In the '60s, you didn't have to live in the Deep South to have a Southern R&B sound.
Aretha Franklin
lived in Detroit, but many of her '60s recordings favored the rawness and toughness of Southern soul over the sleeker, more pop-influenced soul that was coming out of Detroit as well as Chicago and Philadelphia. And even though
the Ohio Players
were from Dayton, many of their early recordings sound like they could have been recorded in Memphis. Produced by
Johnny Brantley
in New York,
Observations in Time
is full of songs that would have been perfect for a
Sam & Dave
or
Rufus Thomas
session; there is no shortage of Southern-style grit on "Street Party," "The Man That I Am" or the single "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow" (which was a minor hit). However, some of these 1968 recordings hint at the type of jazz-influenced experiments that
the Players
would provide at
Westbound
in the early '70s. The jazz influence is strong on imaginative versions of the standards "Over the Rainbow" and "Summertime," and "Cold Cold World" is the sort of jazz/blues item that one would have expected from
Lou Rawls
,
Jimmy Witherspoon
, or
Bobby "Blue" Bland
in the '60s. So even though
offer a lot of Southern-minded R&B on
(which was their only album for
Capitol
), they aren't afraid to branch out and try some other things. ~ Alex Henderson