Sehorn's Soul Farm - 50 New Orleans Soul Classics [Double CD]

This double CD is a reissue of two well-regarded LPs that Charly issued in 1982 and 1986, plus 18 extra tracks to fill the CDs more generously. The standard of the additional tracks is similar to those on the original LPs so there is no feeling that they are 2nd rate tunes tacked on to make up the numbers - the only slight quibble might be that the Meters and Lee Dorsey tracks (two by each, neither artist featured on the original LPs) are far better known than anything else here - with the possible exception of Aaron Neville's much-sampled Hercules, which may owe its fame to the 1982 compilation anyway. But for an overview of the genre it would be odd to leave them out merely because they were relatively successful compared to any other artists represented here.

And it's fair to say that some of the artists here are VERY obscure - as in they made few records, they sold poorly and little is known about them. About 10 of the 50 tracks weren't issued at the time of recording either, in some cases quite bafflingly given their quality - the overall standard of the tunes here is very high, and doesn't correlate with how well-known the artists are. The music ranges from around 1965 to 1976 (though you won't find that out from the booklet, which is very short on dates) and in terms of styles, it's a fairly even mixture of the unmistakably New Orleans and more typical southern soul, with ballads, soul stompers and early funk workouts. Standouts for me would include the fabulous Gossip by the obscure Diamond Joe (all 4 of his tracks are very good) and, among several tracks by the relatively well-known Ernie K-Doe, Hotcha Mama from 1976 is a stunningly arranged funk tune. The Meters' Cissy Strut is a stone killer too, but you probably knew that. Very little here is less than good.

But I have one major beef with this compilation, and that is the sound quality on perhaps 20-30% of the tracks. I really don't have any problem with tracks being sourced from vinyl where necessary (though it's interesting to note that even some of the tracks unissued at the time of recording have surface noise, suggesting they - and others? - were mastered off the original vinyl compilations, rather than whatever tapes Charly used in the first place, which are presumably lost or damaged) but it's really not very difficult or expensive these days to remove clicks and pops and brighten up the sound a bit. But the most shocking lapse is that several tracks are in reprocessed stereo, and badly done at that. Not being familiar with the original LPs, I can't say whether this applies to them too - it seems likely - but it surely wouldn't be that hard to improve matters. Other tracks are simply murky - a brief experiment with a graphic equalizer effected huge improvement to Danny White's Natural Soul Brother, which sounded like it was swathed in cotton wool. Eldridge Holmes's Cheatin' Woman was previously issued on an Atlantic CD in vastly superior sound, Aaron Neville's Hercules has also been available in superior quality elsewhere. I appreciate that margins are pretty low on releases like this, especially at this kind of price, but some of the lapses here are between shoddy and inexcusable, and could have been fixed, or at least improved, without recourse to expensive time in a mastering studio. A real shame given the quality of much of the contents.

This very affordable double cd is a reissue of two well-respected but somewhat obscure compilations issued first on LP by UK oldies label Charly back in the early 1980s. The material spans about ten years from the mid sixties to the mid seventies. The common theme is that the producer was Allen Toussaint, one of the giants of New Orleans music, and also that the labels that they appeared on were owned by local entrepreneur Marshall Sehorn.

New Orleans soul is not hard to find on cheap reissue CDs but what makes this set worthwhile is that you won't find most of these tracks cropping up on less imaginative compilations, which tend to concentrate on people like Irma Thomas, Aaron Neville and Johnny Adams. These singers are great, don't get me wrong, but the greatest joy of soul oldies is to be found in the little guys that made two or three records and vanished afterward.

Overall, the standard of this set is pretty high, especially on the first disc.

A 50 tracker which has quite an unusual jewel case as both CDs are housed on one spindle in spite of it opening.But don't bother trying as the back of the spindle won't hold a CD and I had a job getting it back
What's here is not as much New Orleans classics as pretty obscure stuff which represented a heap of flop singles.
A few hits are included in the bonus sections such as Lee Dorsey's Get Out My Life Woman and the Meters' Chicken Strut
The booklet covers details of all the tracks and is nearly an hours' read