Blues Rock Hits Soul Country primes classic rock and soul fans with a paean to the blues, tapping indie DJ/Filmmaker Ric Stewart’s exclusive roots music oral history archives. Featuring interviews and performances from Jerry Wexler, Allen Toussaint, Earl King, Tony Joe White, John Oates, Joe Louis Walker, Peter Case and many more, this treasure chest was 30 years in the making. So grab some popcorn for the next half hour and enjoy. Exclusive interviews and performances tell the tale and introduce “Soul Country” – a podcast also featured @TheBluesCenter
Tag: Earl King
Lost Tapes from the SeaSaint Seventies
The L.A. Times reports that 673 tape reels of Producer Allen Toussaint have been purchased at Roadium in Los Angeles, a weekend flea market. The trove includes masters and safety copies of many 1968-1979 records at Sea-Saint Studios. After several ownership transitions following the sale of the tapes winding up in a flea market where Mike Nishita purchased them. He is brother of Money Mark and a DJ of reknown. The tapes had been feared lost after Hurricane Katrina.
I had the distinct pleasure of video interviewing Allen twice in the mid-1990’s as well as shooting a play talk interview with Earl King at Sea-Saint. Funky and full of mystique, Sea-Saint is best known for Sir Paul’s Venus and Mars, Labelle’s Lady Marmalade, Allen’s own Southern Nights, and Robert Palmer’s Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, but so often Toussaint could pull magical results from his regular backing band, The Meters.
Providing to New Orleans what Booker T. & The M.G.’s did to Memphis, they went on to become a funk mainstay and have had outsized influence on subsequent sounds. In addition, the Neville Brothers found a world-wide audience summarizing these triumphs with tours and records featuring songs first recorded at Sea-Saint.