Atlantic Unearthed – Soul Brothers + Soul Sisters (CDs)
Sound: B Music:
B
In another interesting set of compilation releases,
Atlantic Records and Rhino Records have issued two sets dubbed Atlantic
Unearthed. One is Soul Brothers,
the other logical corollary, Soul Sisters. With 16 tracks each, both sets have some interesting material to
offer from underrated artists to known hits and even standards covered by
lesser-known talents.
Soul Brothers has the legendary James Carr
covering Hold On, while Percy Sledge offers Baby, Baby, Baby and
Wilson Pickett does Can’t Stop A Man In Love. Sam & Dave are a hoot on You Left The Water Running,
then we get The Soul Clan performing That’s How It Feels. That latter group consists of no less than
Arthur Conley, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Don Covay and Joe Tex. You even get the late great Arif Martin
producing the also late, great Donny Hathaway on What A Woman Really Means
and R.B. Greaves covering Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Soul Sisters holds its own with Aretha
Franklin covering My Way, Laura Lee singing What A Man and
otherwise Motowner Mary Wells with Hands Off My Baby. We get the two Dee Dees. Dee Dee Warwick, Dionne’s sister, does an
odd take on Rescue Me while Dee Dee Sharp (of Mash Potato Fame)
sings My Best Friend’s Man. Patti LaBelle & The Blue Belles perform (1-2-3-4-5-6-7)
Count The Ways, while Baby Washington covers the Motown classic What
Becomes Of The Broken Hearted.
Barbara Lewis delivers Thankful For What I Got and The Sweet
Inspirations sing Ain’t Nothing Gonna Change Me.
For the most part, I was not blown away by any of the
cover songs, but those are both just the highlights on each CD. It also reminds us how much more talent
existed back in the music industry then and what a vital label Atlantic was,
especially with so much amazing talent passing through their doors and into
history. It is a legacy worth digging
more deeply into as these CDs have.
The PCM 2.0 16bit/44.1kHz Stereo varies from track to
track, but has been transferred in clean ways that make each song about as
clear as they are going to get in this format.
Atlantic was one of the first labels to have real stereo on a regular
basis and it shows. These rarely heard
tracks are worth your time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
