Last Soul Company [Box]

Disc 1
1	Looking For My Pig / Haran Griffin 2:20
2	Warm Loving Man / Cozy & Carolyn Faye Corley 2:24
3	I Can't Go Wrong / Eddie Houston 2:40
4	Sweetheart Baby / Jackie Dorsey 2:01
5	You Can't Find Love / Betty & Charles 2:55
6	Red Cross Store Blues / Mississippi Fred McDowell 4:33
7	Mississippi River / Paul Davis 3:07
8	I Feel Better Now / Stefan Anderson 3:24
9	Talking 'Bout Love / George Soulé 2:10
10	Funky Thing / Unemployed 3:02
11	Groove Me / King Floyd 2:58
12	What Our Love Needs / King Floyd 3:01
13	I Miss You / Bonnie & Sheila 3:12
14	When A Man Cries / Joe Lee Wilson 3:04
15	Baby Let Me Kiss You / King Floyd 2:49
16	Mr. Big Stuff / Jean Knight 2:28
17	I Found All These Things / C.P. Love 3:49
18	Mr. & Mrs. Untrue / Mighty Sam 3:49
19	Gypsy Read Your Cards For Me / The Barons 2:39
20	Gospel Train / Golden Nuggets 2:46
21	Woman Don't Go Astray / King Floyd 2:25
22	Can't Be In Two Places At The Same Time / Chuck Brooks 3:07
23	Superman / Richard Caiton 2:40
24	Dog In The Night / Carson Whitsett 2:37
25	Don't Let Go / Dorothy Moore 2:34
Disc 2
1	We Can Love / King Floyd 2:25
2	Misty Blue / Dorothy Moore 3:38
3	Travel On / Jackson Southernaires 3:29
4	E Ni Me Ni Me Ni Mo / Elliot Small 2:22
5	Somebody Touched Me / Eddie Floyd 2:51
6	Funny How Time Slips Away / Dorothy Moore 3:47
7	We Should Really Be in Love / Dorothy Moore 3:25
8	Dark Skin Woman / Billy Cee 3:24
9	Flying Too High / Natural High 3:09
10	Trouble Blues / McKinley Mitchell 3:30
11	I Believe You / Dorothy Moore 3:40
12	You Don't Love Me / Willie Cobbs 3:04
13	I Wanna Be Your C.B. / Joe Shamwell 3:34
14	With Pen In Hand / Dorothy Moore 6:01
15	The End of the Rainbow / McKinley Mitchell 3:35
16	Fallin' In Love With You / Nolan Struck 4:08
17	I'm Gonna Hate Myself / The Fiestas 2:53
18	Take This Job And Shove It / Ona Watson 3:21
19	The Whole World Is Dancin' / Natural High 3:18
20	Let Your Love Rain Down On Me / Jewel Bass 3:55
21	Ring My Bell / Anita Ward 3:50
Disc 3
1	Dance, Sing Along / Freedom 3:19
2	Groove Me / Fern Kinney 3:15
3	Get Up And Dance / Freedom 3:30
4	Together We Are Beautiful / Fern Kinney 3:55
5	Sweet Life / Fern Kinney 3:24
6	Please Don't Make Me (Do Something Bad to You) / Z.Z. Hill 3:47
7	Seeing You Again / Ruby Wilson 3:33
8	Down Home Blues / Z.Z. Hill 5:02
9	Cheatin' in the Next Room / Z.Z. Hill 3:33
10	Groovin' / Power 3:30
11	Don't Be Lonely / Sho-Nuff 5:31
12	Bad Risk / Latimore 4:41
13	A Lady in the Street / Denise LaSalle 3:37
14	Let's Share / G.C. Cameron 3:44
15	Someone Else Is Steppin' In / Z.Z. Hill 3:36
16	Get A Little, Give A Little / Z.Z. Hill 4:10
17	Right Place, Right Time / Denise LaSalle 4:04
18	Shade Tree Mechanic / Z.Z. Hill 2:54
19	Your Husband Is Cheatin' on Us / Denise LaSalle 4:33
Disc 4
1	The Blues Is Alright / Little Milton 4:13
2	Lady, My Whole World Is You / Johnnie Taylor 3:22
3	This Is Your Night / Johnnie Taylor 4:22
4	My Tu Tu / Denise LaSalle 3:16
5	Part Time Lover / Formula Diablos 4:30
6	I Get Off On You / The Rose Brothers 4:22
7	Members Only / Bobby "Blue" Bland 4:06
8	Rock Me / Mosley & Johnson 3:49
9	Wall to Wall / Johnnie Taylor 3:55
10	Sunshine Lady / Latimore 4:14
11	Annie Mae's Cafe / Little Milton 5:04
12	Cheatin' Is A Risky Business / Little Milton 5:17
13	Get Your Money Where You Spend Your Time / Bobby "Blue" Bland 3:46
14	Room 244 / Little Milton 4:38
15	Everything's Out In The Open / Johnnie Taylor 3:49
16	All You'll Ever Need / Latimore 5:23
17	I Found a Love / Johnnie Taylor 4:35
Disc 5
1	You Gotta Hurt Before You Heal / Bobby "Blue" Bland 5:14
2	Ain't Nothing Like the Lovin' We Got / Shirley Brown 4:43
3	Still Crazy / Johnnie Taylor 4:30
4	Midnight Run / Bobby "Blue" Bland 4:02
5	Wet Match / Denise LaSalle 3:17
6	Take Off Your Shoes / Bobby "Blue" Bland 4:48
7	If You'll Give Me Your Heart / Dorothy Moore 4:41
8	I Need a Good Woman Bad / Latimore 3:55
9	Working Is The Curse Of The Drinking Classes / Big Mike Griffin 4:30
10	I'll Always Love You / The Beat Daddys 4:38
11	Stay Close To Home / Dorothy Moore 4:45
12	There's a Stranger in My House / Bobby "Blue" Bland 4:43
13	Poonanny Be Still / Poonanny 6:00
14	Please Don't Let Our Good Thing End / Dorothy Moore 4:44
Disc 6
1	Here's Your Mop Mr. Johnson / Keri Leigh 3:39
2	Don't Let The Devil Ride / James Peterson 4:22
3	Cold This Winter / Ernie Johnson 4:56
4	You Ain't Women Enough To Take My Man / Shirley Brown 5:07
5	One Monkey Don't Stop No Show / Bobby Rush 4:13
6	Good Love / Johnnie Taylor 4:03
7	Your Man Is Home Tonight / Artie "Blues Boy" White 4:15
8	Last Two Dollars / Johnnie Taylor 5:14
9	Got My Whiskey / Mel Waiters 3:46
10	I Been Having An Affair / Tonya 5:23
11	Let Me Please You / Tyrone Davis 4:06
12	Who Is Betty? / Shirley Brown 4:50
13	Don't Make Me Creep / Stan Mosley 3:55
14	Tenderness / Kristine 4:18
15	Two Lumps Of Sugar / Carl Sims 5:28
16	Big Boned Woman / Little Milton 3:27

