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Tuff City / Night Train is proud to announce the vinyl release of our second volume in the “Bosses of the Big Easy Beat” series…Smokey Johnson: It Ain’t My Fault (NTI LP 7104). Smokey was the ‘60s king of rhythm men in America’s most rhythmic city: New Orleans. His boulder foot mixed soul, funk, jazz and second-line rhythms with a power and complexity never again heard in funky soul music. This collection contains the unforgettable title track plus superstompers like “The Funkie Moon”, “Did You Heard What I Saw”, and “Tippin’ Lightly”. In addition, Parts 1 & 2 of “It Ain’t My Fault”, “I Can’t Help It”, and “Did You Heard What I Saw”, which originally appeared on fragmented sides of 45’s, are available FOR THE FIRST TIME in their seamless entirety. Smokey Johnson’s danceable, riff-laden gems are sure to kick start any party. These songs cut across all audiences and genres, touching soul, funk, jazz, rock, hip-hop and even minstrel music audiences (check out the jivin’ and clownin’ in “Did You Heard What I Saw”), as well as all fans of New Orleans music. The title track alone has a wide range of appeal, having gone through many permutations: first as a brass band standard by the Olympia Brass Band; then as the hook to Silk the Shocker’s smash “It Ain’t My Fault”; and most recently making its way onto “Did I Do That” on Mariah Carey’s Rainbow album. These funky soul classics have been unavailable for more than 35 years, some for the first time ever outside of New Orleans, and they feature the cream of New Orleans players: from the manic flute and pan-seared sax solos of James Rivers, to the keyboards of James Berfect, to the “in-the-pocket” guitar work of George Davis and Walter “Wolfman” Washington. Elemental to the evolution of funk, Smokey Johnson: It Ain’t My Fault follows on the heels of Volume One in the “Bosses of the Big Easy Beat” series, which featured the wonderful June Gardner: 99 Plus One (NTI CD 7103, NTI LP 7103). Volume Three, features the inimitable and “insane” ‘60s New Orleans drummer / legend, James Black.
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