The Kent label, a subsidiary of Ace Records in England, has produced some of the best reissue box sets/series exploring the finest Southern "deep" soul music. No Motown, no Philly, just Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Miami and several other deep south locations. The pinnacle of their success in this vein is probably the Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures series, which is rife with great songs and artists you've never heard.
This 3 CD set mixes big hits with lesser-knowns. So there's Sam and Dave, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Al Green, but also Eddy Giles, O V Wright, Jimmy Braswell, Bobby Newsome, and Denise LaSalle. In that sense it is a bit like a smaller version of the Beg, Scream and Shout box that Rhino did in 1997. There is plenty to discover here.
The booklet has a nice introduction essay, and then discusses each song with a reasonable level of detail, not just a two-sentence blurb. The book/disc holder format is the same one used for The Fame Studio Story, also a Kent release that focuses on similar material all produced in Rick Hall's famous studio in Muscle Shoals.
I remember my trip to Columbus, Georgia in 1966, and how amazed I was with all the incredible soul music that was absent from radio airplay north of the Mason-Dixon line. Motown was big in the north, but many of the artists on this and other deep Southern soul compilations will be new to many listeners. New, and excellent, music to your ears from a mere 70 years ago.
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