Soultaker’s Treasure Chest 06-23-2014 - The Return

It's been awhile since I did this, so bare with me.  Raggedy has invited me to once again contribute to her wonderful blog.  For those not familiar with me, I was a contributor to the previous version of Sounds of The Soul.  Raggedy and I go back some years as we would often chat about our love of Soul music.  So when she told me that she restarted the blog, I was honored to be ask to contribute some music from my collection again.

It took some time but I was able to finally sit down and record some stuff from my dusty vinyl collection for the blog.  Life a lot of times gets in the way of things that you enjoy.  But then you have to realize that life is too short and you are not promise to open your eyes the next day.  Actually I was kind of inspired to share my music from my collection from something that happened recently.

Like a lot of people, I like to listen to radio shows that play the things I like to listen to.  One of the shows I had enjoyed listening to was the Sittin In The Park Radio Show hosted by the late Bob Abrahamian.  Unfortunately,  Bob took his own life.  As it turns out, Bob was suffering from depression and it was mentioned in the article linked above that he left a note to his sister saying that he felt that his life’s work didn’t matter.  He couldn't have been more wrong.  His work did mattered and it touched more then his fan base that listened to his show on a weekly basis.  His life work was his love for soul music, mainly Chicago Soul, but his knowledge for soul music in general was incredible.  I listened to his show regularly and I often found myself making notes on certain songs he played so I can look for them for my own collection.  The first song of my set below by The Teques is a example of a song I first heard on his show and ended up hunting down a copy for myself.  On his show he focus on the forgotten Chicago soul musicians.  He would often have interviews and would showcase music from these great musicians.  But not only that, Bob went above and beyond when it came to  helping the musicians he interviewed on his show.  He would help them in their personal lives for example, helping some of them who are older, learn about using the computer or helping them relocate to a new living residence.  It was about more than the music, it was helping fellow human beings getting by in this game we call life. 

I guess what actually made me want to post about music again is seeing a person like that give up their life so sadly for the thing he loved.  Makes you realize how fragile life can be and we should enjoy the things that we love.  As I was saying earlier life gets in the way sometimes, but no matter what, we have to make time for the things and the people we enjoy.  For me, it's collecting and playing my records and I have to once again thank Raggedy for allowing me to have a outlet to do so.

With that said let me get to the music.  I hope you enjoy

Soultaker's Treasure Chest 06-23-2014 by Soultaker on Mixcloud

1.  Intro

2.  If I Could - The Teques - Star-Vue Records

3.  Bills - The Counts - Westbound

4.  When The Bottom Falls Out - Ike Perkins - APT/ABC

5. The Highway Man - Eddie Floyd - Stax

6.  Monkey Tamarind - The Beginning Of The End - Alston

7. Occapella - Lee Dorsey - Spring

8. Putting Game Down - Luther Ingram - Ko Ko Records

9.  Ohh Baby How I Love You - Willie Hightower - Capitol

10. Keep The Home Fire Burinin' - Latimore - Glades

11. Remember The Rain - 21st Century - Golden Tone Records