Playground Studios

I've had a message through about updates to the Playground Studios MySpace:

My studio was occupied by today's youth.. so I did some work on MySpace. I have posted 6 songs recorded at Playground which are in contention for LOST SOUL The Playground Series Vol. 2. Except for one Count Willie song "Funky Muscle" all the rest have never been heard before by the public.

"Society" 1973 by THE DUDES, sometimes known as TRUTH or TRUTH Inc. 3 part male harmony with the PRS rhythm section, brothers John Rainey Adkins on gtr and David Adkins ..s and probably drums, notice no cymbals or toms. This same brother duo id the key to the "PRS Sound" and you'll hear them on records with Doris Allen and Big John Hamilton and many other of the deep soul PRS cuts. This appears to be an attempt to move more into "Shaft" type soul. The lyrics are as pertinent today as in 1973 if not more.

"Mr Important Person" Blue-eyed Soul man Reuben Howell spins a bit of a different twist on Soul/funk with a jazzy flute.. recorded before his 2 Motown LPs

"Keep Yo Man" female artist unknown.. on the tape box only known as "Leroy's girl". She not the greatest singer in the world but she sure wants to be. Another great example of the PRS section however. Recorded sometime around 1972.

"Still Hung Up On You" Jimmy Gresham demo. For the true soul fan, this was recorded by the ill-fated Jimmy Gresham around 1978/ The instrumentation is sparce as we barely rescued the multi-track tape. But the vocal performance is moving and even oddly predicts Jimmy's fate, as he has served 15 years in a federal penitentiary.. wrongly convicted, with no chance of parole. If this makes the cut we will probably embellish the track with seasoned musicians.. probably David Adkins on Rhodes. It's fav at PRS now.

"Funky Muscle" Count Willie 1976 released on Soul Resurrection 2007. Many of our deep soul friends will not like this disco/funk track. The backing band is Leroy Lloyd and the Swingin' Dukes. A definite attempt at disco... but only funk emerged

"LoveSick" Johnny Soul recorded in Muscle Shoals with the "Fame Gang" in 1968 produced by Finley Duncan pre Playground. We found this at the end of a Johnny Soul master and it is perhaps one of the oddest cuts I have uncovered. I get dizzy every time I listen to it. I thought I would include it and let you make your own decisions.. definitely one of the most bizarre soul cuts I have ever heard.

We have posted these 6 songs on our myspace page

www.myspace.com/playgroundrecordingstudio

.. Just follow the link you'll need no password to listen to the songs. We welcome your comments and criticisms. We thought it might make an interesting topic for the SS group and also a way to share some of the music we have been working on. We are only going to have the songs posted for a few days. Feel free to post questions or comments. These are not our top rated cuts for LOST SOUL and we will post some more in the future.Next week will probably be PRS 70's rock week and will more than likely feature some of our Dothan Alabama guys like Wilbur Walton Jr. and the James Gang. Wilbur has been in recording new songs with alumnus David Adkins.

Speaking of "Soul Resurrection" there are about 25 1st edition's left at CD baby.... we'll re-press eventually but the packaging will be different.. so if you want a first edition.. rush to CD Baby and get one.. It's a good investment.. enjoy the cuts.