Friday, June 13, 2008

Get on Down With Jimmy Church!


Jimmy Church - Faith in You

The Nashville sound once again makes an appearance on this blog, this time from Jimmy Church, the dynamic '60s soulster who, like so many from that fine city, just didn't break into the upper echelon of fame. This is despite the fact that Church recorded pretty prolifically for quite a few labels (OKeh, Sound Stage 7, Rich and Peachtree come to mind right away). His strong stage presence can be seen in the two episodes of Night Train that circulate in the tape-trading scene and in the DVD reissue of The Beat!!!! series, in which Church not only sings but also serves as the conga player for the house band (on one show, emcee Hoss Allen calls him "bongo boy" or something to that effect).

"Faith in You" was a single on Rich, and it finds Church working it out over a great groove and strong horns. This selection is included on the great SPV/Blue Label CD The Rich Records Story, which was featured on this blog some time ago and is definitely worth checking out (as are all of the Nashville R&B reissues from that label).

3 comments:

Brian Phillips said...

Egad! What wonderful, mic-distorting glory this is!

Kinda makes me want to sing "Midnight Confessions" with that opening horn riff, though.

Great record!

The Stepfather of Soul said...

Haha! I hadn't thought about the "Midnight Confessions" similarity!

Unknown said...

I never heard of Jimmy Church before until after seeing The Beat and Night Train, Jimmy stood out to me more then any of the other performers, he had style, nice looks, he had swagger, class, and could sing and dance, I'm surprised he didn't become famous. I guess he wasn't in the right places but more people should know about him. I enjoyed him a lot. Did you know Jimmy Church is still performing and has a website?