Tuesday, November 22, 2005

TCB, Dave Hamilton Style

Dave Hamilton - The Deacons

In the immense shadow of Motown Records and its large talent pool labored smaller-scale record companies and other artists. As noted at Soulful Detroit.com, at one point there were as many as 400 labels operating in Detroit.

Dave Hamilton, like quite a few other figures in the Detroit soul story, had a connection to the Motown behemoth. Hamilton, a multi-instrumentalist, had been a session guitarist at Motown in its early days, where he also recorded a highly-prized LP for the label's short-lived Workshop Jazz subsidiary. In the mid-to-late '60s and into the '70s Hamilton ran several small labels (Topper, Temple, TCB, Demoristic), writing and producing for O.C. Tolbert, Northern Soul legends Tobi Lark and Little Ann, and others. He also recorded several instrumentals, including the unreleased "Soul Suite" album, which has just been released on the Kent CD "Detroit City Grooves." Today's selection was released as a TCB single in 1970. It's one of my favorite soul instrumentals. Enjoy!

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