Barnes & Noble

This box set tells the story of a little record company that could. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, Malaco Records was one of the few Southern labels to survive the British invasion. Though not as high profile as either Stax-Volt or Hi Records, Malaco revived the careers of great talents like Z.Z. Hill, Bobby Blue Bland, and Johnny Taylor while also developing artists like the naughty Denise LaSalle, soul pop singers Dorothy Moore and Latimore, and a number of gospel groups. The label's success in keeping the horn-fed sound of southern-fried blues alive is told in song on the hefty six-CD set, THE LAST SOUL COMPANY. From the happenstance start-up as a booking agency arm begun by white boys who loved rhythm and blues to the smooth R&B hit "Misty Blue" by soul chanteuse Moore, the set follows Malaco's history to current, contemporary blues material from Bland, Taylor, Little Milton Campbell, and Bobby Rush. Because it is put together chronologically, disco diva Fern Kinney's cuts are captured on the same disc with those of blues man Hill, a raw and rockin' singer who put Malaco on the record-selling map in the '80s. While this makes for a bit of culture shock on disc three, the set evens out on the final three CDs, making THE LAST SOUL COMPANY a tour de force through the sounds of the new South. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

When Malaco Records started out in the late 1960s, the label that small Southern R&B companies looked up to was Stax. The Jackson, MS-based Malaco, like the Memphis-based Stax, focused mainly on deep-fried Southern soul in the beginning -- only in 1968 and 1969, Malaco was a struggling young operation that was fighting to stay afloat. But ironically, Malaco would still be in business long after Stax's 1975 demise, and it would continue to favor classic soul long after most labels had moved away from it. When other black-oriented independents were putting out urban contemporary, rap and house music in the 1980s and 1990s, Malaco was the place you went to hear soulsters like Johnnie Taylor, Denise LaSalle and Latimore and soul-minded bluesmen like Little Milton and Bobby "Blue" Bland. In 1999, Malaco celebrated its 30 years in business with The Last Soul Company, a six-CD box set that spans 1968-1998 and ranges from the decent to the superb. It's miraculous that the company survived long enough to have a 30th anniversary -- small R&B labels have come and gone over the years, and Malaco itself almost went under at various times. This collection contains all of the hits that defined Malaco, including King Floyd's "Groove Me" in 1970, Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" in 1971, Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue" in 1976 and Z.Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues" in 1982. Over the years, Malaco Records and the Malaco studio dabbled in disco (one of this collection's most famous tunes is Anita Ward's 1979 disco smash "Ring My Bell"), funk and urban contemporary, but essentially, Malaco has remained a soul label with an interest in blues and gospel. Half the fun of hearing a collection like this one is discovering some obscure gems -- on The Last Soul Company, such gems include Jewell Bass' seductive "Let Your Love Rain Down on Me," Power's remake of the Rascals' "Groovin'," and male singer Ona Watson's soul makeover of Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It." Obviously, a six-CD set is too much for the casual listener, but for the seasoned R&B fanatic, The Last Soul Company is a fascinating listen. Alex Henderson