Lucky For Some
For those of you who browse the delights of the Twelve Bar online store, or even read this humble blog, whilst listening to the deft selection of tunes found in the Twelve Bar Sessions, I would urge you to go straight to track 13 of this month's selection. For, though unlucky for some, this number proves to be fortune itself, as a simple click of the mouse can reveal a true musical gem.
Arnold Blair's "Trying To Get Next To You" is heralded as a rare groove classic, and extremely rare it is too. Information about this stunning slice of pre-disco soul from 1975 is hard to come by, other than the fact that it was produced and
co-written by Leroy Hutson and released on his Gemigo imprint, a subsidiary of Curtis Mayfield's incredibly fertile Curtom label. Blair never released an album, and probably not another single, and unfortunately the why's and wherefore's are lost in the musical mists of time, although he is featured as provider of backing vocals on a number of other Hutson productions, and probably did so on other Curtom releases also. A bit of painstaking research also revealed him as backing vocalist on a 1996 gospel album by the Reverend Patrick Henderson, "Saints Praise and Worship". So perhaps there is more information out there. That is for another time however, and what we are left with at the moment is a glimpse of just how good soul from that era was, and a track that simply melts the world away.
If you click one track forward on the sessions you can hear Hutson's Lucky Fellow, which is further proof of his own much over-looked genius, and again of the great music emanating from Chicago's Curtom stable. There is much to say about this label's output, not to mention Hutson himself, but this will have to wait for now as I know you are itching to reload track 13.
Arnold Blair's "Trying To Get Next To You" is heralded as a rare groove classic, and extremely rare it is too. Information about this stunning slice of pre-disco soul from 1975 is hard to come by, other than the fact that it was produced and
co-written by Leroy Hutson and released on his Gemigo imprint, a subsidiary of Curtis Mayfield's incredibly fertile Curtom label. Blair never released an album, and probably not another single, and unfortunately the why's and wherefore's are lost in the musical mists of time, although he is featured as provider of backing vocals on a number of other Hutson productions, and probably did so on other Curtom releases also. A bit of painstaking research also revealed him as backing vocalist on a 1996 gospel album by the Reverend Patrick Henderson, "Saints Praise and Worship". So perhaps there is more information out there. That is for another time however, and what we are left with at the moment is a glimpse of just how good soul from that era was, and a track that simply melts the world away.
If you click one track forward on the sessions you can hear Hutson's Lucky Fellow, which is further proof of his own much over-looked genius, and again of the great music emanating from Chicago's Curtom stable. There is much to say about this label's output, not to mention Hutson himself, but this will have to wait for now as I know you are itching to reload track 13.
<< Home