Shake Daddy Shake
Heavenly Father
I'm a bit overdue in featuring the newest volume of the Numero Group's Eccentric Soul series, but I'm glad to say now that The Tragar & Note Labels is a "must buy" for serious soul fans and fans of Numero's top-notch anthologies. The Tragar/Note setup was founded by Jesse Jones, and over the course of the label's nine-year existence, quite a wide range of material was released. Although Tragar was Atlanta-based, it was not strictly a Southern soul imprint, as attested to by the diverse sounds presented on the fifty tracks spread across two CDs. The Atlanta soul scene is even more underrepresented than the Nashville one, which I champion often, so the world is a much better place that a two-disc set of Atlanta soul is available! The world is also a better place because my friend Brian Poust, the Georgia Soul guru, had a hand in the research and acquisition of material for the set. Great job, my man!
Today's two selections originally were released as a Tragar 45. I'll refer you to Brian's Georgia Soul post about Eula Cooper for some info about her, but I'll say that this two-sider shows off two great soul sounds and Cooper's fine vocals. "Shake Daddy Shake" is a fine, albeit short (1:53) groover featuring a nice juxtaposition of Cooper's relatively cool singing and a funky dance beat. The flip joins the long list of "it's not eccentric, it's awesome" ballads that grace the Numero Group's comps. "Heavenly Father" has a slight strut in its groove, but Cooper brings a lot of soul to the contemplative lyrics. Both sides have a lot going for them, but despite the fact that the record got picked up by Atlantic for further distribution it vanished like so many fine records from so many underrepresented locales. Thanks to Numero and folks like Brian, however, today these tunes can shine.
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