: The Supreme Jubilees

“If God had a disco, the DJ would be playing California gospel-soul group The Supreme Jubilees.” Thus begins the description for The Supreme Jubilees album It’ll All Be Over recently reissued on Light in the Attic, an album lost for neatly three decades before a collector found a copy in Texas and tracked the band down. Even though the talent is obviously there, the Supreme Jubilees are about as obscure as they come. The group was a California church band made up of two families, and It’ll All Be Over is their only record. Collectors stumbling across lost gems like this one is what has made Light in the Attic into the label that it is today, with rediscovered albums ranging from gospel to hard rock getting the deluxe reissue treatment.

Light in the Attic tells us more:

Released in 1980 on the group’s own S&K (Sanders & Kingsby) label, It’ll All Be Over pinpoints a fatalistic mood exemplified by the title. Its lyrics drawn from the Old Testament, its sound from the church by way of the disco, and it’s a feel captured by the album cover–a low, orange sun setting over the Pacific ocean. It is, as Jessica Hundley observes in the brand new liner notes, “both apocalyptic and seductive.”

Making the album was not easy. Sessions began in Trac Record Co, a country and western studio in Fresno, CA, where the engineer was so put out by the group’s requests for heavier bass in the mix, he stopped the session and kicked them out. They left with four songs–one side of the album–and the record was completed at Sierra Recording Studio in Visalia, CA. Leonard Sanders reported having a spiritual encounter in his sleep while in Visalia; the next day he recorded his part of the album’s title track in a single take.

After the LP was pressed, the group took their music on tour, first in California, where they played with acts including the Gospel Keynotes, The Jackson Southernaires, and the Mighty Clouds of Joy., and then an ill-fated trip to Texas. A follow-up album was planned for 1981, but it never materialized; having slept sometimes a dozen to a room in Texas, the men in the band were reluctant to leave jobs, wives, and kids for the hardship of the road. The group simply fizzled out, even if the friendships never did.