It's a great time to be a fan of rare vintage soul and funk music. Much like the "Nuggets"-related crate digging over the past couple decades that unearthed hundreds of great, previously unknown garage and psych singles, a new effort is underway to do the same thing with R'n'B music from the '60s and '70s. The result has been a flood of great product into the market, with compilations galore that offer scads of slabs of great, greasy soul and chunky funk.

The latest efforts come from the Rabbit Factory label, each gathering tracks recorded at a particular studio. The first is The Birmingham Sound: The Soul of Neal Hemphill Vol. 1. As one could guess, the disc compiles tracks recorded at the Sound of Birmingham and Hemphill Studios, both in Birmingham, Ala., by Neal Hemphill. The tracks were cut in the '60s and '70s, and range from the instrumental soul of Broadneck to the sweet soul of Chuck Strong and the harder beats of the Blue Notes. There is filler here, but much of the disc is a treat, offering songs that, while previously unknown, feel like lost hits.

The second and stronger of the two discs is Soul Resurrection: The Playground Series Vol. 1. The disc gathers soul tracks recorded at the Playground Recording Studio in Valparaiso, Fla., under the watchful eye of producer Finley Duncan. The disc was compiled by Jim Lancaster, a producer and performer who plans to record at the studio again. He gathered tracks from more than a dozen artists I'd never heard of, most great, that run the gamut from hard funk to smooth soul to nascent disco. It's a great collection, one that plays like a mix tape of shoulda-been hits. From shouter Reuben Howell, who's "Bad Habit Baby" gives the disc a kick start, to the raspy pipes of Doris Allen, who takes a run through "I'll Keep on Loving You" and "Heavy on My Mind," the disc is populated by great performances. Standouts include Jimmy Gresham's "Chasin' a Rainbow," Johnny Soul's "Sang This Son" and Count Willie with Leroy and the Dukes' "The Funky Muscle."

The titles of these discs hint at further volumes culled from the vaults of these two studios. If the quality is on par with what is offered here, subsequent releases would be welcome additions to the burgeoning catalog of unearthed soul now available. It's great to see these artists getting their due, even 30-plus years after the fact.

Labels: music, TuesdayTuneup