The Duke of Soul: Volumes 1-7

I have been out of action lately at this blog due to a combination of internet connection problems and constant traveling.  So I wanted to come back with a bang, with a motherload, with something that really needs to be at this blog but is not here yet.   I have to admit that I do not own these CDs.  I never saw one of them in my many years of CD hunting, and would have grabbed any of them in a minute if they had ever crossed my path.    I was astonished to stumble upon them at a blog last year.  Since that blog no longer exists, I guess that putting them up here is OK.

We usually hear of two main centers for classic Southern Soul of the 1960s: Memphis and Muscle Shoals.   But Houston was a third notable center that revolved around Don Robey's various labels: Duke, Backbeat, Peacock, Shure Shot.   The proof is here. Classic Memphis and Muscle Shoals Soul has been the subject of vault research and comprehensive, handsome reissue packages, often with generous helpings of previously unreleased gems,  Not so for Don Robey's labels.   Many of the great 45s never even made it to LPs, let alone legit CDs.  What we have here is a labor of love of music lovers, a bootleg series made mostly from needle drops on vintage 45s.  It is something of a holy grail of Southern Soul.      

Don Robey had quality releases all over the map in African American music: blues, gospel, vintage R&B, even jazz, as well as Southern Soul.   This generous compilation gives us 9 hours of the latter, with a special focus on the undeservedly obscure and forgotten.  The big names available elsewhere (Bobby Bland, O.V. Wright, Junior Parker) are represented with only a few tracks each.   Prepare to be moved deeply by the likes of the Lamp Sisters, Jimmy Outler (the only secular track of his that I own), Clarence Green, John Roberts, Carl Carleton, Jeanette Williams, the Soul Twins, Lee Lamont, Paulette Parker, etc.   Joe Hinton, Ernie K-Doe, Buddy Ace, and Al "TNT" Braggs are also represented generously here.  The first singles of Kim Tolliver and (Little) Frankie Lee are  here.

This series adds up a major and consistently satisfying statement of classic Soul Music.   Don Robey may have been, by most accounts, a very mean and dishonest person, but it is hard to question his phenomenal ear for music or entrepreneurial spirit.  I hope that this music brings you some of the same thrills that it gives me every time that I enjoy it..  
It appears that there may also be a Volume 8.  If anyone here has it, a share would be much appreciated.  Is there a Volume 9?  Volume 10?