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Funky 45's
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 Pop Popcorn Children! The Funk and Soul Mastery of Eldridge Holmes |
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It’s almost become a cliché to state that New Orleans in the 1960’s was a city filled with amazing singers that went unnoticed almost everywhere else. Despite the occasional hit-maker like Lee Dorsey, Robert Parker or Betty Harris, the catalogues of local labels were filled by outstanding sides that while local favorites, never got the play they deserved on a national scale. This fact is especially troubling when you consider that a singer like Eldridge Holmes, one of the most soulful vocalists ever to record in the Crescent City – or anywhere else for that matter - is also one of it’s most obscure. Between 1962 and 1972 (almost exclusively with the involvement of Allen Toussaint) he recorded just over 30 soul and funk sides, many among the best to come out of the city. Born in Violet, LA in 1942, Holmes first crossed paths with Toussaint in the early 60’s. Holmes was unusual in the ranks of Toussaint’s “protégés” in that he wrote much of his own material. He recorded 5 singles for Toussaint and Joe Banashak’s ALON label between 1962 and 1965. His first 45, ‘Poor Me’ b/w ‘CC Rider’ (ALON 9004) is a first-rate example of the transition from Fats Domino-style New Orleans R&B into a kind of proto-soul sound. Holmes vocal on ‘Poor Me’ (written by Toussaint under his ‘Naomi Neville’ pseudonym) has a real punch to it and is backed by some rolling Toussaint piano. The version of ‘CC Rider’ on the flip has a bluesier, vocal group vibe that sounds as if it was recorded 5 years earlier. CONTINUED |
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