BILL BRANDON * 1970 * on the rainbow road

TRACKS .

Incredible southern soul work from Bill Brandon -- a wealth of rare singles from the years before his better-known album on Prelude -- all handled by landmark producers Sam Dees, Spooner Oldham, and Quin Ivy! With help like that in the studio, you can imagine that these singles are just about as perfect as can be -- classic southern deep soul, completely without gimmicks or cliche, at a level that few of Bill's contemporaries were ever able to match! Brandon's got an especially wonderful way with a mellow tune -- and most of the best numbers here step around gently on the bottom, letting Bill's vocals dominate strongly, often with the kind of heartbreaking quality you might expect from east coast harmony soul -- but definitely tinged with enough styles to showcase their Alabama roots. CD features a whopping 24 tracks in all -- originally issued on the Quinvy, South Camp, Moonsong, and Piedmont labels -- with titles that include "Rainbow Road", "Self Preservation", "I'm A Believer Now", "I Am Free Of Your Love", "Whatever I Am I'm Yours", "Stop This Merry-Go-Round", "I'll Be Your Puppet", "Good Guys Don't Always Win", "Doing Right Don't Wrong Nobody", "Let Me Be Your Full Time Groover", and "Piece Of My Heart".