Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures Vol. 5

Dave Godin was a very interesting guy. Godin owned and operated a record shop in Great Britain that developed into a record label that licensed and released hundreds of obscure American soul songs that were unknown outside of southern America. He coined the term "Deep Soul" for these gritty, often gospel influenced soul classics. You know the stuff- great, deeply felt soul from below the Mason-Dixon line.

Godin was also a music journalist and spread his love of soul music through his writings.

And between 1997 and 2004, Ace Records in the UK released four stellar compilations curated by Godin and titled Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures from the Vault Volumes 1-4. I highly recommend them all, and covered them a long time ago in a post about soul box sets.

So now, some 15 years after Godin's too early demise, comes Volume 5. And of course the question is "Is it a worthy successor to the four volumes Dave curated?".

According to the liner notes, that are on par with the original series, quite a few of these chestnuts were chosen by Godin himself and Ace couldn't get licensing permission for them at the time of the original series. Others were known to be Godin favorites, and maybe a few are "inspired by" Godin's love of deep soul.

So the answer is yes. The soulful vocal and big organ of Ronnie Taylor's Without Love, the early Emotion's Somebody New, the pre-Motown Gladys Knight and the Pips Lovers Always Forgive, Judy White's Satisfaction Guaranteed, with hot guitar, horns and background vocals that all vie for best element, and Dee Dee Warwick's desperate vocal on Foolish Fool are all great moments in soul. Z. Z. Hill sings the crap out of Sam Cooke's Nothing Can Change The Love I Have For You, Kenny Carter's magnificent, pleading I'm Not The One is a scorcher, and Esther Phillip's take on Gil Scott Heron's Home Is Where The Hatred Is includes fine sax and horns on top of Phillips' capivating vocal.

And I could go on. There's 25 tracks, and there aren't any that bomb. If you like gritty soul (think Memphis or Muscle Shoals, and then go even deeper), this is an easy sell. Outsized soul, big, dramatic soul, and you've probably never heard a one. Deep Soul Treasures indeed.